Irving's World

To the Editors:

John Irving [Aug. 31] is not only a masterly writer, he is a master teacher as well. At a Breadloaf workshop, he read a scathing review of one of his own novels before criticizing the manuscripts of aspiring writers and, probing the air with his hand, which curved like a bear's paw, he exhorted writers to teach something, to make the story yield a potent statement and to fight for issues with "generous anger," out in the open, like Dickens.

Alia Sayegh Margate, N.J.

John Irving is by far the best-looking man you have ever had on your cover. I am in love.

Edna Vega Alexandria, Va.

What a great way to end the summer! When did you say Irving was planning to come to Indiana?

Yvonne Ransel Elkhart, Ind.

In his works, Irving plays a game of cat and mouse in which he is a jaded feline devising kinky ways to devour his characters. He takes great pains to create elaborate family trees, but they are ultimately rotten at their roots. It's no wonder he's so popular; his books are just one big freak show, with bizarre high jinks and cheap shocks introduced regularly to titillate his audience.

Dan O'Neill Los Angeles

As outlandish, grotesque and sardonic as the world according to John Irving often is, it is also a world filled with compassion, joy and truth.

Patricia P. Adam Lebanon, N.J.

We would all be insane without Irving to take us from our world filled with liars, cheaters, terrorists, rapists, burglars, muggers and cynics to his world where there is just enough wit to make it all very funny. Thank God for John Irving.

J. Stephen Bottum Arlington, Va.

Libyan Challenge

The Shootout with the Libyans [Aug. 31] should remind us that the "shores of Tripoli" are already memorialized in the Marine Corps Hymn, dating from an earlier period when the U.S. fought to keep open the waters of the Mediterranean. With Reagan as President, the message goes out: "America is back!" It will be heard and understood both by our friends and by potential enemies.

Joseph Reymann San Dimas, Calif.

While it is reassuring that the Carter policy of appeasement is now past history, I suspect that the Reagan Administration has exploited the hostilities with the Gaddafi regime to prime American public opinion for bigger and bolder adventures in the Middle East.

Theron W. Parker Gelnhausen, West Germany

The decision not to notify the President immediately of the Libyan incident suggests that although Mr. Reagan may be running the nation, someone else is running Mr. Reagan.

Paul Bujak Laramie, Wyo.

Defense Debate

Strobe Talbott's excellent article "The Vulnerability Factor" [Aug. 31] proves a point that even he has overlooked. We have militarized our foreign policy to such an extreme that we fail to ask the question: Given today's depressing arsenals, what objective would justify their use? The obvious answer leads us to conclude that the arms race has its own dynamics as well as its gurus.

Walter C. Uhler Bensalem, Pa.

I don't want to sound rude or anything, but please, Mr. Reagan, take your Pershings, neutron bombs and cruise missiles and get out of Germany! We are old enough to take care of ourselves. Tens of thousands of innocent people in Viet Nam, Chile and Nicaragua have already died in the name of freedom and liberty. We don't want to be next in line. I'm not anti-American or proSoviet. I'm simply a human being and I don't want to get nuked off this world by a friend.

Ralf Wachsmuth Bielefeld, West Germany

Insulting Encounters

Your Essay "Where Have All the Insults Gone?" [Aug. 31] reminded me of a classic rebuff uttered by American Congressman and Statesman Thaddeus Stevens. While crossing a mud-covered Lancaster, Pa., street on a wooden plank in the mid-1800s, Stevens confronted a political adversary coming toward him on the same narrow walkway. His rival called out in disdain, "I never step aside for scoundrels!" Stevens quickly stepped back off the plank and into the ankle-deep mud and replied, "I, on the other hand, always do!"

C. William Eckenrode Lancaster, Pa.

Insults are not dead in Brevard County, Fla. I just heard a Government contractor "roast" a departing Air Force major with: "Working with the major has been like playing leapfrog with a unicorn."

Darhl C. Stultz Satellite Beach, Fla.

How could you have overlooked "nattering nabobs of negativism"? Perhaps the intent was to effect the ultimate insult: ignoring someone. What was the Vice President's name anyway?

Diane Chenoweth Delaware, Ohio

Medfly and Brown Rot

Crisis? What crisis? Farmers in California have long declared that this state has had a case of "Brown rot." It is too bad it took the Medfly [Aug. 31] to show the rest of the country our problem.

Richard Morgantini Solvang, Calif.

Absolutely free, a campaign theme for those who may wish to run against Jerry Brown: He wouldn't hurt a fly.

Bill Marx Glen Head, N. Y.

Stopping at Wall Drug

The American Scene story on Wall Drug Store in South Dakota [Aug. 31] brought back memories of our then college-student daughter sending home pictures of a main thoroughfare in Amsterdam. Amid the signs in Dutch was one standout in English: ONLY 5,280 MILES TO WALL DRUG, SO. DAKOTA!

Anne Mazanek Warwick, N. Y.

Though it seemed to be an all-American joke at the time (1975), the pictures I have in my photo album of me on a stuffed bucking bronco and my friend with his arm around the wooden cowboy go to prove that "corny" Wall Drug may be just the thing that memories are made of.

Marlene Osterfeld San Diego

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