Letter to the editor: Effort has been to challenge, not placate, readers

Qin Tang (“Searching for the Point,” June 27) apparently thinks readers neither “understand” my Bulletin submissions nor “enjoy” reading them. She then disparagingly implies that I live in an ivory tower (shudder!) and, even worse, that I lack “common sense.” This coming from someone whose platitudinous hearts and flowers musings are featured in the online editions of the Bulletin. That notwithstanding, however, it is not my intention to turn Tang’s remarks back on herself.

I am, rather, concerned with her view that Bulletin readers do not find my remarks enjoyable. Tang may think that all communication, written or otherwise, should be enjoyable. But I do not. I think that at least some of what we hear and read should be difficult, thought provoking, controversial, unsettling. I think, further, that it is imperative to challenge the clichés and the facile rhetoric that characterizes so much of what passes for wisdom nowadays. In other words, if I am doing what I intend to do, I will most certainly provoke the ire of many Bulletin readers, Tang included. More specifically, I hope that I have gotten at least a few Bulletin readers, political activists especially, to question their use of clichés such as “compromise,” “extremist,” “common good,” etc.

None of which is to arrogantly claim that I am a superlative writer. Nor that my Bulletin submissions are always as clear or well worded as they might be. Perhaps confusion arises because I tend to overreach, attempting to pack too much into too few words. But, then, perhaps the animosity expressed by Tang and others has more to do with their reactions to the substance of my remarks rather than to the way in which they may have been expressed. If so, then I think that I have written well.

Thomas St Martin - Woodbury

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion, updates