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_______________ SILICON FOLLIES BY THOMAS SCOVILLE (03/18/99)
	I'm disappointed in Salon's new "satirical serial" after only one episode. OK, it's a satire, but do the characters have to be so idiotically unreal? Lovable 20-something software engineer with a heart? Hateable CEO with witchy "throwaway" ex-wife? Beautiful, sexy, subservient female (of course) HR manager who speaks in Freudian double-entendres? Oh, come on! I am a 44-year-old female software engineer who's worked in the valley for about 12 years, with many different companies, and haven't encountered a single roaming espresso cart. What I have encountered is, every 100 cubicles or so, a kitchen with free soft drinks, coffee (sometimes an espresso machine) and microwave popcorn. The typical 20-something software engineer may be male, but his native language is just as likely to be Hindi or Cantonese as it is English. Speaking of which, the installment itself could have used some more English proofreading! -- Claire Callahan Goodman
_______________ THE QUESTION THAT WON'T GO AWAY BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (03/16/99)
	When I first saw the front page blurb citing the indignant responses to Christopher Hitchens' editorial, I was perplexed and concerned. How relieved I was to discover that those responses came from the same self-blinding ostriches that Hitchens is really railing against. (Sure, he's angry at President Clinton, and for good reason; but the subtext is that all of us are really to blame for Clinton's actions because we look the other way.) The accusations of "detestable rhetoric," "bizarre diatribe" or "textbook-paranoid writing style" obviously come from those who are choosing to completely ignore facts coming from serious news outlets. I actually find the whole Hitchens scandal to be the most interesting aspect of the impeachment fiasco. Here is a morally and philosophically confident leftist who was forced to make a hard decision and did so based on a profound belief in his politics. And now he's being crucified by "armchair leftists" who can't seem to understand the complexities of standing up for your beliefs. The continued inclusion of Hitchens' editorials is a testament to the diversity of opinions I've found so enjoyable in Salon. -- Craig Hanson Buffalo, N.Y. I wonder if anyone else gets a sick feeling in their stomach when a reader (Herbert Rogers) so nonchalantly remarks, "Look, Salon, I know the Christian right neo-Nazis jump on your case ..." Since when in our society have people with religious beliefs been de facto Nazis? This is especially troubling when the topic being discussed in the letter was "mean-spiritedness" (the betrayal of Sidney Blumenthal by Christopher Hitchens). Are we so blinded with hatred of conservatives that we must justify our perspectives with such exaggerations? While I can't fault the readers of Salon for their political or social perspectives -- people are people and prejudice persists in many guises -- I can encourage the editors of Salon to take responsibility for what is printed in their magazine, even in the Letters to the Editor section. Good, angry fire between the left and the right is one thing. Obviously hypocritical -- and worse, offensive -- remarks about a group of people are quite another. Proponents of the left and its ideals of fairness, equality and tolerance should know better. -- S. Brady Hale Houston
_______________ BLARNEY FOR BAIRNS BY POLLY SHULMAN (03/17/99)
	Many thanks to Polly Shulman for her reviews of Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series and Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain Chronicles." Both series were among my favorites when I was 11 and 12 years old. I must have read each volume half a dozen times, usually by flashlight under my bedclothes, until 4 or 5 a.m. I still keep copies of both series on my bookshelf -- including, I'm ashamed to say, a hardbound edition of "Silver on the Tree" that I borrowed from the public library around 1978 and neglected to return! I'm glad that Shulman is calling attention to these works; I'm sure kids will love them as much today as I did back then. -- Lisa Hoffman Polly Shulman's enthusiastic but inaccurate review of Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" undermines what was an otherwise encouragingly intelligent review of children's fantasy books. The books are not "supernatural thrillers," but darkly lyrical fantasies. Only two of the books are set in Wales (and one of those only partially). Two are set wholly in Cornwall, one in England, one in Wales, and the final volume is split between the three countries. Cooper makes clear that the books are not concerned with some simplistic "Good vs. Evil" confrontation; it is more like a titanic struggle between natural forces. The equation of the "Dark" with evil is simplistic in the extreme. Shulman's trite thumbnail sketches of the plots of the novels are unhelpful and misleading. I hope that potential readers (child or adult) are not put off reading these superb stories by this ill-judged review. -- Rik Meucci London SALON | March 23, 1999

R E C E N T L Y+| BATTLING STAG/NATION BY JILL PRILUCK

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