Columns

Letters to the Editor

TO CHARLES MUDEDE: At first I thought that as most of your references and objections to the article related to the pictures which accompanied it, you perhaps couldn't read Japanese and were making judgments on people based on their skin color/appearances/what they wore as evidenced in photos, rather than who they are as people. Why is that white man an expert in the tasting of sake? Why can't he stick to something more Euro-Caucasian like Scotch where he is more genetically qualified? And as for that "Asian child" on his lap, that little Asian boy IS out of place! Don't people know that white people should only have white babies? Maybe he's adopted, which may be another taboo in your bizarro worldview.
Oops... upon actually reading the caption to the photo, it turns out that the child is half Caucasian, half Asian, and he's sitting on his father's lap. Problem is, I have one of those half-Japanese, half-Caucasian kids in my house, too. What should I do according to your bizarro worldview? Please advise! At any rate, I agree with you, Charles, us white folk should stick to white culture. Although ceramics have evolved in many different cultures around the world for thousands of years, from now on I pledge to stick to my genetic roots and only draw from Caucasian, Northern European ceramics history for my sources in my work.

Thanks again, Charles, for your insights into your worldview, and while I don't happen to share them, they certainly proved to be interesting!

Rob Fornell

LIMITATIONS OF

THEATER

TO TAMARA PARIS: I am always surprised at how ignorant some critics are of the material that they critique, but Paris, you are obviously in a special-ed class all by yourself. To call you ignorant would be an understatement. You really, really need to read up on your Douglas Sirk history. There was nothing subversive about Douglas Sirk's film [On Stage, March 25]. Have you seen Pinky? That's a subversive film. Sirk's Imitation of Life was supposed to be subversive but it was a star vehicle for Lana Turner. It played on the real-life tragedy she had with her daughter. The film is just as racist as Sirk was. Have you read Sirk's book on Imitation of Life, edited by Lucy Fisher, where he writes the only reason he used Mahalia Jackson was because she was so black and ugly he thought it would be a funny ending? You sound like you want to bring back the racist films of that era so you can wax nostalgic.
Well, wake up, Paris. This is a new day. People are redefining roles for themselves. Classics are being challenged! I don't care if you don't like the play, but at least write about what doesn't work rather than how racist you are.

Anonymous

TAMARA PARIS RESPONDS: Marcus, now I'm really confused! I just watched excerpts from a 1979 BBC documentary called Behind the Mirror: A Profile of Douglas Sirk, where Sirk says, "I was mostly interested in the racial story. [In the scene where Troy Donahue beats Susan Kohner's character when he finds out her mother is black] it couldn't be violent enough. This boy, he's whitey. Whitey has shown up. So it has to be most violent, most cruel... [Her] mother... wants her child to just accept her fate.... This is a nice woman we are living with, a nice house, what more do you want? Well, they want much more than that.... They want to be treated as human beings, not as pretty dogs that you keep around your house...."

Even more curious: "That is why I had the climactic sequence in the church, with Mahalia, which is not in the script... there is an outburst of black power, which is unprecedented. First of all, this is a terrifically gifted singer, and to have [her] singing down over that mute crowd below her is such a triumph."

Oh well, maybe I'll understand the films of Douglas Sirk better after I make it through your reading list.

Thanks for writing,

Tamara Paris

HIGH CHURCH,

HIGH WRITER?
TO THE EDITORS: Not only was Kathleen Wilson's preview piece on the Church at the Crocodile ["New Converts," March 18] littered with unnecessary spite ("...they're quite popular with the goths, and the all-encompassing insistence of owner- ship assumed by that faction always chaps my ass"), but she was flat-out WRONG in her closing paragraph regarding the allegedly departed members of the band ("...the Church have lost many of their original members, including singer Steve Kilbey, guitarist Peter Koppes, and second guitarist Marty Willson-Piper"). All three are still in the Church and were onstage at the Crocodile.

Kathy should stick with reporting who spilled a drink or clogged the toilet at the Cha Cha.

Eric Cooley

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In her March 18 piece about the band the Church, writer Kathleen Wilson mistakenly wrote, "The Church have lost many of their original members, including singer Steve Kilbey, guitarist Peter Koppes, and second guitarist Marty Willson-Piper." All three Church members are in fact still playing with the band, and The Stranger regrets the error.