Stirling replies to me:
>>How would the Times know, outside of a few names, what the aesthetic
>>affiliation is? You write a critical letter to the Times. They publish
>>it or they don't.
>
>Bad choice of timing Steve, as I think you know I follow their arts
>writers regularly, and as I got this I am reading over a piece of the most
>purple prose ever written in favor of modernism - in architecture in this
>case. And I also, quel horor, read their letters pages rather frequently.
>35 words of opposition squeezed in between letters on the importance of the
>Yankees v Mets subway series is not what I would regard as sufficent room
>for disagreement, it is rather an opportunity to lie down in front of the
>tank. Perhaps it stops, but probably it does not.
For some strange reason, my post appeared twice, several days apart. I
didn't send it twice, as far as I know. I've already addressed Stirling's
points in another e-mail, mostly agreeing with him. [Some sort of hiccup
in the listserver. -Dave]
I would also add to Stirling's note about the inadequacy of writing
a letter to the Times, that very few other options occur to me. As I
say, you have the venue of this list, but you're limited to about 1,000
subscribers, some of whom will delete posts unread. Let's say a few
hundred will bother to read this thread. Let's also say that some lower
number will go so far as to care. I don't know what the solution is, other
than to ignore writers like Griffiths. I suspect that, as Stirling points
out and since classical-music coverage has generally shrunk in the Times,
very few NY Times readers will care one way or the other. I also suspect
that the only reason the Times has classical coverage at all is its elitist
cachet; I don't believe the editors particularly care about classical music
as such. The only thing they want is a token presence, and so long as the
writer has credentials and can write grammatically, the editors don't pay
all that much attention to what's written. Shaw has similar things to say
about news editors of the 1880s.
Steve Schwartz
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