Letters to the Editor
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Why? Why? Why?
Why Camille Paglia? A more self-obsessed writer would be hard to find. Her fatuous reminders that she is an intellectual are laughable in her Entertainment Weekly-style article. To add to the insult to your readers, she perpetuates the falsehood that Hillary faked a southern accent when she was merely quoting a hymn. Note to Camille: real intellectuals don't take their talking points from Limbaugh. They even do research and try to get their facts straight.
For years you wasted hard drive space on her, why do so again?
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You call this a cover story?
I can't even call it an "article".
I am shocked, to find this on Salon. I have seen much better blog entries.
Ms Paglia would be a bit better off sticking to a single topic and then giving more than just her opinion. Heck this is the longest article I have ever seen on Salon and I couldn't finish it.
Now give me 4 pages of Conason or Blumenthal and I'd be in heaven.
OH well, nobody's perfect!
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PLEEAASE
The mainstream media does not have a liberal bias! It is run by the military industrial complex, the nine white guys who rule the world. Why would she say that? I mean look at Andrea Mitchell of NBC and her love of Scooter. That's a liberal bias? I've always thought that Camille Paglia has been educated beyond her intelligence and this piece confirms that once again. I guess I'm glad she likes Edwards..and I suppose the Democrats should all go on Fox and blast them out of the water like Bill Clinton blasted away at Chris Wallace recently...still people who watch Fox are unlikely to change their minds. I think at this stage Edwards is the Democrat most likly to be able to win the election..because he's progressive, white, southern and a mann (this is the unfortunate truth). He's not hiding..he is just not peaking too soon.
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Dear Sergeant Clark
and if I'm not mistakened, Hemingway and Orwell, were still Americans
You are mistaken. George Orwell (like Churchill) was a Brit. Hemingway, OTOH, was a 100% pure Midwesterner who loved his country so much he spent most of his twenties watching bullfights in Spain and schmoozing with his fellow American expats on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, conveniently located in cowardly, frog-eating France.
It's not for nothing you righties have developed a reputation for being factually challenged, is it. (Not a question.) Don't misunderstand: I deeply approve of your bravery, your dedication, and your service. I just wish you would get your facts right.
A humble suggestion: whenever you stumble across a historical anecdote which seems (to you) to bear out your position, at least make sure of the nationalities of the participants. Guys like you once fought long and hard so that Brits and Yanks need not be considered as members of the same identical tribe; it would be a shame were their sacrifices to turn out to have been made in vain.
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Feminist Role Model My @ss
"Coulter is a smart woman with formidable energy, and whether liberals like it or not, she is a high-profile feminist role model in her appetite for aggressive debate." - Camille Paglia
Uh huh.
"It would be a much better country if women did not vote." - Ann Coulter
"I think [women] should be armed but should not vote" - Ann Coulter
"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis... These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them... I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much...how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy." - Ann Coulter
If Ann Coulter is a feminist role model, I'm Hillary Clinton.
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admiration
As always, I enjoy anything you write, love your insights into so many topics, and this essay was no exception. You are truly an example of what women, writing and intellect can be.
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Ms. Paglia Fails North Carolina's 4th grade writing assessment.
Yesterday my son took part in a state-wide standardized writing assessment that is a result of the "no child left behind.... even if they have to be dragged kicking and screaming" act.
Fortunately, for our state, Ms. Paglia wasn't participating because she would have just brought down our already dismal passing rate. Ms. Paglia's 4-pages of idle ramblings does not possess any of the "Five Features of Effective Writing" ( http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/few-features )
Focus -- Ms. Paglia's piece is devoid of any focus. What the heck does dropped cocoa beans have to do with Democratic presidential hopefuls or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. For goodness sake -- pick a topic and stick with it!
Organization -- There is no central organization to her piece or logical flow from a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. The piece definitely does not possess "a clear pregression of related ideas and/or events" nor is it "unified and complete".
Support and Elaboration -- Many other letters have already covered this point -- anything else I would add on this topic would be redundant.
Style -- "Style is the control of language that is appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the writing task". Ms. Paglia's style is inconsistent and she can't decide whether she wants to try to cram as many words from her "GRE-Vocabulary-Word-a-Day" calendar as possible into a single sentence; or whether she wants to write like "I'm really really smart but I can be cute and folksy just like you common people". My experience (so take it with a block of salt!) is that the most insecure and intellectually lacking individuals tend to write in the most complex and verbose style possible. It is as if they are trying to cover up their lack of intelligence with lots of fancy words.
Conventions -- Convention has to do with sentence formation which should not "impede with the reader's understanding of the ideas conveyed". Now I may be showing my own lack of intelligence BUT, I really don't understand what ideas Ms Paglia is trying to convey. I'm not sure if she knows either except that she wants us to know that she likes FOX and Greta van Sustern, she has written many books, she took her son to see a sponge -bob impersonator and she believes that she is the only person that is "progressing intellectually". Oh, and that we can look forward to that article when she will stoop to our level and actually "flatter" a few of us by responding to our letters -- ooooo pick me! pick me!
BTW, are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that she was distracting students from taking exams while reading a literary critique of a Horror novel that was written for the gay/lesbian demographic? I'm thinking if that is the most pressing thing on her schedule, then she needs to get a real job!
You would think after all these years of writing books and articles that Ms. Paglia would have mastered at least one or two of these "Features" but you would be wrong. You would also think that she might have had an editor at some point that would try to keep her from looking like a patronizing pseudo-academic snob. Again, you would be wrong.
So I would suggest that Ms. Paglia actually come to North Carolina and take attend the 4th grade so that she , too, can master the same writing principles that my son has managed to learn. She can even hear an authentic Southern Drawl since she seems to be so obsessed by dialects. If she does come, I hope she likes sweet tea.
p.s. In case Ms. Paglia or any of our Drudgery readers would care to pick apart my letter for its literary greatness, go for it. I do not claim to be a professional author. I'm just a mom of a 4th grader who is being subjected to unfunded state mandates and a math geek -- we math geeks aren't supposed to know how to write... but I can "cipher" real good!