Letters to the Editor
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My heart goes out to her students
You mean, they let this piece of work actually teach at a university? who the hell would pay for her tripe?
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Big deal
Rarely read her stuff six years ago, probably won't now, and most certainly will not be cancelling my subscription to Salon.
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How Can We, Uh, "Miss" You If You Never Went Away?
Camille is "back?"
Did she ever leave? While everyone else in the known universe thinks of and remembers Paglia without about the same frequency they think of and remember the band Men Without Hats or acid-wash jeans, it seems like Paglia's been mentioned or quoted somewhere on Salon every two or three days for as long as I can remember.
Salon is obsessed with Paglia in the same way that Nancy Grace and the cable news networks are obsessed with missing or dead blonde women, and that's a whole heckuva lot of obsession. I mean, hey, it's your fetish, Salon, so obsess away, but don't you think you should pick someone to obsess over who's just a teensy bit more relevant, and doesn't make Salon look quite so much like a 40-something year-old desperately trying to look hip and misguidedly trying to look young by squeezing their fat, wrinkly behind into spandex and still showing up to work dressed in Jennifer Beals' ripped T-shirt and leg-warmers from the movie "Flashdance"? It kind of makes it look like Salon is being run by Edina and Patsy from "AbFab." Honeys, it's 2007; Camille Paglia was "five minutes ago" back when grunge was just getting started.
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Is it me, or . . .
. . . hasn't Paglia "come back" several times now?
Jesus, she's like Nixon.
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Deja vu all over again
"Somewhere in Silicon Valley there exists a piece of software that can analyze her previous columns and spit out new ones, if that is what you want."
I believe you are referring to the "copy/paste" functionality of Microsoft Word.
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Cam P
Well I'll be danged. I dove into the letters section expecting lots of CP fans raving about her return. But it seems like many of them agree with me; it ain't no thrill. I must say, she has so been much bettered by the stylings of Cintra Wilson and Heather Havrilesky that Ms. Paglia is not needed at all any more.
And Jesus, now we're "clueless" for not knowing the eclectic musical tastes of Matt friggin Drudge?! There's a bit of trivia many might happily pay not to have to know.
"Camille Paglia" is a brand just like the higher-education brand she rightly decries in this essay. I daresay most Salon readers can analyze information and know the difference between style and substance. But it's understood that you're trying to make money.
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I Don't Get It
This is boring, annoying, and not all that clever writing. A blowfish ego really does distort the intellect, and cramps the mind. I do not expect to LEARN from this writer. And that is the greatest disappointment.
What mystifies me even more is Salon's editorial ... what?
Judgement? There are so many, many fine writers who are also mature and even inspirational. Couldn't you hire one of those in these desperate times?
Can anyone explain what the editorial agenda might possibly be here? I've been scratching my head and moaning about it for some time and I just don't get the vision. It's scattershot. Immature. Unformed.
Once again, I feel great disappointment in Salon's leadership. I can't imagine why in this time in our nation's history Salon won't present writing that leads us, goads us to do better and think more clearly, helps us fight for a better world. I thought that's what liberal media was about.
I just don't get it.
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My, aren't we a grumpy group
That noise you hear is the stomping of little readers' feet as they, in the midst of their tantrum, cry, "Make the bad woman go away or we're cancelling our subscriptions!"
Someone who can piss off this many people must be on to something. Welcome back, Camille.
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Dear God, What Were You Thinking?
Self-referential to a fault, and wrong about very nearly everything, including her own perspicacity. The ultimate drag queen, half George Will, half Maureen Dowd. No doubt some will find her entertaining, sour notes and all, but I really, really wish you hadn't. Really....
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Escaping the level gaze
Not a particularly good move, as it means more superfluous bandwidth - I can only read so much babble before I just tune it out, a practice I will now be forced to continue, which is a sad waste of Salon's investment. Paglia is part and parcel of the mess we are in now, and had a not insignificant role in the selling of the snake oil politics and repressive policies that we have to endure for the near future. Now that she's been kicked to the curb by previously fawning mouth-breathers for (horrors!) her atypical opposition to W's War, she must need a forum to spew more bilious prattle.
Every news and opinion outlet seems to be adding a reactionary voice to their mix, so this was almost a given; I had hopes Salon would resist that trend, but the pull of facile notoriety, or perhaps ad revenue, must be sadly irresistible. Salon has on occasion deposited some of the dog droppings of other reactionaries and cluttered up my view of the finer things on Salon, and I don't mind stepping over or walking around such leavings, but I hate kicking thru the trash in the gutter as a detour. I will not cancel my subscription...yet, or if at all, without a period of close observance. A short period, I hope.
Don't disappoint me, Salon - the last six years, (strangely!) you have been a sane voice in the wide wilderness, and the cacophony from adding Paglia's ...ahem, "work".. will only add a meaningless dissonance that may drown out more important, thoughtful discourse on what's left of freedom and democracy in what passes for the good old U.S.A. I hope you got her cheap.
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Irony of Ironies
Although I rarely agree with everything she writes, what I appreciate most about Camille is that she isn't stuck to any particular ideological flypaper. It amazes me how so many letter writers here rail against the unwavering dogmatism of the right--the echo-chamber of talk radio, the stubborn refusal to entertain any opinion/perspective that deviates from the accepted ideological script--and then indulge in the very same conceit!
Camille's a critical thinker who recognizes that neither right nor left has a monopoly on valid, constructive thought, be it political or social. The overwhelmingly negative response in these letters only reinforces what I've come to suspect in recent years: Salon's readership has devolved into a clueless bunch of dittoheads.