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Pretoria, South Africa
Neon, Tinsel and Noise
Sir: And now we have it, Jesus Christ [Oct. 25] in Disneyland. Salvation for 30 pieces of silver. We have a new high for the soul, as high indeed as all its glassy-eyed performers.
Superstar is truly anti-Jewish, but worse, it is antiChrist. Your criticism is terribly kind to a contrivance that exploits for profit the very heart and soul of our Christian belief with this very shallow interpretation, covered over with neon, tinsel and noise.
ROBERT J. FELLERER
Minneapolis
Sir: I don't find fault with Jesus Christ Superstar. I applaud it. It is good entertainment and not immoral. We should not judge it as history but as any other play. We should encourage such plays and not rap them. It has a good message: Christ lives on in our lives, but he continues to die every time there is cruelty and injustice.
MRS. JOHN G. QUINN
Levittown, N.Y.
Sir: As I read your review of Jesus Christ Superstar, my only thought was "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
EDITH CHANEY
Fayetteville, Ark.
Museum Trip
Sir: Robert Hughes' essay on Picasso [Nov. 1] gave me a better approach to Picasso's art than any museum trip I have ever made or art books I have ever read.
PAUL HIRSCH
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sir: Now that he is 90, let's stop overrating Picasso. I have found most Picasso exhibitions dreary and uninteresting. I have stood for half an hour in front of Guernica and it was still only cheap bombast.
My advice to all the millionaires who have invested so heavily in his pictures is to sell, and sell quickly, before more people join me in saying "The king is naked."
NATHAN SCHUR
Zahala, Israel
Sir: Picasso! Father of disposable art.
EDGAR S. BAUM
Allentown, Pa.
Vivid Writing at $60,000
Sir: As a young American journalist working in London, I disagree with your contention [Nov. 1] that "young Englishmen seem to surpass" their American counterparts in the ability to write vividly. No reflection on the Sunday Times staffers, but I suspect there would be more young Americans writing just as vividly if there were more American organizations as willing to spend nine months and $60,000 on one series.
GORDON F. JOSELOFF
London
What Lies Behind the Wall?
Sir: Master Gamester Willy Brandt gives away to the Soviets what is behind the Iron Curtain, then walks off with a Nobel Peace Prize for himself [Nov. 1]. The big losers are the millions of people in East Germany who had hoped to some day determine their destiny for themselves. What will Willy win when he wagers what lies behind the Wall?
RICHARD GORMAN
Rockville, Md.
Latent Snobbism
Sir: The tone of "Politics at the Philharmonic" [Nov. 1] was very disappointing to this member of the U.C.L.A. audience.
The politicking was spirited and added to, not detracted from Conductor Samuel's "to, for, and by the people" approach to music. The latent snobbism reflected in your article is precisely what turns off so many potential supporters of fine music.
JERRY D. GREEN
West Los Angeles