Protesting Writers Won’t Get the Last Word

Re “Liberty’s Language,” Opinion, Aug. 29: Ariel Dorfman’s essay on the PEN event in New York demonstrates with stunning clarity the elephantine self-regard of those whose primary life skill is to wiggle their fingers over a keyboard.

Mark Twain’s opposition to the occupation of the Philippines is of no consequence to those who treasure “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Norman Mailer’s quote of John Dos Passos is laughable in light of John Edwards’ campaign image of the self-made poor kid made good, and Susan Sontag and Joan Didion’s opposition to anything Republican is so predictable as to be no more than another excuse for mordant amusement to those who like to watch academics make fools of themselves.

Twenty years from now another bunch of ink-stained scribblers will find the record of these “leading literary figures” and compound the self-congratulation. Frankly, my dears, no one else will give a damn!

Walter W. Matera

Lakewood