Letters to the Editor Prescient Exec
F rom your story, Inside the Book Bags of Silicon Valley Executives," it looks like Lewis Platt from Hewlett-Packard is either well ahead of the curve or behind it. He's been reading Gil Amelio's "Profit From Experience: The National Semiconductor Story of Trasformation Management." As Amelio was just named head of Apple, he's either up on a more direct competitor or he's going to need to wait for Amelio's sequel on transforming Apple.
John Crutcher
Fluffyheaded Rot
Why on earth are you wasting bandwidth on providing yet another soapbox for vapid nonsense-peddler Camille Paglia? The woman not only has nothing of interest to say, she hasn't adequate analytical faculties to even comprehend, much less dissect, the topics she blathers about.
Even when I agree with her conclusions, the pathway she takes to get there is so filled with fluffyheaded rot that I begin to question my own method of arrival.
Suggest you lose her. She ain't worth your readers' time.
Mark Green
He Must Be Kidding
I just have to ask. Bruce Tadd's letter (quoted below) is a spoof, right? Right?!?
A remarkable 49% [of the media] found him "scary." [Undoubtedly, dismantling and reengineering the journalists' fodder will be "scary" to those who will have little to write about, when the return to morality and decency the Republican Contract with America provides sufficient self-esteem for the "trodden masses" to go back to productive work.]I'm certainly in favor of a little of the Republicans' idea of morality and decency (I've always found Gingrich's grasp of the subject intriguing). I'd rather have the nastiness right out in the open where I can see it and fight it.Still, I spent years and thousands of dollars in therapy to build my self-esteem and only now do I find out it was all wasted! All I had to do was be patient and my Washington masters would provide me with all I needed to get myself back on track to go back to productive work. (I guess bookselling at Borders doesn't count.)
Seriously, you're all doing great work with Salon. Please continue.
Toni Hinton
More Meat
Since I questioned the quality of your first efforts, it is only fair to acknowledge that -- within the limits of the form you're using -- this is really ramping up nicely and providing very readable and interesting material by good people. I surf many online periodicals because my own work as a consultant, speaker, and writer is often focused on the impact of technology on organizations and individuals (I write for periodicals in South Africa, England, Canada, Israel, and Australia, as well as the US, about the Internet) and SALON is getting better with each issue. My only dream is that depth and content will be provided by sites like SALON in robust ways, with more and more real meat.
Richard Thieme
Steer Clear of Politics
For a bunch of "militant centrists" you seem to have a lot of MoJo veterans.
In general, SALON strikes me as a rather run-of-the-mill effort for the print medium. Not a lot of it is particularly suprising or challenging...Camille excepted, of course. She's at least making interesting observations. The other articles are often too short and sketchy; just a few pithy soundbites, without engaging the subject on any meaningful level. Perhaps people don't want to read big blocks of text on their monitors, but it would be interesting to see someone give the concept a try.
You'd probably be better off if you steered clear of politics -- you don't have much interesting or original to say about it. If you do insist on covering politics, at least get a decent range of opinion, rather than simply regurgitating the received wisdom of the chattering classes. Perhaps a token Libertarian or two to liven things up, or at least provoke your other political writers out of their ruts. Maybe even a social conservative to really get some shock journalism points.
You should look into arranging an email give-and-take of your "name" authors. You are, fundamentally, attempting to impose a paper publishing paradigm on electronic text. This negates the advantages of etext, foremost among them interactivity. The thrill is in seeing two or more people exchange ideas and maybe come up with something new, rather than seeing the same old thing -- a series of manifestos, written by people who, for the most part, ignore what the other person is saying, leading to simple reiteration of the "position papers" of the "sides" of the argument. On Usenet, interactivity eventually leads to pointless flamewars, but theoretically the people you'll be arranging conversations for are above That Sort Of Thing. It would be something like following a moderated newsgroup, only with a limited poster membership. It would be more in keeping with the "salon" theme as well. The dialectic is what's interesting.
Don McGregor
The Truth is In Here
Thank you for the article on the title designers for "X-Files." It is always interesting to read about creative people. Thank you also for including a picture of Carol Johnsen, Bruce Bryant and Jim Castle. It is always fun to put a picture with a name.
Frances Chadwick
On the Mitnick Case
A day or two ago, my girlfriend threw a New Yorker (the Jan 29 issue) at me and told me that there was a good article about Mitnick and Shimomura. The Robert Wright article was a decent piece, but it was old news. I had read and participated in a better discussion here at Salon a while ago (Waaaay before Wright's article). I just wanted to drop a line and kudos to SALON and Scott Rosenberg for the focus on the Mitnick case before the New Yorker article. Keep up the great work!
Jonathan Mergy
Decadence, Revolution, Reform
Surely Salons coincide with a period of decadence followed by a revolution preceeded by a period of hopeful reform ? Fun!
Frank P. Johnston
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