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Making a monster
"White Oleander" author Janet Fitch talks about creating a wicked woman, the debacle of film school and becoming an overnight success after 20 years.
By Laura Miller
[07/01/99]

Reviews
"The Broken Estate" and "When the Kissing Had to Stop"
Literary criticism remains alive and well (the novel is another story) in the work of two masters of the form.
By Euny Hong Koral
[07/01/99]

Kafka of the Great White North
Franz's niece takes the Yukon.
By Anne Beatts
[06/30/99]

Ivory Tower
Do what you want and the identity crisis will follow
A graduate student finds that there are tougher dreams to pursue than scaling the walls of the ivory tower.
By Christine Kenneally
[06/30/99]

Reviews
"The Wonders of the Invisible World"
These brooding, crushingly accurate stories are as forgiving as they come.
By Austin Bunn
[06/30/99]

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Beal, a red-faced enthusiast with a surplus of school spirit, lectured loudly about the glorious diversity of Princeton University: All 50 states are represented in the student body, he explained, and public figures like Toni Morrison and Dan Quayle come to speak. As he spit out his practiced speech, a bitter-looking disabled man who learned about Peter Singer that day began a lonely chant: "Hey hey, ho ho/Peter Singer's got to go./Hey hey, ho ho..." Although a few parents turned their heads, most of them didn't seem to notice at all.

An accomplished scholar and intellectual pioneer, Peter Singer first gained attention with his book "Animal Liberation," which sparked the animal rights movement. More recently, the Australian philosopher has been attacked for his rigorously utilitarian views on the sanctity, or lack thereof, of human life. His most controversial stance is his belief that it's not always morally wrong to kill a severely disabled infant who is not rational, self-aware and autonomous -- the three morally significant qualities, he argues, when considering the life of a sentient being.

In a recent New York Times article, Sylvia Nasar compared the controversy surrounding Singer to the one that flared when City College hired Bertrand Russell in 1940, only to later rescind the offer because of the philosopher's liberal views on premarital sex. But nobody thinks that Princeton University will rescind its offer to Peter Singer. Princeton's president has consistently defended Singer, and the faculty and alumni, like those prospective parents, have studiously ignored the controversy.

Buoyed by newspaper articles and outraged editorials, however, a small anti-Singer group on campus planned an early morning protest to boost its cause. The anti-Singer rally featured about 200 sign-toting protesters, several of whom made short, orchestrated speeches. From their commentary, it appeared that few had read more than brief excerpts from Singer's writing; they had a wildly sinister view of his philosophy. Many of these veteran activists were part of New Jersey Right to Life, which had held a smaller demonstration at Princeton months before. The pro-lifers were joined by a smaller crowd of handicapped-rights activists, led by contingents from Disabilities in Action and the Illinois group Not Dead Yet, whose president, Carol Cleigh, has been quoted as calling the professor "the most dangerous man in the world today."

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