Dear Editor

...Reagan, a product of those very Hollywood films of the '40s, manages to project a personality that, even if extremely limited somehow manages to steer clear of the Hollywood Cowboy, the synthetic purveyor of homilies, that LBJ evokes whenever he opens his mouth Detroit, Mich John O'Brien Who is that smart aleck Sandoz7 I think it's unfortunate that your lead article on the State of the Union message conveys amateurish frustration The article was not up to your standards Sandoz should have re-read his effort the morning after Also I would have hoped that the editors would have had more constructive matenal to choose from New York City Albert J Henry BONNIE AND CLYDE It is amusing that Glenn G Morgan ("Dear Editor, NL January 29) trunks he has really proven something about the authenticity of Bonnie and Clyde by checking a 1934 issue of the New York Times He says that a mere 167 bullets were fired into the car, "in vast contrast to the hundreds or thousands of bullets fired at them at the conclusion of the film " He then goes on to quote from the Times article describing the death of Bonnie and Clyde and again he thinks he finds a vast discrepancy between film and reality Actually, the "facts" Morgan cites indicate that the film aside from its considerable artistic value was not untruthful at all If four or five bullets had been fired, then the hundreds fired in the film would have been an exaggeration of some importance But if 167 bullets really were fired, for a film to utilize "hundreds or thousands" of bullets would be a heightening effect any work of art might use Morgan wants his art unadulterated and literal, while the actual purpose of art is to penetrate literal events and discover what their true meaning is Literal film adaptations of Joyce s Ulysses and Camus' The Stranger have been singularly unsuccessful precisely because they have abrogated the primary role of the film director in making the film in order to be faithful to the actuality of the novel The results were unfortunate in both cases On the other hand Mike Nichols' direction of two excellent films, The Giaduate and Who's The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words Aiiaid of T iigima li ooif in both instances surmounted and reshaped the original script to the purposes of film and achieved superb results Bonnie and Chde is an eient in American film John Simon notwithstanding because it has molded a historical occurrence into a work of art that is somehow effective and creative It is no masterpiece and I find its ambiguous attitude toward violence unsettling But is is unquestionably a good film and would have been even if Morgan had succeeded in unearthing some real evidence of its lack of authenticity His theory of art should restrict his reading to the New York Times Dallas Te\as WiliiamBmn AVANT GARDE Tonv Rinaldi ( Dear Editor NL January 29) has deliberately pieced together a horrendous picture of off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theater that distorts its value aud achievement If he has seen Fortune and Men s Eyes ' The Indian Wants the Bronx," the plays of Rochelle Owens Murray Med-nick Tom Sankey and Leonard Melfi, he knows that there is good work being done There are an inevitable number of charlatans granted But is Rmaldi heralding 'Spofford 1 Cactus Flower and 'I Do' I Do1 as the great hope ot the American theater1 Neu Yoik Cit\ Joseph Fein CRITIQUE A few scatter-shots in the direction of voui January 15 issue First I was very much interested in James Mellow s column (' On Art ) on the characteristics of modern art, but I was frustrated by his failure to carry his deliberations to a judicious conclusion If as he says, the role of critic grows increasingly challenging as art moves away from associative values into technical experimentation, then he is required, as critic, to treat his readers to informed judgments Quite pei-sonally, since I am working on a PhD thesis dealing with the past 39 years in American art, I would have appreciated a cogent discussion of the latest movements by Mellow in the terms he sets forth Second, the Karavansky document {"Petition from a Soviet Writer") is a valuable addition to the materials from Eastern Europe which you have published in recent years I plan to use excerpts from it on one of my Saturday programs at kuom our university station, in February Third, George Herman's vapid apologia for Lyndon Johnson ( Waiting for the Dust to Clear') fails to mention the fact that a great deal of the "much needed legislation" proposed by the Administration and passed by Congress in 1966 was so badly watered down in final form that it was and is practically useless I would say, also, that Herman's view of the extreme Right as increasingly less reactionary ' and in a state of 'attrition is pure nonsense If he were to get out of Washington a bit Herman might find that Right-wing organizations including those which specialize in home aimament, are proliferating, growing in size extending their influence and becoming more paranoiac His hate mail" may be dwindling but my own ib increasing and becoming more violent 1 can t think of any more depressing conclusion to such an article by the way than Herman's statement that 'Iyndon Johnson seems the nearest thing to a leader in sight ' If that doesn't constitute a dire prophecy foi America, I don t know what does It is howevei Eugene Methvin's warning to the American press ( 'Mass Media and Mass Violence") to shape up that really bothers me I am no apologist for the quality of American journalism, but 111 be damned if 111 accept the argument that the news media must share the blame for the urban violence plaguing the country First of all, the press in this country is a product of, and therefore reflects quite accurately the culture from which it sprang and to which it caters If the press is to be castigated for the shallowness of its reportage and the sensationalism of its appeal, let us get at the rest of the problem in the society Slapping reporters' hands will do nothing to cure a dreadfully sick body politic Urban violence exists because of the conditions that spawn it not because of the media reporting it All the disclaimers of public officials and one or two parochial editors notwithstanding television and the other news med'a do the nation a considerable service by revealing the depth and extent of black disaffection and anger One expects buck passing of the sort that Eugene Methvm indulges in from Reader s Digest but not from The New Leader Minneapolis Minn Aaron Miller Unneisify of Minnesota VIEW FROM THE CAMPUS I consider 'Vietnam and Beyond" by John Kyper (NL January 1) one of the best analyses I have ever read Hurrah for youth' I am enclosing a $2 check for five extra copies It should have wide distribution T hope there are many requests for reprints of this article Poitland Ore Ruth Haefner Is the glass half empty or half full...

...If you think it's half empty, maybe the Peace Corps is not for you, If you think it's half full, you've got the first thing we look for in Peace Corps people Optimisrartt;?---——~ If you wapnntto know more about what it takes to pass m Piaster in the Peace Corps, write us...

...TlllfePeace Corps, Washington, D.C 205*3525...

...DEAR EDITOR BEAMED AND SIMON May an occasional reader protest against the shameless self-indulgence of two of your regular critics7 I am referring to the articles by Albert Bermel ("Writers and Writing") and John Simon ( 'On Screen' ) in the January 29 issue Now in Bermel's case, I grant that the cheerful chutzpah of Norman Podhoretz is enough to set any critic's teeth on edge, but that is no excuse for Bermel's tasteless review You won't become great because of other people's sins, and if Norman Podhoretz has chosen to pose m his undershirt that is no reason for Albert Bermel to remove his own jockey shorts As for John Simon, though his wit is not yet on a level with Stravinsky s, he is certainly one of America's better younger critics and I am indebted to his tips for many pleasant hours in the movies So it is sad to read his bellowings about his appreciation of the feminine bosom A remark that is all right at a cocktail party or perhaps among a group of male homosexuals has no place in a review of the austere film of Camus' novel Like Baudelaire, John Stmon needs someone near him with a whip Cambridge, Mass George Siegel MASSIVE DISAFFECTION At least two things are clear from Robert Sandoz's 'When a Great Ship Cuts Through the Sea ' (NL January 29) First, Sandoz does not like Lyndon Johnson, and second, Sandoz watches a lot of television—he knows all the commercials about greasy kid stuff and Excedrm headache number 26 Other than that, I was unable to find any enlightenment or other justification for the article Sandoz s disaffection is so massive, almost incoherent, that little comes through except the rage of n private individual In a way the war in Vietnam is of great use It gives us a scapegoat Sandoz and many others, including even the wise Reinhold Niebuhr, make the Vietnam war too directly related to too many different things In my opmiou it is dangerously easy to assume, as many critics do, that a certain number of dollars not spent on the war would be immediately available for domestic purposes Or, that if our national energies and attention have been diverted to the war, this is obviously m part the fault of the war It mav also mean that our commitment to civil rights, for example, was shallow and infirm to begin with New York City John W McDonald Tr Robert Sandoz' article about LBJ centers correctly on the unreality of Johnson's words They seem connected to the harsh facts of our problems in Vietnam and American ghettos in a most tangential way Watching LBJ making a speech, the recurrent image in my mind is that of a figure in a '40s movie on the Late Show The simplification of complex issues, the appeal to sentimentality and corn, the plethora of platitudes, and the underlying assumption that things can be cleaned up easily and Justice and Virtue triumph remind me of movie heroes audiences now laugh at when old films are revived I do not think that a man's outward "image" means a damn thing in terms of actual performance and ability Nevertheless it is ironic that LBJ, who is so concerned with image, can't find the right one while Ronald...