WHO, AND what, is Gilbert Adair (The Guillotine, Culture, 21 February)? Can he lay any claim to fame other than perhaps to have been presciently in Alexander Pope’s mind?
Pretty! In Amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms;The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,But wonder how the Devil they got there.(Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot)In spite of Mr Adair, I shall sleep easily, confident in the knowledge that the name of JB Priestley will live long after the scythe of time has had its way with lesser mortals.PAUL HICKSSurbiton, Surrey. Most likely some of them are survivors of the Holocaust or saddened by the loss of friends or relatives in one of the concentration camps All are vulnerable. I served in the HQ of the heavy-bomber force, of some 30 squadrons and 60,000 men, which was starting to leave the UK for Okinawa, for the final assault on Japan, when it was stood down following the surrender. The intelligence appreciation, based on casualties incurred in the capture of Okinawa, was that there would be some 4 million Japanese military and civilians killed in the two years of suicidal resistance likely to be encountered in Japan itself and in clearing forces out of the rest of Asia.
It would also involve the deaths of 200,000 American, British, Commonwealth and Chinese forces, with heavy civilian casualties in the occupied countries. On top of this, imagine the effect of another two years of hostilities on a war-torn world.
TOM HUDSONBuckingham, Buckinghamshire. JACKIE MASON (Diary, 21 February) seems to find it amusing to sneer at old, bald, feeble Jews (aged about 85 and over) who, at the end of their lives, are enjoying a few restful years in Florida. AS PAUL ARCHER says (Letters, 21 February), the absence of birthing and breast-feeding equality between men and women is unfair. So is the absence of equality between such women’s problems as menstruation and menopause, fibroids and prolapse, or cancer of the cervix, uterus, ovary and breast, on one side, and such men’s problems as shaving, impotence, cancer of the testicle and prostate, or earlier ageing and death in general, on the other. But, speaking sociologically (and logically) rather than biologically, as Natasha Walter said (14 February): so what?
ANNA FREEMAN
Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. PHILIP NOBILE suggests the use of the A-bomb in 1945 was a war crime (“Were they war criminals?”, 14 February).
The reason it is currently illegal is that drug companies wish to peddle more profitable, less effective remedies
SAMI GROVER
Hull. Mr Morrison’s idea, therefore, that “the last word lies with art itself” is an illusion arising when viewers’ perceptions are mediated by the same shared theories and assumptions. Artists have a duty to explain their work, and should be valued for this – as long as they can distinguish explanation from empty verbiage
DAVID RODWAY
Kensington & Chelsea CollegeLondon SW10. TO IMPRISON someone for using cannabis is cruel and wrong under any circumstances, but how can anyone justify jailing a seriously ill, otherwise law-abiding citizen for trying to find a natural remedy for serious pain? Cannabis has been used for thousands of years to relieve pain. Rather, Wolfe suggested that questionable art was created to illustrate, consciously or not, dodgy theory dreamt up by artists and critics alike, and then used to legitimate the art. Belying his boot-boy image, he presented soft pinks, greys and whites in a show that turned catwalk into theatre..
TOM WOLFE’S withering dissection of post-war American art in his book The Painted Word isn’t as Blake Morrison’s spin states (Essay, Culture, 21 February). Hartnell, commissioned to design the robes for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, was a leading light as Britain developed its own fashion industry after the war. 1999: he would have cut an unlikely figure alongside the elegant Norman Hartnell, but the new British hero of haute couture, East End boy Alexander McQueen, showed the romance of his predecessor at British Fashion Week. 1953: fashion editors gather to watch Dolores, one of Norman Hartnell’s top “mannequins”, display the dressmaker’s latest creation in his Bruton Street salon. It will take me another 40 days to finish the television film, but at least it will stop me joining the stream of commentators who assault the British on race, race and more race.. I have even met a white woman who claimed she was rescued from sleeping rough aged 16 by a black man and has never had relations with anyone white since.