Letters to the Editor
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why?
didn't read her story but if Molly Ivins didn't like her then that's good enough for me.
Molly Ivins: "Paglia's view of sex - that it is irrational, violent, immoral, and wounding - is so glum that one hesitates to suggest that it might be instead, well, a lot of fun, and maybe even affectionate and loving." ...nuf said!
And while I am currently "Premium," it's only because I was foolish enough to not check my account info which resulted in this little box with a little dot in it what said "sure, take my money without checking first" or something to that effect. I changed all that! Now, the little box what says "I'll be goddamned and go to hell before Salon gets any more money from me," or something to that effect, has a little dot init. Yeah, they took my money and I'm "Premium" 'til November, but after that - well, to be "Not Premium" will be well worth being told by "Premium" to pay up or shut up.
So, Salon can have camille. Good luck with that folks. Considering the lanslide of negative comments, you'll need it. Notice also, Salon, that I didn't write Fuck one time - pretty good huh. Maybe I'll get me a red star so I can take it home to mommy to be prominently placed on the fridge.
Harty
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So glad Camille is back.
I disagree with Camille on two things (maybe three). I am a Christian and I think John Edwards is a cheeseball extraordinaire (boy did she nail the coif and populist message problems). However, it is rare that I do not find her writing incredibly insightful and on the money. She has a rare gift for boiling things down without oversimplifying or underanalyzing. As a graduate of somewhat "brand name" institutions (college and law school), I believe Camille's discussion of the elitist rot on college campuses is quite important--and amusing. We are going to breed/train a generation of people who do not know how to solve real problems in the real world. Are their profs going to bail them out of their self-induced misery?
I am thrilled that Camille has returned.
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Not THAT Tim Conway
Specifically, Tim Conway popping up on an episode of "Suddenly Susan" sometime in the late 90s. THAT Tim Conway.
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Salon's big Denial
Well, if you're wondering just WHY are asked to put up with CP, take a look at the editor's choice of letters. They run about five to one Pro Camille, the exact OPPOSITE of an accurate sample.
I guess talking to Salon about Camille is like talking to Bush about Iraq.
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Public education should be good and free
You are a new writer to me, but you won my attention in your first comments about education. I am an unrelenting advocate for public schools, which I believe can be the best and definitely should be free to all residents all the way through college.
I began life in the Panhandle of Texas during the great depression of the 1930's, the 5th of seven children. My father lost his business. Times were tough. But all seven of us have college degrees and have contributed in various ways to our country and culture.
That was possible for us to do because public schools were within our financial reach. My two older sisters and I went to the University of Texas. Tuition at that university when they attended was $25 a semester. I had to pay $50. We paid our way with part-time jobs. We had no debts when we finished.
Two older brothers went to Navy and Coast Guard Academies and I don't think my younger brothers paid much more than I did at Texas University.
If we could provide free, or nearly free college education in the 1930s and 1940s, we can certainly do it now. Taxes are not evil. I will gladly pay more and higher taxes in order to make education, good education, available to all. There is no excuse for our youth to be denied education because it out of their financial reach.
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Waiting on the day...
...that Ms. Paglia reviews a parody of herself, which parody, were she as important as she sounds, would be mainstreamed on SNL.
More seriously, this seems a familiar line: pseudo-celebrity deluded into believing that her take has more relevance or interest that the billion-and-one blogs serving the same need people used to see therapists to correct. If she "told it like it is," she would preface what she writes and says along this line: this is really about me; I deserve no more amplification than anyone else, though there's no over need to be overtly ironic; this is postmodern libertarianism." Actually, a little self-deprecation would be refreshing; what was that she was saying about provincial philistines?
Which brings us to her ethical lapse: omission in service of her rhetoric. It's all well and good to boast a shoot-from-the-hip style, but when you refer to human affairs—those things of scale and affect that transcend the self—you bear the responsibility of care and accuracy. Disagreement, alas, is rarely noble and constructive, but surely we can agree on the principal of good faith. Maybe CodePink posed the more thoughtful moral argument—as Jean Elshtain wrote and said 20 years before Ms. Paglia began her wag, women and children are rarely considered in public discussions about the use of force. A careful description of the video Ms. Paglia trumpeted, however, shows Ms. Clinton agree with the point before replying that the history and present of the Iraqi women and children in question is obscured if your concern with their welfare stops with the objection to war. Ms. Paglia's take slips right by this little nuance of thought; her subtle "yada, yada, yada" over the intellectual issue, her omission or lack of accuracy (it's so hard to tell which is the case when these non-thinkers attempt to think) undercuts her conclusion about Ms. Clinton's inability to flow with the moment. And that's not really a hard case to make, is it?
Then again, it's not really about Hillary or politics or culture at all; it's only about Camille Paglia.
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A Timely Return and a Grateful Reader
Dear Salon,
Thank you for FINALLY convincing Professor Paglia to come back to us! I've begun to grow weary of reading her archived articles from the mid to late 90s, even though Paglia's incisive wit transcends the news of the day and many of her decade old observations are as fresh now as when they were first published. It will be nice to not have to scour the internet for my fix of Paglia prose- I'm thrilled I can count on a regular dose here on Salon.
I have been a committed Camille disciple since I first read Sexual Personae when I was 19. I have had the good fortune to see her speak live - though just once, last April at the George Washington University in DC - and was able to meet her afterwards. It was a defining moment for me!
Thank you again for your good sense in bringing her back. And thank you for your good sense in returning, Professor! I look forward to a lot of belly-laughs at my desk at work. And my friends have been warned about receiving reams of cut-and-pasted quotes and links.
Keep up the good work, all.