LETTERS
Ruth can be painful
I am a tolerant and broad-minded person. despite the fact that I am probably older than many of your regular readers. I have been buying The List for several years and. although I have occasionally objected to some of the material you include. for the most part your magazine has been tasteful. intelligent and responsible.
But all restraint and good taste seems now to have been abandoned by your editorial team. I Iow could you publish something so misleading. amoral and irresponsible as the interview with ‘sex therapist‘ Dr Ruth Westheimer? It may seem to some that the sort of behaviour she endorses is ‘good healthy fun'. but to me it looks like encouragement to all kinds of excesses. which will lead to divorce and confusion among young people.
Nowhere on The List's cover do you suggest that the magazine should not be read by those of an impressionable age. Do you not think that this kind ofrnaterial merits such a warning?
Mrs Irene Mackie Bruntsfield (‘rescent Edinburgh
Hard luck
Since discovering that The List has assumed the mantle of the Kama Sutra in informing the masses how to fulfil their sexual needs (I refer. of course. to your interview feature with the delectable Dr Ruth Westheimer). my bedfellow decided (against. I confess my better judgement) that we should indulge in some of the experimentation recommended in the article.
Now. perhaps she should have gained experience first at the fairground. but my partner‘s attempts to play hoopla with onion rings resulted — I am sorry to relate — in a very frustrating experience. Suffice it to say that her skills were rewarded not with a stick of rock but with a handful of marshmallow. But I‘m sure it was the freshly chopped onion that brought tears to her eyes.
At the end ofthe evening. however. I was grateful that I too had read the interview. since I was able to support my argument with Dr Ruth's most (ahem) penetrating words of wisdom. which you were good enough to reproduce in bold print. ‘Remember.‘ I told her. as she reached for the top drawer of her bedside cabinet. ‘a dildo is all very well. but there is no substitute for a penis.‘
I’hew! Eric Johnson Woodside (‘rescent (ilasgow
Irony of abstract reality
llilary Robinson. your arts reviewer. has me confused. 'l‘he show , ‘Without reality. the crudeness of art
92 I he list 5 IS .-\pril l‘)‘)l
LETTERS“.-. .___
Write to The List, Old Athenaeum Theatre, 179 Buchanan Street, Glasgow Gl ZJZ, or 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TB. The best letter next issue will win a bottle ofjose Cuervo tequila.
MOIRANK‘OI.
would be unbearable'( The List 144) is described as dealing with reality in terms of irony and humour. and
so. . . ‘there is irony in the work of each ofthese artists. . .’ In particular (‘raig Wood apparently uses irony to draw attention to the ‘reality of the space (his) work is in'.
This. it seems is his over-riding concern and yet. on the same page. ('raig Wood and I’ercy Roberts at the Third Eye (‘entre are described as making installations which ‘through their lack of irony. encourage an accumulation of meanings and associations'.
So which is it to be? Personally. I see little irony in the work of('raig Wood but that is hardly the point. Poor criticism like this neither educates nor inspires us. Let's have an honest response to the artworks reviewed. not this empty rhetoric padded out with worn art jargon cliches.
'1’. Allen
I Ianson street
(ilasgow
('raig Wood ltad two diffi‘rettl e.t‘ltil)l!ions on during last issue. one at (iraente .llurray gallery and one a! the Third liye. l! is perfectly justified lo!” there to he a contradii‘tion between our I‘t't'teti' of one show, where Hilary Robinson considered
Printed by Scottish ('ounty Press. Sherwood Industrial Iistate. Bonnyrigg. Midlothian. Tel: 031 (163 2404.
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the work ironic. and the gallery 's press releasefor anothershow which was quoted in the listings as claiming a lack ofirony.
The worm turns
There I was. feeling moderately content with my lot. munching a pork pie. and wondering about the sentiments expressed in the latest
I Iappy Mondays single. Loose Fit. when my life suddenly became overcast. The clubs page of The List had informed me that I (and my poor fellow students) were sadly out of touch with what was happening.
"l‘o appeal to students. you just have to play anything that was cool six months ago.‘ says one of these obnoxioustelitist DJs. Your reporter desperately agrees: ‘most clubbers now hold the rising of the north in contempt‘. I low inadequate I felt. and immediately started vetting my record collection looking for something with rather trendier origins. Sadly I found large numbers of the stuff that came out of that forbidden city beginning with M. I wonder if The List offers a recycling service for tragic cases like myself. and can instantly convert my New liast Automatic Daffodils singles
i i l l
1
into something crappy by (iary (‘lail?
Actually I find comments like DJ ()rde Meikle's (who he?) ‘It is important to try and raise their awareness. to advance the boundaries of their consciousness' pompous and patronising in the extreme. (iet real ()rde. and remember who pays your wages. Danny (‘onnors Minto Street Edinburgh.
'a'\‘
We know how you students spend most ofyoar working hours searchingfor/ree alcohol. so have a bottle oftequila on us. Who knows. after a few glasses you might even be able to make sense ofthe Happy .llondays.
The colour purple
. Is there any truth in the rumour that ' in order to boost circulation figures
still further the entire staff of The List has become disciples of David Icke? Will all future issues be printed
' in turquoise? I think we should be
told.
Rachel Redmond
I Ienderson Street
(ilasgow
That's sacrilegious talk. that is. Rachel. join our Brethren before you
I get swallowed by the earthquake
we 're planning/or the middle of .llayfest. The Stuff I ofoak’ ).
Verse and worse In one issue it’s her In the next it’s him The next it‘s her And the next
It's him.
’l‘hen it’s her
Then it’s him
'I‘hen her
'I‘hen him
xItl lll'llllllllnl.
He talks about her She talks about him I Ie about her
She about him
()r was it the dog? He her. she him
I Ie she. she he (tee hee) Lookout.
I Iere they come!
A d nauseam.
But who are they? Why. those Fabulous Rotating
Bennie 'l'wins ()lf‘ourse! Question is—
Is it a soap
()r.
Is it
xl/aree?
.lim R. B. Kane (ileneagles Drive (iourock