Correction The Salon article "Sins of the Fathers" incorrectly stated that the Mormon religion prohibits birth control, caffeine and makeup. The mistake has been corrected. Salon regrets the error.
_______________TOTAL WAR BY GARY KAMIYA (07/24/98)
	My father landed on Omaha Beach. I'm not sure which part or what wave, only that it was on the first day and most of the soldiers in his company died. That's about all he ever said. His best friend, Capt. Ken Hiatt, is remembered in our family still, killed on Omaha Beach, buried in a grave overlooking Normandy, his memory the only thing that would move my father to tears long after the war. They are both gone now, Dad in a stateside national cemetery, a multidecorated retired career Army colonel. I never knew why he never talked about the war. As a child, full of wonder at all those medals, sneaking a peek at the piece of shrapnel they pulled from his leg that he kept secreted away in an old cigar box, the letters, the pictures of Ken, who could blame me for asking? He never spoke of it, ever. Once, when I was in high school ROTC, I was showing off how I had learned bayonet drill, how to kill a man with my rifle (OK, it was a BB gun). Dad watched in horror as I swung, butt end of the rifle first to break the jaw, then a lunge to finish the kill. "Pretty good, huh Dad?" He stood and took the gun from my hands, and in frozen fear I watched him make the moves. The moves looked too real, too full of some terrible memory he never shared. It was clear he had done this before. He stopped after only a few seconds, put the rifle down, sat on the sofa and stared at the floor, shaken. That was as close as I ever came to understanding him, the war part. Tonight, after watching "Saving Private Ryan," much more of who my father was was revealed. In funeral-like procession, in silence, as we left the theater, I knew him, the man, my father, the patriot. Tomorrow I'm going to his grave and tell him and those thousands buried with him. I hope I was worth it. I hope I have lived a good life. Thank you. -- Dick Murdock
_______________THE MERRY RECLUSE BY CAROLINE KNAPP (07/27/98)
	"I've always been drawn to solitude, felt a kind of luxurious relief in its self-generated pace and rhythms." What a wonderful sentence Caroline Knapp has written, summing up my feelings precisely! Although I am happily married and love the company of my husband, I have always felt a certain amount of guilt that I am perfectly happy being alone. Why is it that our society assumes you must be in the company of other people to be happy? It seems to be a "quantity vs. quality" issue, in which it is better to have a large number of acquaintances with whom to occupy one's free time, rather than a select few treasured individuals (including oneself!). In fact, I happen to prefer the company of "me, myself and I" -- they always agree, never argue and are blessedly quiet companions. -- V. Reeves What is the deal with Caroline Knapp and her desire to make a living by endlessly writing about her idiosyncratic life choices? Her most recent piece, which attempts a little bit too strenuously to rationalize her singlehood, is yet another example of her personal campaign to dissect for public view (and ultimately rationalize) all aspects of her life that humdrum society might perceive as shortcomings on her part, such as her alcoholism or her personal relationship with her dog (both topics that she managed to turn into books). Her confessional exploration of these topics seems to do more good for her than for the reader, who is consistently left suspicious of Knapp and her self-evaluations. If she's so "merry" to be single, why does she go to such lengths to "explain" her choice? Knapp is unquestionably a talented writer and surely a fine person as well, but her efforts do nothing for me but typify a trend in nonfiction toward solipsistic navel-gazing, which I find incredibly irritating. Women writers seem especially prone to it: Knapp is part of a club that also claims Elizabeth Wurtzel, Naomi Wolf and Kathryn Harrison as members. Stop before you label me a sexist, because I don't think all women writers do this -- Anne Lamott writes about her own life experiences but makes them more universal. I just wonder why writers like Knapp keep getting away with it. -- Brian H. Corcoran The Merry Recluse syndrome is all too familiar to me, and she describes it perfectly. I've come to prefer the company of David Letterman or Andre Braugher -- who is, unfortunately, leaving "Homicide" -- or the A&E Mysteries' detectives to most of the people I know. I thought it was because I live in an extremely bland, conservative -- even racist -- Southern California city. But reading Ms. Knapp's piece made me rethink this a bit. I am also probably just a loner. I too prefer to have a few close friends and to spend a lot of time by myself. And marriage and babies have never had great appeal for me. -- Teddy Knight Ventura, Calif Bravo to Carolyn Knapp for embracing her merry reclusivity. As Courtney Weaver reminds us this week as well, women over 30 do start to drop like flies into the wedding march. In doing so, they leave those of us who are secure with "single" status open to the pity of others. Not that I want to deprive anyone of their matrimonial happiness, but I wish there were more women like Knapp to remind me that I don't need to walk down the aisle to be complete. -- Amy Stevens Boston Caroline Knapp's most recent essay reeked of denial. This is an individual who was addicted to alcohol for 20 years. Are we supposed to believe that her "solitude" is not the typical isolation of one who has spent years living for her jones, but rather a "choice," a "style" to which she has become accustomed? Please. As much as I hate to break it to her, Ms. Knapp is indeed nothing less or more than an emotionally atrophied, lonely woman who is one day going to wake and discover, to her horror, that her "handful of treasured friends" and "beloved sister" are dead and gone, leaving her completely alone and with no real skills to find new friends. It is not "our culture" that "puts such a high premium on romantic intimacy, that uses partnership as a measure of mental health and social normalcy," but our simple humanity. We are social animals; it takes dire interventions -- like, oh, spending 20 years locked inside a bottle -- to condition us to feel otherwise. --Rob Anderson Interesting article, but why is it filed under "Mothers Who Think?" It is not about motherhood, nor is it about parenting. It is about thinking, I suppose -- thinking about one's life, which is what Ms. Knapp does in this piece. I am not panning the article and certainly am not making disparaging comments on Ms. Knapp's life. But I tend to consider MWT to be at least vaguely relating to parenting or about a person who is a parent. The only justification for the classification I can see is that the author is female and is a potential candidate -- however distant -- for motherhood. But I bet Ms. Knapp would agree that she's not headed for motherhood. Frankly, I doubt if she gives a fig where her article is filed as long as her check from Salon doesn't burn. But as a Salon reader and supporter, I am a bit disappointed at you. You might also consider that the innumerable dads in your readership would prefer to see the column changed to "Parents Who Think." With the inclusion of the Knapp piece the column has become "Women Who Think," and that may be a bit of an insult. Parents, after all, are way too busy and distracted by their parental responsibilities always to consider everything they do. Single women don't have that excuse. -- Andrew Wells Nashville, Tenn.
_______________THE SALON INTERVIEW: RICHARD POWERS BY LAURA MILLER (07/23/98)
	Thank you so much for the review of "Gain" and the accompanying interview with Richard Powers. Powers' fiction is astonishingly brilliant, and your well-written review and incisive interview will doubtless attract more readers to his work. It would be hard to find a better description of his work than yours: "brainy, intricate novels drunk on the delights of thought itself." Good job! -- Alice Cotten Chapel Hill, NC SALON | July 31, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| UPSIDE-DOWN POLITICS BY DAVID HOROWITZ

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