Letters to the Editor
-
Paglia's Column
I've never read a Camille Paglia column before, and only barely knew who she was, so this was my first introduction. I have to say, I was kind of nonplussed by the article-it read like a parody of a breathless gossip column in an entertainment magazine, or like a print version of the fast-talking newsmen you see in movies about the 1940's. Constant switching from topic to topic with no transition; each topic accompanied by an opinion with no argument to support it.
The anecdote about grabbing cocoa beans felt especially out-of-place, and the book promotion was very unsubtle. I can understand wanting to get in a mention of your work, but couching it as part of a show of concern for another writer's output seems kind of disingenuous. Regardless of her opinions, if this style is standard for Paglia, I have to wonder why anyone would ever hire her to write for them.
-
This conservative enjoys your work.
Camille,
You are an equal opporunity offender. To coin an overused phrase from Harry Truman "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" I will remain in your kitchen and take the heat. I also remain conservative.
Those of us who want all sides of an argument presented are never fearful of those portions that we disagree with.
Keep doing what you do. I love your wit and wisdom.
-
Why would Democrats go on Rush Limbaugh?
You claim that Fox News is like Rush Limbaugh but you and I know that Democrats would never go on the Limbaugh show.
Lets be honest and say it was a good decision by the Democrats and call it a day.
-
What's most tiresome...
Are the letters from republicans who just "happened to stumble" on Camille's article, who wish that "more democrats were like her." For some reason I always think of late night infomercials, where paid actors pretend to impressed by a product's quality. "Super Scrubber even cleans grape juice stains? Tell me more!"
-
Woo Hoo!
4 more years!
4 more years!
So glad Camille is back.
-
I'll add to the chorus
this old bat Camille has seen better days. I had trouble picking up even one objective truth from this article before I almost puked on my keyboard.
Come on Salon, if you are trying to find a conservative voice, you can do better.
-
Limbaugh
Actually, it's well known Rush won't allow anyone who disagrees with him to speak on his program. Tends to show how little he actually knows about the topic du jour.
As for Paglia, honestly, Salon, this is just sad. This is/was a place where the kind of crap you hear on fox gets deconstructed, not aped.
I hope the editors of Salon realize this is the equivalent of realtiy show tv programming. You're out of real ideas, so use shock to get eyeballs. I don't want to think that's what's happening, but what other explanation is there?
It works in the short term, maybe, but eventually Paglia is going to kill Salon. Running columns designed to do nothing but insult and infuriate your core readership is plain stupid.
-
Leave the Editors Alone
I respectfully submit that you, Joan Walsh and the rest of Salon's editorial staff are breaking faith with your readers by continuing to give a forum to Camille Paglia. No, not because of her right-wing beliefs. (Please don't waste my time insisting that she isn't right-wing; that lie insults the intelligence of every adult who reads Salon.)
I'm an adult of moderate intelligence who reads Salon, and I don't believe Camille is right-wing. Please, don't speak for me. Thanks.
-
This ain't Lit. Crit. 101
These old tricks probably still seem naughty and exciting in a Literary Criticism 101 classroom full of undergraduates. But to adults who have actually served and/or worked for a living, most of it is just too facile to be interesting. In a few months, I'll stop bothering to read this unless she gets her bearings and changes direction. Times have changed.
One thing I'd like to see Paglia do is write a full piece, or better yet, a series, on why and how Rush Limbaugh is so effective. He's the most original of the commentators Paglia moons over, and I'd like to see her devote more than a few sentences to understanding him and his message. A chapter on Maureen Dowd would also be interesting.
Paglia is one of the earliest enablers of the type of discourse that dominates the media today. She knows Limbaugh, Dowd, and the rest because she opened the door for them. She wasn't alone, but she gave the approach an immediacy and tension that older intellectuals like Harold Bloom simply could not.
Here is her formulation from the first two sentences of the Preface for Sexual Personae (1990):
" Sexual Personae seeks to demonstrate the unity and continuity of western culture ... . The book accepts the canonical western tradition and rejects the modernist idea that culture has collapsed into meaningless fragments."
Paglia was at the forefront of the most important intellectual movement of the past two decades, the "noise machine" that has come to dominate our culture. Her point of view, her critique of modernism, is the mainstream now, whether she likes it or not. As a result, she is in a unique position to put its rise into persepctive. The question is, can she do it?
I would like her to try. I would read her attempts to do so with interest. But I fear that she simply does not understand that the "modernist idea" she attacked in 1990 is not not dead or dying. The war in Iraq she despises is the inconvenient truth about western culture. She hates the war because it is another debacle that feeds modernist ideals, not because she knows her ass from a hole in the ground.
-
Edwards is Deadwards
Edwards is a complete Zero.
I have never heard someone sounds so good and polished and yet say nothing at all. He plays it totally safe 120 percent of the time. He knows exactly what his followers want to hear and he feeds it to them as if they where the jury in the Enron case. They, and I guess you, eat it right up.
The only candidate worse is Hillary. I'm praying that Obama is the real thing. So far so good.
Remember, just say no to Dynastys and slick mega-rich Lawyers.