Readers React: The world of literature owes a lot to Philip Roth’s inner demons

To the editor: I appreciate op-ed article writer Meghan Daum’s ability to psychoanalyze Philip Roth’s “all-encompassing sense of inferiority” to women.

I wonder: Is this sense of inferiority common to many great writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer and others? Do all great writers who are labeled as misogynists (which would have to include almost all of the greatest male writers in literature) feel a sense of inferiority to women?

A character in one of Roth’s books said that in today’s world everyone has an opinion, but no criterion. Daum submitted her opinion on Roth’s hidden demons, but I really don’t care. I only care about great literature, and without Roth’s inner demons we might have been deprived of Roth’s brilliant writing.

Giuseppe Mirelli, Los Angeles

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To the editor: While I laud Daum feeling empowered to call out misogyny, I am surprised that she considers it acceptable to suggest that a man sitting opposite should be considered “an ape” or that women should “not take men seriously.” It places her on the same level as the men she is criticizing.

I am also disappointed that the Los Angeles Times chose to print an article that denigrates an entire sex. Would it print an article written by a man that suggested “women are just bodies; their minds and opinions are irrelevant”?

Of course not. Let us remember that equality means exactly that.

Duncan Smith, Thousand Oaks

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