Letters to the Editor

Rag vs. rag
BY JENN SHREVE
(08/27/99)

Thank you for Jenn Shreve's Skeptic vs. Fate comparison, which reminded me of the old Spy vs. Spy bit in Mad magazine, and for characterizing us as the obvious quality "rag" of the two. I will gladly take readers who prefer the insights of the brilliant and iconoclastic social psychologist Carol Tavris over those who would rather read what Jing, the psychic parrot, has to say (or is that think?) on anything, including cats. To be fair to us, Shreve chose one of our more conservative and academic issues to analyze, but the point is well made. We scientists and skeptics should take a lesson from the tabloid rags like Fate -- that if we want to appeal to broader and larger audiences, we need a little sex appeal.

-- Dr. Michael Shermer
Publisher, Skeptic magazine

I think what's needed is a glossy, populist skeptical magazine: a magazine with high production values and lots of eye-catching graphics, and written in a language accessible to the average person. Call me an optimist, but I find most folk are looking for information in a manner they understand. They do want to learn, they just don't want to work at it. That's a tough order to fill, but it's one that no one has attempted. However, as you suggested in your article, people also want to believe in Bigfoot, UFOs and governmental conspiracies. These make the world less mundane. Perhaps that desire is too great -- hence the popularity of Fate, Fortean Times and dozens of trash tabloids. Perhaps Skeptic magazine has it right, and expensive graphics would only make a skeptical magazine economically unfeasible. I don't know if a populist skeptical magazine would sell, nice graphics and all, but it would be nice for someone to at least try. And having Gillian Anderson on the cover couldn't hurt!

-- Allan Goodall
Toronto

Edward Said to respond to claims he's not a true Palestinian
BY CRAIG OFFMAN
(08/26/99)

But of course Edward Said is not a "true Palestinian." Said is far too sophisticated and refined for that. His loyalties are to aesthetics and linguistics; In that sense, he is more French than anything else. His sensibilities are those of the dandy; at once too complex (intellectually) and simple (emotionally naive) to be a "true Palestinian." As an intellectual, he is attracted to the idea of Palestine; as an artist, it captures his imagination. That is all.

-- Yahia Samir Lababidi

It hardly matters who actually owned the house in Jerusalem or where Said went to school. Said's personal history is only significant as an example of the tale of his people. Other people certainly did go through similar hardships, except they can't write like him.

Still, I think it's interesting to ponder why is it that the most eloquent voice of the Palestinians is a man who is so unrepresentative of his people. As an Episcopalian, he is part of a tiny minority in a nation where religious affiliation is extremely important. Having lived most of his life in Egypt and the West, he has hardly experienced firsthand such seminal events in his people's history as the Six-Day War and the Intifada.

-- Micha X. Peled

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