Letters to the Editor – The New York Times
This content was originally published by on 5 May 2017 | 9:00 am.
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MARTIN KILSON
LEXINGTON, MASS.
The writer, a professor of government emeritus at Harvard, is the author of “Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880-2012.”
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‘I Am a Rogue’
To the Editor:
I was somewhat puzzled by Jeanette Winterson’s (and, by her account, Harold Bloom’s) insistence, in the review of “Falstaff: Give Me Life” (April 23), that Falstaff is meant to be viewed as “the true and perfect image of life” tout court. This is indeed what Falstaff claims, but it is not all that Shakespeare lets us know. One of many possible examples can be found in the immediately preceding scene, when Falstaff tells the audience that he has caused the deaths of almost all the troops he recruited for the king’s army: “I have led my ragamuffins where they are peppered: there’s not three of my hundred and fifty left alive, and they are for the town’s end, to beg during life.”
PHYLLIS RACKIN
PHILADELPHIA
The writer is a professor of English emerita at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Making Trouble
To the Editor:
How does John Waters (By the Book, April 23) not have a column in the Book Review? I found myself stopping every other sentence to write down one of his recommendations.
JONATHAN FLEMING
CHICAGO
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To Promote Skepticism
To the Editor:
Yuval Harari’s review of “The Knowledge Illusion” (April 23) was certainly a fine introduction to the human need to distinguish between facts, beliefs, opinions, illusions and the knowledge of others. However, the word “skepticism” was conspicuous by its absence; it was not once quoted from the text of the book, although I suspect it appears there.
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Without some degree of skepticism there can be great danger in how we receive knowledge. Harari says: “Humans rarely think for themselves. Rather, we think in groups.” “Groupthink,” he calls it. It’s well understood that those who speak loudest (advertisers and propagandists) will have great influence over our beliefs. Isn’t that a profound reason to promote skepticism?
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My skeptical antenna pulsed when Harari wrote: “No individual knows everything it takes to build a cathedral, an atom bomb or an aircraft.” I seem to recall that many people have built and flown their own aircraft.
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GEORGE DUNBAR
TORONTO
The Book Review wants to hear from readers. Letters for publication should include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Please address them to books@nytimes or to The Editor, The New York Times Book Review, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018. Comments may also be posted on the Book Review’s Facebook page .
Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that we are unable to acknowledge letters.
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