The American Spectator

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Taking Stands

6.4.03 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 3)

P.S. It might amuse the professor to criticize this piece in detail for the instruction of those of us who managed to avoid learning in our English classes.

John R. Dunlap replies:
Consider what I say eminently ignorable, but I would take exception to "exemplary" (wouldn't "egregious" be better in the context?); to "meaningfulness" (the term "meaningful" by now being hopelessly meaningless); and to "while" (in the sense of "although," which is surely one of its meanings, but why not use "although" to avoid the ambiguous uncertainty during the first half of the sentence?).

THE ART OF ART
Re: Herbert London Picasso-Matisse vs. Manet-Velazquez:

My congratulations and heartfelt thanks for the subject piece. I share your views entirely, having many years ago come to the conclusions so expertly aired by you. Rest assured that I will pass on your essay to the two of my five daughters who specialized in art in their college years.

Allow me, however, to give a little credit where credit is due. The following is a quotation I copied from some publication -- I know not which, but will keep looking -- many years ago. It is attributed to Picasso himself.

"In art the mass of people no longer seeks consolation and exaltation, but those who are refined, rich, unoccupied, who are distillers of quintessences, seek what is new, strange, original, extravagant, scandalous. I myself, since Cubism and before, have satisfied these masters and critics with all the changing oddities which passed through my head, and the less they understood me, the more they admired me. By amusing myself with all these games, with all these absurdities, puzzles, rebuses, arabesques, I became famous and that very quickly. And fame for a painter means sales, gains, fortune, riches. And today, as you know, I am celebrated, I am rich. But when I am alone with myself, I have not the courage to think of myself as an artist in the great and ancient sense of the term. Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt were great painters. I am only a public entertainer who has understood his times and exploited as best he could the imbecility, the vanity, the cupidity of his contemporaries. Mine is a bitter confession, more painful than it may appear, but it has the merit of being sincere."

An astoundingly honest self-effacement, it would seem, and at the same time a rock-solid substantiation of your views.
-- James Martin
Adamstown, MD

QUIETLY PRO-LIFE
Re: The Washington Prowler's Marin Counting (scroll down):

"Marin is the classic Bush/Rove candidate: a moderate on social issues, such as abortion, while remaining loyal and true to the Bush economic and international agenda. That strategy worked wonders in states like Minnesota and Missouri last year in helping the GOP retake majority control of the Senate."

This is true in some states, but definitely not Minnesota and Missouri. Norm Coleman left the DLF because he is a pro-life social conservative, while being moderate on other issues like the environment. Jim Talent is a conservative all the way. Perhaps the Prowler was thinking of Iowa, with Rep. Greg Ganske, a social moderate? Iowa is located between Minnesota and Missouri. I know, American geography can be so confusing!
-- John Zomberg

The Prowler replies:
No, I was thinking about Missouri and Minnesota, where the Republican Senate candidates played down abortion as an issue during their winning campaigns.

HALF OFF
This weekend I saw a TV advertisement for the New York Times at a 50% savings over their customary charge. I wondered if the New York Times was now charging only by the truth. With the paper at only about 50% in telling the truth, the price is about right. But I'm not buying -- any of it.
-- Steve Shaver

Letter to the Editor

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