Selling Out to Mediocrity

I agree wholeheartedly with Howard Rosenberg’s comments on self-congratulatory TV retrospectives (“Drowning in Self-Serving Toasts,” May 3). And I think I can answer his question, “What is the big deal?”

The “big deal” is the desperate need to defend the public taste for mediocrity. For decades now, every social, educational and especially artistic effort in popular culture has been ruled by the same unspoken consensus: Excellence is too hard. It takes too much thought, time and trouble. It is measured against absolutes, which everyone knows don’t exist. Let’s create mediocre stuff and call it excellent! Of course, in our hearts we recognize these efforts as bogus. To still that little voice that tells us “This is garbage,” we must come up with ever greater and emptier accolades.

SYLVIA ALLOWAY

Granada Hills