Dear Editor
Dear Editor Vouchers Were I dissatisfied with the service offered by my local police (I am not, as it happens). I would have every right to engage private guards to protect my home or office. To...
...London T.R...
...Robert Lekachman, NL...
...July 26...
...It would be a pity...
...For example...
...Chicago DENIS G. PAZ Appeal I do hope that my modest contribution is not too late to help our cause...
...I promise not to be overly impressed with my own importance...
...things are tough all over...
...John Simon, however, is not a critic, for his judgments are not based on rational analysis, nor are they defended rationally...
...FYVEL I have at last reached the point of no return with your film critic—at least I assume that is what he is intended to be...
...its rich, sick, pre-1914 Europe reflects a sickness which in time affected the United States, too...
...I will supply a plot summary for each film reviewed...
...Bowling Green, O. THOMAS D. ANDERSON Associate Professor of Geography Bowling Green State University...
...The New Leader is a comparable publication, and that is meant to be a compliment...
...The amount of the check reflects some of the same realties that prompted your own request for financial aid...
...Do I detect the beginnings of an anti-European note among American film critics...
...To do so, however, would not confer upon me (1) a subsidy from the public purse to defray any part of the cost of such service, or (2) an abatement of whatever taxes I am required to pay for the support of the local police...
...In his September 6 column ("From Middling to Maddening"), for example, Simon tells us that the Diana Dors scene in Deep End is nauseating, that The Devils suffers from spiritual coprophilia (whatever that is), and thai Johnny Cot His Gun is inept...
...I honestly don't give a damn...
...DON M. MANKIEWICZ Simon I was somewhat taken aback by John Simon's fierce and total condemnation of Death in Venice ("Deadly Clowning," NL...
...There are, after all, individuals like myself who respond to both sorts...
...July 12) would not only epitomize this vice but would, incidentally, constitute an almost certainly fatal blow to public schools, since it would necessarily divert funds from them at a time when the money flow is hardly sufficient to sustain life...
...But can't one accept that as of this moment films of the first type appeal more to Americans and those of the second type to Europeans, without being aggressive over this difference...
...We are merely given a list of judgments, embellished by Simon's gleanings from Roget...
...This is particularly true at Bowling Green, where we were not promised any increases even prior to the Presidential freeze on wages...
...In simplified terms, it seems to me that the most successful American films have come from directors who identify with the New Left, are Jewish and fierce social de-bunkers, while Death in Venice was made by an Italian count, depicts privilege without explicit criticism and has an equally uncriticized homosexual streak right across it...
...Though I found Visconti's film (which depicts something like the era and background of my own parents) a flawed affair, it was still in some ways a rewarding reconstruction of the past: and in spite of Simon, I don't quite consider myself a moron...
...in no case are we shown how the films fail...
...I am a relatively recent reader of your fine journal but share your opinion as to its worth...
...and I promise not to insult the intelligence of my readers...
...Why don't you fire him and take me on as your film critic...
...Any 'educational voucher" ("Vouchers & Public Education...
...My analogous right—to send children to private schools at my own expense—likewise exists (see Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which has been the law for half a century) and likewise does not operate to confer upon me either of the boons referred to above...
...Publications such as yours meet my concept of what responsible journalism is all about...
...As is the case for many academic people, i have been gone much of the summer and had a pile of accumulated mail to examine upon my return...
...Yes, I agree that there must be room for a journal that at least tries to provide balanced viewpoints and resists the herd instinct common lo many others...
...Please continue what you have been doing...
...I also promise not to be a pompous ass...
...I read and derive some benefit from the Washington Monthly, but I know entirely too much about the world and the events of the past 30 years to accept the blatant polemics in every issue...
...Now Simon has a right to his prejudices, as does everyone, but I am not interested in them...
...rather, they are expressions of personal prejudice, obiter dicta...
...East Norwich, N.Y...
...In no case are we told why he thinks so...
...For the first few times his emotional clothesline is amusing, to be sure...
...The notion that those who choose not to avail themselves of some public service ought thereby to be excused from paying their fair share of the cost of its maintenance is inherently destructive...
...Besides, there is an implicit social criticism in Death in Venice...
...I had profited for a number of years from the quality material that was part of the Reporter magazine and had searched in vain for a replacement following its demise...
...then it becomes boring...
Vol. 54 • October 1971 • No. 19
