Letters to the Editor
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Castaneda
I'm both angry and glad (mostly glad) that you included the article about Carlos Castaneda in your roundup of the best articles of 2007. I must have missed the Castaneda article when you published it in April.
I'm not a Castaneda groupie. I read Teachings years ago and enjoyed it - but I most certainly didn't take it literally.
Castaneda had insight into the space where allegory, psychedelics, hallucination, spirituality, folklore and religion bump elbows. Did anyone ever actually turn into a crow? Of course not - but Castaneda realized that on some level, whether one hallucinates turning into a crow or one actually turns into a crow is the same thing.
I dare say that the author of the Castaneda article has never played with psychedelics. This doesn't make him any less of a man or a writer - but is leaves him ill-equipped to interpret Castaneda fully.
Are you experienced?
I don't want to create the impression that those of us who have experienced psychedelics consider ourselves part of an exclusive club... Christ - when I was at Berkeley LSD was everywhere for $1 a hit - an inexpensive and easily attained ticket to the "nagual" - a place that exists only in the universes of our own brains.
Once you've "been there," you realize that it's all between the ears. God bless Carlos Castaneda for writing about the psychedelic experience and making it palatable for so many people - so many seekers.
"To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic." - Humphrey Oswald
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Re: The Readers Strike Back
I don't know if it's just the threads I've been following, but it seems to me that the level of discourse on Salon.com has improved considerably from its trollier times. Don't know if there's increased moderation or what, but it has really made the Letters section much more of pleasure to read. I love the fact that so many of Salon.com's readers/posters are so articulate. And I really like seeing all the different points of view being traded without too much vitriol. It's very encouraging, IMHO.
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chikalada
Nah it's just that the 5% of the people here who disagree with you went somewhere else. Now it's 99.3% all the same backslapping furious agreement is all.
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Nulla Sallas:
Really? Cool! :)
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Oops
Sorry--misspelled your moniker. Sallus, I meant.
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Favorite articles
These are decent articles, but still nothing compares to "The Chicken Show," possibly the greatest Salon feature of all time:
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/02/12/chicken_show/index.html?source=search&aim=/tech/feature
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The Best of Salon, 2007
Was Glenn Greenwald.
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Regarding Bush and WMD In Iraq
I hope someone puts together a complete and unbiased chronicle of all of the events and reports leading to the Iraq War.
Additionally, an accurate report as to what was happening in Iraq that caused Bush to press so urgently for an invasion would be nice.
This would, in my opinion, paint the Bush legacy with the blood of many thousands killed and wounded, not to mention a bruised US Constitution and a waste of the taxpayers' money.
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Thanks for the plastic bag article
For some reason, that one article burned itself into my consciousness. I discovered, like many people, that I have re-usable canvas shopping bags tucked all over the house... they're now all by the front door where I can grab one (or a stack) when I go out. My goal for 2008 is to become a nearly bag-less family... if I can just convince my husband to use them. I even invested in four plain black (aka manly) reusable bags.
What I've discovered is that the reusable bags don't tear, they don't fall apart in a rainstorm, and they don't clutter up the pantry.
I bought a couple of collapsible string bags, one of which lives in my purse.
That Salon article has made me see a vision of jellyfish and sea turtles dining and dying on plastic bags.
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A real shame...
... the Carlos Castaneda letter/thread was ever closed. That was some fascinating shit.