Letters to the Editor
RE: A Cruel and Unusual Record by Jimmy Carter, and What's Really Happened to America's Soldiers? by Nan Levinson
I have the greatest respect for Jimmy Carter and his post presidential activities. It is refreshing to hear an authoritative voice speak about the immoral behavior of the USA in war actions. The shift to such behavior seems triggered by the 9-11 attack, and unfortunately has not subsided. I find his attitude toward the government actions closely related to what is described in the article about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This damage is directly caused by participating in actions soldiers considered unfair, immoral or cruel. The country's participation in these wars is actually creating the conditions for the psychological injury of many soldiers. But refreshing as it is, there is little chance of anything changing.
Alex Horochowski
Argentina
RE: Metempsicosis by Rubén Darío
Great Mistake. Your edition of Ruben Darío’s poem Metempsicosis is wrong. It is not “reina en broma”, badly translated “queen in jest”. It is “reina en brama”, which means “queen in heat”.
Rocio Olivares
MexicoEditor’s reply: You are of course correct and the translation has been corrected. Many thanks. In order to explain the error (the poem appears on the web in both versions and I picked the first one I saw):
“En la parte lexicográfica figura el verso la “reina en brama”. Sin embargo, en la edición española de 1907, dice “broma” en lugar de “brama”. Uno de los correctores del libro fue Gregorio Martínez Sierra, el gran poeta, que supo ver que “brama” era más consecuente con la idea del poema respecto a la sensualidad de Cleopatra, tal como aparece en la versión de la Revista Moderna. Es posible que la palabra “brama” sonase demasiado fuerte en una época en que el pantalón largo y el corsé de mujer crearon polémica en una sociedad todavía feudal, a principios del siglo XX.” Ricardo Llopesa, Instituto de Estudios Modernistas.
FTS
RE: Refugee Blues by W. H. Auden
A powerful, moving poem. I was struck by a connection I made between the lines:
"Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away."
and the chapter "Bruno" in David Grossman's "See Under: Love". Grossman surrealistically portrays Bruno Schulz, an important Polish-Jewish writer in the 1930s killed by the Nazis, as escaping this fate by joining a school of salmon swimming in the harbour, (and becoming one of them).
Susan J Feingold, D.Sc
Popular Science Writer
Hawthorne, NJ, USA
1) Computer use exists, much the same way drugs exist, or deviant behavior exists or lying politicians exist.
2) It is possible to find in the world all kinds of wrong things, and it should be plain to anyone who understands this point that we can't (and perhaps shouldn't) even try to fix everything.
3) The real problem is when individuals find a flaw in existence (one of tens of thousands of such flaws), and then proceed to treat the situation as calling for a universal prohibition.
4) It is good for human beings to have knowledge, and the thinking that produces such knowledge will always be of value.
5) It is not good to judge others - that's basic, and computer situations and the raising of children could be helped by knowledge, but knowledge of this kind should be free of polemics and universal prohibitions.
6) The are higher principles active in the world than individual human judgment, which prompted Goethe to write that it is the judgment that produces errors, not the senses.
7) Better we should penetrate with our thinking to why the what-is of the creation includes computers and exposes children to their influences, along with all the other dire influences to which children are exposed.
Understanding that mystery is a "knowledge" we very much need.
Joel Wendt
USA
RE: SouthernCrossReview Nr. 83 (July-August 2012)
Thank you so much for your latest edition – I am really looking forward to reading the articles and stories, and pondering over the [esoteric school] lesson.
Jilla Benneyworth
Re: SouthernCrossReview Nr. 83 (July-August 2012)
I love what you're doing!
Many thanks,
C.M. Mayo
http://madammayo.blogspot.com
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