Letters to the Editor BEATLES BACKLASH
Iwas really upset with the article about the Beatles special. While it was well written and its point clear, the author was someone who saw the video early and didn't wait to see how it actually affected those who watched it.
Yes, the show was a financial success, but to write it off as only that is to fail to grasp the true multi-generational impact that the Beatles have had. A co-worker of mine, in a discussion about the first night of the special, mentioned that he can't wait for the 9-hour video to come out so he can give it to his two children.
Not to go crazy about Beatlemania, but unlike other cultural phenomena, the Beatles definitely require a quarter-century retrospective on their music since their breakup. And all capitalism aside, I thank ABC for making the effort to bring this to us. It was a long time coming, and so far it has made a lot of people really happy. (Except most obviously the author, and most probably the editors of SALON.) I'm sorry that SALON needs to be so cynical on its first outing into pop culture.
David Heller
President, Indigo Internet Communications
New York, NY
Sorry your writer hated the Beatles segment. I've been waiting for many years for them to comment on some of the things they discussed in the show.
I'm not surprised that some of the back-biting came out. Hell, they sued each other for ever. As my father used to say, money does strange things to people.
I am buying the laser disc when it comes out. I will vote with my wallet.
Keith Preston
TRASHING TRASH TV
Woah! Liberal media moves to the net! Way cool. Or not.
Reading your magazine, especially Paglia's polemic on William Bennett, I frankly feel insulted. To claim talk radio represents a populist American vision insults the hundreds of millions of Americans who do not watch Donahue, Geraldo, or any other up-and-coming host. The fact is, daytime talk TV represents a fringe -- people who have nothing better to do than sit around and watch TV all day. To call critics of trash TV "elitists" is to assume those who don't watch it are a minority, which they are not.
Frankly, Ms. Paglia, you underestimate mainstream America. You are the true elitist for thinking of mainstream Americans as a bunch of couch potatoes who have nothing to do but watch trash TV.
Jay Thomas
Princeton, NJ
In Camille Paglia's "Talking Trash," she writes, "The epidemic of violence in urban neighborhoods is caused by complex social disintegration unrelated to television."
That is not entirely true. TV might not have a direct effect, but it desensitizes viewers to violence, allowing them to justify their violence in their minds. If they were taught to abhor violence then they would be less likely to commit it.
Alan Ordway
WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE
Bought "The Hundred Secret Senses" today as a result of your interview with Amy Tan.
Thanks for the pleasant publication. Won't be long before I can let go of all my paper subscriptions and still have good magazines to read.
Bill Hutchinson
Soldotna, Alaska
EMPTY-HEADED CELEBS
Leading your first issue with stories about Roseanne and Michael Bolton, both empty-headed self-important celebs,is not exactly the way to get my interest for a site purportedly about "books, arts and ideas." Those are exactly the kind of ideas I'd rather not waste my time on.
David Appell
IN DEFENSE OF NET TERMINALS
A few remarks on your "Hotbutton" topic regarding Oracle's "Internet set-top box." While you deride the concept, limited-purpose computers are already quite prevalent and useful. While they don't draw nearly as much media attention, I wouldn't be surprised if word processors (the gussied-up typewriters with some wordprocessing software and maybe a spreadsheet hardwired in) are selling a few hundred thousand units a year. If these were to be enhanced with Internet access, they would offer 90% of what many people would need, for a third of the cost and infinitely less configuration hassles.
I'd love to see Internet set-top boxes in hotel rooms, instead of the cable variety. I could imagine other public places where these cheap boxes would fit, but a PC would not be an option. Not having to worry about whether the PC is going to get infected with viruses or Trojan horses, have illicit software installed on it or crash with a "General Protection Fault" might be quite attractive to a lot of people.
Sure, it's not the real thing, and I wouldn't want one on my desk, but the alternative may be having nothing at all. I'd love to be able to give my retired in-laws, who want nothing to do with PCs, an Internet (mail) terminal.
Henning Schulzrinne
Berlin
TRADITION IS REFRESHING
Bravo! I am happily moving SALON from the submenus of my Netscape bookmarks onto the coveted top position, up there with the weather report, the one feature of the Internet that lets me figure out what to wear tomorrow to deal with Chicago's climate without listening to The Weather Channel's idea of good music.
I had to get past the critique of Beatles95; sorry, but I like war stories. Once I did, though, I found much with which I could resonate. SALON is a bold move in the right direction: a free magazine that balances all our interests. One reader, I see, accuses you of being a lightweight lifestyle magazine -- something many magazines may be guilty of, but not you. Where there is sweetness, it is cute without being saccharin, a la your poodle story. And there is light, too: your roundtable on race was terrific, bringing together a clever combination of perspectives and insight, and a lack of the cliched, cynical views to which we are subjected daily in regards to this topic. Too bad you weren't able to arrange a true discussion ... I would've liked to have seen these characters disagree.
Your content is a traditional blend, but one that is tried and true. Your appearance and structure are conventional, too, but the reality is that this is refreshing. On the whole, I'm not opposed to innovation, and, yes, the medium is inseparable from the message, but why does that message have to be made so revolutionary in presentation so as to be as unintelligible as the Swedish Chef during a bad acid trip? Why have netzine editors fallen in love with badly-spaced, misaligned Courier?
SALON points a more reasonable direction. You let the content speak for itself. You let it be traditional, even light sometimes. But content doesn't have to lean toward anarchy to succeed. Stories of all kinds do quite well on their own, about poodles or foreign policy.
Once one recognizes that -- which the Wireds of the world don't -- anything's possible. And seeing that SALON has recognized that, I look forward to an exciting future. Netscape and I will be seeing you again soon.
Peter Kirn
Chicago
AMERICA'S GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Your take on US responsibilities in the post-Cold War era is right on target. Whether we like it or not, America and Americans must lead, or chaos and genocide will prevail. In spite of technological advances, it seems we have inherited vestiges of the old familiar US isolationism, exacerbated by the Vietnam debacle, and fomented by stingy, short-sighted America-Firsters.
I am a Vietnam vet and father of a USAF rescue helicopter pilot. I visit a dozen friends at the Vietnam Memorial every year, always a painful experience. Even a minor injury to my son would be devastating to me, but this is a burden that we must bear. This time, we can do it with our eyes open, ever vigilant ofthe self-centered, simplistic ideologues on the right and the fuzzy-headed, irresolute idealists on the left.
The cry that "We cannot be the world's policeman" is a fool's mantra. We must, if necessary, be the world's police commissioner. It is our duty, but more importantly, it will yield huge rewards in global commerce.
The ghost of George C. Marshall is watching...
Sam Cottrell
Americans seem to be quite confident that they play a superior role in the Bosnia conflict and love to bash the UN. The flawed policy of the UN originated from the UN Security Council where the US plays a dominating role.
Dutch UN soldiers may not have defended Srebrenica, but at least they were there on the ground, while the US, after running away in Somalia, stayed safely at home. Significant portions of the Bosnian Serbs do not accept the peace deal. They will be eager to shoot a few Americans. Time will tell how far the Americans will carry the candle.
Matthias Vogelsanger
Zurich
THE APOTHEOSIS OF CEREAL BOX PROSE
I found it ironic that your first issue featured John Le Carré bemoaning the decline of the modern magazine as embodied by the "new" New Yorker. If the New Yorker represents some sort of descent into a literary wasteland, what then does SALON represent: the apotheosis of "short attention span theater"? Give me a break!!
It disturbs me that there is an emerging "conventional wisdom" that those of us who surf the web have the attention spans of dyslexic rhesus monkeys and are therefore best served by shallow, very brief little pastiches with less depth than the ingrediants list on a cereal box.
When I delved into the "articles" listed on your contents page (several of which at least sounded interesting), I discovered that there was no "there" there. What electronic sage of the net has decreed that articles written for webzines should be a mere shadow of a decent print publication? While this may be appropriate for a vehicle like Hot Wired that seems to be written by and for chipmunks (although occasionally amusingly so) it would seem that a publication with aspirations like yours should be offering a lot more steak, especially if you actually intend to sell this thing.
Believe it or not, lengthy articles can be "saved " to be read later. THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE READ ON LINE.
A few final words of advice: hire writers who engage in more profundity than fortune cookie scribes and let them write. That would be a real "first" on the net!
Winsor White
"CONTENT IS THE KILLER APP"
I tried starting a thread about starting a webzine (I wrote something that began "it's a bitch without a little help from your friends" in honor of the Fab Four this week), but as I worried might happen, seven straight times some glitch didn't let me post a compliment to the effect "you show all of us content is the killer app."
Now, if only the servers can keep up with demand, and you can convince the advertisers that at least once a month someone buys a car because of you...
Hoping you'll be able to keep up the excitement, without losing the simple sensibility and the elegance of the enthusiasm. Best wishes from a much smaller webzine (Ariga) on the other side of the globe, which is the consciousness beneath what we're all doing on the web.
Robert Rosenberg
Tel Aviv
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