You screened this?

SPEAKING of his critical writing, Richard Schickel says on his website, “I’ve done my best to be serious and thoughtful. . . .”

Not so much with his review of my book, “What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting” [“So That’s Why They’re So Grumpy,” Dec. 13]. He finds the book “error-strewn” but offers no examples. He lays out my main themes and then chides me for what I left out. He reduces my guild’s struggle for payment from the Internet to a kerfuffle over “largely symbolic nickels and dimes.” He insults me personally but provides no home address.

Schickel also writes on his website, “Like every writer I know, I never begin a new piece of work without wondering if I’m still up to it. . . .”

We’re talking real detumescence here.

Marc Norman

Santa Monica