Correspondence
Seminary insisted that a female crucifixion figure "does not deny the male Jesus of history" but simply lets the gals in on "Christ's mystical body." The cathedral's dean tried to propitiate...
...She pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges, saying her life had been committed to political principles and "I can be true to those principles without engaging in violent acts...
...They did not want to be understood...
...Consequently their lovemaking begins in desperation and ends in disillusionment...
...I am optimistic that groups such as Catholics United for Faith (CUF), the St...
...Our differences seem to be ones of degree, a matter of just how questioning The Big Chill really is of its characters' values...
...Pizarro's recently discovered skull to his skeleton...
...Strangely enough, I have often felt that they are, as McGurn says about his church leaders, " . . . lusting for the sort of prestige and authority enjoyed by their predecessors...
...Bronx, New York I liked the Kramers' review of The Big Chill immensely, but I could not wholly agree with it...
...Only, I have in mind the "curia" of each of several mainline churches of the Reformation...
...Thomas More Educational Foundation, the National Committee of Catholic Laity (NCCL), Fidelity Forum, and Keep the Faith will accurately inform the Pope of this crisis in the American branch of Roman Catholicism . . . . --Jeffrey R. Portico Grand Rapids, Michigan Figuring The Big Chill Thank you for Yale and Rita Kramer's essay on The Big Chill ("The Narcissist Generation Hits the Screen," TAS, April 1984...
...The Big Chill brings to vivid life an assortment of people who have half grown out of their sixties illusions...
...Loyal Kennedy servitors have reputedly fanned out to scotch the book, The Kennedys: An American Drama, but David Kennedy's wretched expiry on April 25 is going to make their work the most difficult act of Kennedy magic yet...
...Nick himself represents the greatest implausibility of all...
...Some even dare suggest that the Pope didn't mean what he told them, or shouldn't be taken seriously because he fails to appreciate the specially unique position of us Americans . . . . But what of the P o p e ? . . . Well, he could start by calling one or a select few of the lower ranking U.S...
...Perhaps he realizes that the American Bishops might just break with Rome, and form a de jure "American Catholic Church" out of what is now only a de facto one...
...You have a foul sense of humor...
...After 400 years Mr...
...According to a new book, written by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, this rising generation of Kennedys rises not only because of Kennedy money but also because of cocaine, hashish, LSD, and numerous other New Age health foods...
...Kramer and Kramer should keep on writing...
...James Parks Morton, in words that pretty much expressed the views of the Republic's most thoughtful atheists and agnostics who marked these wizards down years ago as morons...
...Another is the rah-rah spirit elicited from these former radicals by a televised football game involving their alma mater...
...would like better than to leave Northern Ireland to its own devices, and if the majority there wish to leave the United Kingdom the British Government would not stand in their way and has repeatedly said so...
...When their London diplomats were given a police escort from the country, the Libyans became even madder...
...And so the awareness dawns--that, regrettably, The Big Chill was meant to be all things to all people of a certain generation...
...Irish issue in the correspondence columns of your February issue I wonder if I may add a few more words from this side of the Atlantic...
...It is probably true that we are running out of growing-up time, but we aren't going to get that message from Hollywood (from which vantage point the only imminent dangers are rightwing conspiracies and nuclear apocalypse...
...The letters of CC member Vincent Noel are also being published in our Voice...
...oAt Princeton University, the forces of progress and liberality are mounting yet another attempt to bar Prospect magazine, the off-campus conservative journal, from the dormitories of Princeton's young...
...Latham, New York Curia Bashing I had complete empathy as I read William McGurn's "The Befuddlement of American Catholicism" (TA S, March 1984...
...My huge stack of American Spectators has just fallen over...
...Take the handles...
...All because some time ago you decided to widen the paper by half an inch, so wider American Spectators must perch upon narrower ones...
...All those satchels of money, man...
...The use of science by the federal government for political purposes of any hue is, I feel, not only unethical but should be absolutely illegal...
...The errand of the affair was simply those satchels, stuffed with imperialist greenbacks...
...If the eyes of the Grenadians glaze over the CC deliberations, it is because hoisted them on their own semantic petard...
...If this were meant to be one of the changes brought by the years to the Chill people, surely Nick would make a sardonic comment, and surely the group ritual of watching the game would lose its bonding potential...
...I mentioned the rumors...
...Is the chief that starts that shit.' " Chalkie then told Vince that "Maurice was a psychopath," to which Vince returned, "I told Chalkie that he was mad...
...there are scenes and characters to appeal to the nostalgic impulses of the "straights" as well...
...This typically Libyan counter-demonstration was followed by a frightening mobilization of armed British police, which the Libyan government was quick to identify as "racist harassment" and neocolonialism at its worst...
...Alfred 0. Hahn Glen Falls, New York Thank you for the finely attuned article by William McGurn . . . . Certainly the Pope must know what is going on here, but why hasn't he acted to rectify the rectories...
...In the same issue we were left in no doubt that support of the INLA and IRA was coming freely from Russia and Libya as was discussed at the Houston conference on world terrorism...
...Unfortunately, I feel that all three have been so politicized by leftists that sensible policies and actions vary from difficult to impossible...
...In the final analysis, however, that monument was only to themselves and their pretensions...
...Again, no selfrespecting "radical" would have subjected himself to such indignity...
...I suspect, however, that the situation may actually be worse than she has indicated...
...She does question Meg's fertility fantasy ("I don't think it's quite that s i m p l e . . . " ) but later is caught up in the camaraderie of the weekend--an accurate reflection of the film's ambivalence...
...he says exactly what I've been saying all along...
...I have considerable familiarity with the asbestos component of that scare and I find that her data and conclusions check very well with my personal knowledge...
...I still find it awkward to address my cheerful car mechanic by his preferred moniker Blackman...
...Many conclude in the suffix -man...
...The Kramers think he's too much of a pussycat to be a tycoon, but at least a pussycat is a novel departure from the usual tycoon stereotype...
...Karen's hypocrisy in exploiting the security her husband offers her (while they know what Jewel wanted power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . she simultaneously ridicules it) also for...
...On April 26, radical-feminist-idealist Miss Kathy Boudin astounded officials and spectators in a White Plains, New York courtroom by telling the truth...
...Does Chill succeed in its goal of being all things to all people...
...Patsy Summerside Pierre, South Dakota Yale and Rim Kramer reply: We appreciate Patsy Summerside's thoughtful comments on the movie and our review...
...Bishops to the Vatican to be reprimanded or suspended from their duties in their Sees . . . . The Pope should take such action now while his authority still carties great weight with the vast mass of faithful parishioners...
...To expect more than this of Hollywood would be--fantasy...
...You don't send an Ambassador to Cuba, you send Bogo...
...They wished to be known by their handles...
...Anti-Qaddafi demonstrators outside the Libyan embassy in London were fired upon by a gunperson from within the embassy...
...Nor is Sarah as mindless as the Kramers portray her...
...Firstly Mr...
...Cosgrove, our thanks for their praise...
...Daniel R. Kronemyer San Diego, California The best movie review I have read in years...
...Francisco Pizarro, the explorer, got it together again thanks to an American anthropologist, who for $4000 went to Peru and attached Mr...
...One is the apparent dearth of paid household help in a large house occupied by two rich adults with two young children and two demanding careers...
...So was Vince...
...There is nothing more the people of the U.K...
...Another Marxist hothead, who "captured" Union Island from St...
...He's also dead...
...The cathedral's dean tried to propitiate the feminists by reminding them that the Church had gone through similar arguments before agreeing to the ordination of women...
...For if they were they might be found out...
...It does seem these people can only learn the hard w a y . . . ) Michael is a slick and opportunistic journalist, but does any movie viewer out there think he was anything but a slick and opportunistic revolutionary...
...Under the proportional representational system used in local and provincial elections in Northern Ireland the final results give a much better picture of the depths of a party's support than does the crude ~breakdown of first preference...
...There was even one leading light whose handle was Stalin, while Bishop was always Bro...
...Thus Leon Cornwall was Bogo, Randolph Callender Baboo, Fitzroy Williams Mashie, and so on...
...Sam and Karen are rather obviously in love with their own images and each other's images (not with each other): Karen is in love with the image of a contemporary male sex symbol (providing escape from her "dull" husband...
...They l~ave chosen to underline their wish for unity with their fellow countrymen by killing many hundreds of them over recent years including police from the Republic as well as the North...
...mK.M...
...Now, as this movie shows, as Shelley put it so well in Ozymandias, " . . . Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away...
...Besides the ones that bother the Kramers, there are several others that bother me...
...Greer understands and sets forth the issues admirably but I would be glad if you would permit me to add and reinforce two particular aspects...
...Finally both Assistant Professor Swan and Mr...
...A U.S...
...Bishops will probably succeed in undermining his perceived authority, and his sanctions, if ever imposed, would only justify their schism...
...Well, not to the Spectator's crusty critics from (continued on page 47) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1984 7 ception every member of the inner party had some handle or nickname, in common with the graffiti artists of New York's IRT...
...Sinn Fein's electoral support in the Republic has consistently been even lower...
...TAS Fails Curse you...
...Recently working for me were burly youths called Margaret, Snail, Sarge, and Madman...
...There are scenes and characters to appeal to the nostalgia of the erstwhile flower children...
...Farrell raise the canard that the United Kingdom is in some way determined to "hold" Northern Ireland regardless of the wishes of the people who live there...
...Power for the people, which is to say us...
...Presently, U.S...
...That's not a bad metaphor for the USA in 1984...
...Subconsciously Jewel constructed, and partially inherited, a rhetoric that was an impediment to understanding...
...Cosgrove, M.D...
...Fourteen years of murder and atrocity have simply made it more bitter and resolute than ever...
...In my college days, no self-respecting "radical" would be caught dead cheering his college team...
...I think it does...
...The Big Chill is gentle with its generation's fantasies, but it refrains from idolizing them and indeed frequently questions them...
...Sydney Shenton Stockport, Cheshire United Kingdom THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1984 47...
...Well then, does Chill succeed in being anything besides witty and charming...
...This CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 7) the right, who f'md the film too tolerant of its characters' remnants of sixties mentality...
...shallow now, and doubtless were shallow back when...
...In other words, when the rhetoric becomes so venal you have to amputate part of your mind to say it, then you assume an alter ego...
...Most British people are conscious of our bad historical record as regards Ireland and recognize the many ethnic and emotional ties between Ireland and the USA, but the support of terrorism and illegal forces saddens and bemuses not only responsible parties in the U.K...
...We do agree, though, that it may be unrealistic to expect much more of Hollywood...
...United Ireland Despite the full and detailed coverage of the U.K...
...It is indeed true that Chill demands audience acceptance of a number of implausibilities...
...but in the Republic also...
...And for some folks, it may be the first time it's occurred to them that this is not a contradiction in terms...
...I don't see anything really new here," said Very Rev...
...And it's hard not to notice that while not as glib as the others, he is the one most truly generous, the one most willing to take risks for others, and--let's face it-the one with the resources to help others...
...One concluded: Let them come, let them come, We will bury them in the sea...
...Many of those who grew up during that "era" thought they were building a monument that would endure...
...That's where I disagree...
...And not to Newsweek's crusty critic from the left, who finds the film too tolerant of its characters' departures from said mentality...
...We find what questioning there is superficial and the answers pat...
...when they were known as "Der Herr Pastor...
...Similarly, Sam and Karen are comes through loud and clear...
...Even so, the one thing that struck 82nd Airborne's interrogation team was that their prisoners always advanced nicknames first...
...Meg is unrealistic about childrearing, but not about her low-income legal clients or about the joys of singlehood after the sexual revolution...
...RET Verifying the Lie With great interest I read the summary article by Edith Efron regarding the Great Cancer Scare ("The Big Cancer Lie," TAS, March 1984...
...The P~ovisionals' regard for those democratically elected but with whom they disagree has been tragically demonstrated by the murders of a Member of Parliament and a Northern Ireland Assemblyman in the past two years...
...He was...
...And while she may not feel sufficiently guilty about her affair with Alex, she recognizes that the results were not what the sixties' worship of sexual "openness" had led her to expect...
...A People's Revolutionary Army Captain who called himself Flying Turkey wrote calypsos for children to sing in school...
...One deals with his confrontation with a power rival Chalkie Ventour: "I asked him how things were going at the level of the CC as things were beginning to get rough on the ground...
...If its utter lack of erotic appeal was unintended by the film's makers, they sure fooled a lot of us out here...
...Bishops go to Rome, get lectured or warned by His Holiness, and return here unfazed, go_ ing right on with what they were doing before the trip...
...Vincent in 1980, referred to himself publicly as Bumper...
...For those on either side of the ocean who seek a United Ireland, the problem is to overcome that rejection...
...For instance, Harold, the most conservative of the principal characters, is also the most likeable...
...oThe Commerce Department reported that the economy grew at 8.3 percent in the first quarter, 3.3 percent more than in the last quarter of 1983...
...Let us not mince matters: Bishop began life as a pimp in London, and ended it as a pimp, selling his country off rather than Grenadian girls in Shepherd Market...
...It reminded me of what my father said at one time, "Now there's a smart man...
...Calypsonians have always traded in such nomenclature...
...It is true that male Grenadians have nicknames...
...The obstacle to aUnited Ireland is not the British, nor indeed any other government, but in the 1980s, as in 1912 and 1920, the united opposition of a fifth of the whole Island, geographically concentrated in the North and with a clear local majority wholly committed to the preservation of the union...
...This new church would be able to point to the Anglicans as an example, and could take almost all of the American Catholic population with them, and away from the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, in due time...
...Scientific data is the factual base for any significant activities in such areas as health, agriculture, and the environment...
...On that she will now get plenty of government assistance, for the court sentenced this exemplary representative of the nation's "brightest generation ever" to a minimum of 20 years in the hoosegow...
...The handle was a persona...
...Thus it is (unfortunately) remarkable even that Chill does not stack the deck against conservative values, although the Kramers think it does...
...This has a good chance of occurring unless something drastic happens soon...
...To my mind the language of the Grenadian revolution shows an Orwellian evasion of reality...
...If he waits much longer, the U.S...
...To Daniel R. Kronemyer and K.M...
...Karen's literary pretensions and Sam's altruistic pretensions are and were just that...
...Chalkie said, 'What rumors that...
...They crack me up...
...Archbishops' Synod would likely run the whole show from on high...
...In Ulm, West Germany, scientists have developed a thimble-scale milking machine for milking mice, and evidence mounts that at least part of what the Liberals call the Kennedy Legacy is a growing slum around Ethel Kennedy's estate in McLean, Virginia...
...Peter Samuel Washington, D.C...
...Wall's reference to the Sinn Fein vote as 42 percent of the nationalist vote disguises the fact that they only won about 10 percent of the valid first preference votes cast in Northern Ireland, against 70 percent for parties standing for Northern Ireland continuing to be part of the U.K., and perhaps most important of all, nearly 90 percent for parties specifically rejecting the violence of the IRA which Sinn Fein supports...
...Pity some are still trudging that wasteland...
...How did he get himself drafted...
...Sam is in love with the image of the unattainable goddess of his "idealistic" college years (providing escape from the crassness of his current life...
...James R. Dunn, Chairman Dunn Geoscience Corp...
Vol. 17 • June 1984 • No. 6
