Dear Editor

...Jerry Langford Your critic also finds fault with the way Masha "disappears" 10 minutes before the end of the film, as if her fate were a major loose end But Masha is a minor character, and the story really does not require our seeing what befalls her after Jerry Langford escapes her clutches It is difficult to credit Asahina's opinions when he seems to pay so httle attention to what is happening on the screen New York City William Martin Full Circle Robert Lekachman's review of A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 3, O-Sez was most reassuring ("Updating the Dictionary," NL, April 4) It is good to know that the OED's tradition of thoroughness and sound judgment is being maintained The debate over prescnptivism that Lekachman discusses reminds me of the essentially circular nature of defining words As an example of this, let me remind NL readers of a story about Thomas Hardy that Robert Graves once told It seems that Hardy was about to use a word in one of his poems when it dawned on him that he really didn't know the exact meaning Worse still, he realized that he had used the word in the past without bothering to check the dictionary So he looked in the OED He discovered that the sole entry illustrating the definition was his own poem Boston Arthur Wheelwright India The conclusion of George Woodcock's "India Revisited" (NL, April 4) strikes me as wishful thinking After telling us at persuasive length why the country is a mess, he says that " India is not a land entirely without hope " He c.tes an Indian journalist to the effect that the masses are too large and complicated for any one party to dominate, as if this were a ground for optimism The dismal reality is all too evident from Woodcock's otherwise excellent article India is ungovernable The "new and genuinely federal unity" that he pins his hopes on sounds pretty elusive to me Den ver, Colo Robert Shays...

...Dear Editor The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words Kansas Marvin Kitman's scurrilous review of some recent minisenes ("Tedium Transcended," NL, April 4) says "Twenty-seven critics, including several in Kansas, declared Winds a snooze " Since I am both a subscriber to The New Leader and a citizen of Kansas (albeit on the border of the Bible Belt and in the Heartland of the Balkans), I want you and Kitman to know that some of us are indeed critical, and sharp as a tack I didn't watch any of The Winds of War Nor am I ashamed to admit that I also did not watch The Thorn Birds Welcome to Kansas, sir' Coffeyvtlie, Kans Don v R Drenner Mime The gushing admiration that Marcel Marceau always evokes in his critics makes me wonder whether I was born missing something that allows one to appreciate mime The performance that sends Leo Sau-vage into raptures ("Marceau's Magic," NL, March 21) left me cold I don't deny the Frenchman's skill at what he does But miming strikes me as a pretty minor thing to be good at An evening of Marcel Marceau, for me, resembled an entire dinner composed of hors d'oeuvres New York City N Graham Comedy I must protest Robert Asahina's misleading summary of the plot of Martin Scorsese's new film, The King of Comedy ("Concepts in Hollywood," NL, March 21) His errors of fact and interpretation are surprisingly numerous in the four paragraphs he spends discussing the film Asahina claims that "we never discover how Rupert [the central character] Finds the time to hang around the offices of talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) Nor do we learn how he can afford the expensive sound equipment he uses to rehearse his shtick at home " In fact, it is made clear that Rupert lives with his mother—a voice heard often off-screen?in New Jersey, a time honored way of living economically in the Big Apple The costly equipment that so exercises Asahina is actually a cheap cassette recorder Next, Asahina finds "equally unexplained" the rich girl Masha, played by Sandra Bemhard, who becomes Rupert's accomplice in the kidnapping of the talk show host Here, too, the script accounts for her perfectly well—she is one of the crazed fans who lurk around the studio to catch a glimpse of their idol...