More on Finding Truth and Reality--Even on TV

Preston Lerner reveals the fatal flaw in his attack against reality TV when he concludes that the characters from fictitious novels are the only “people out there we truly understand” (“ ‘Based on a True Story,’ ” Sept. 11). If we can know these characters, why not the ones given life in the editing rooms of Fox and CBS? Contrary to what Lerner claims, we turn to these shows not to escape reality, but to experience it--like any novel--as a self-conscious simulacra in a world where such truths are becoming more difficult to identify.

Jay Kapp

Trabuco Canyon