Letters

The review of Mel Gibson's film was such a waste of my time. So, what, no one can ever be drunk and lash out at Jews? Get over it, Hoberman. You can do better—I think.
Abi Harris
Brooklyn

I'm rather appalled by J. Hoberman's review of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. I haven't seen the movie yet . . . [We stopped reading here—Ed.]
G. Ransom
Durham, North Carolina

If your opinion were written with better taste and did not marginalize Mayan history, civilization, and culture, I would have had a bit more respect for your opinion. You call the Mayans barbaric? The United States government and its elite class have supported slavery, exploited workers, dropped atomic bombs, and supported dictatorships around the world. Should we be considered barbaric? Simply put, your review was horrible. Lighten up.
Eric Carino
Brooklyn

It's in their jeans
Re Rachel Kramer Bussel's "Spanker's Delight" [November 22–28]: Those who have been in the scene for most of their adult life have a true understanding that it is a part of their very being. They are born with the BDSM gene and can never purge it from their system. It defines who they really are, and for most it is their secret world, as they search out others who understand what they must live with. Pleasure-pain is a craving and an addiction, in all its many forms. It's not a game for a weekend party. For serious individuals, they immerse totally into the head space of their calling. It's like breathing; they can't do without it, whether they are "out" or not.
Dominick Epock
Manhattan

Thanks for printing the article on spanking, a subject close to my heart. I do not know exactly how many people are into this, but I have a feeling it's more than we know.
Tim Crenshaw
Waldport, Oregon

I think he's funny. So do I. Me too. And me.
How is it you have Musto on staff?

Does anyone think he's funny?
Vicky Smalley
Phoenix, Arizona

In the end, it's still sex
I hardly know where to start with "Drawn Together" by Eliza Strickland [November 2, villagevoice.com]. Next time you do an article on yaoi, could you hire a reporter who can talk about something besides young girls and "butt sex"? (Could you at least get someone who can talk like an adult and say "anal sex," maybe?) I'm a yaoi fan; I'm 49 years old; I don't scream, "Butt sex!" in public (or private); I don't take the shrink-wrap off books in bookstores; I don't buy willing young males at consensual slave auctions; and I don't think being raped with a corncob is hilarious. Too bad you felt you had to hide the truly substantial points of your article—the conflict between an artist's freedom of expression and the boundaries of pornography—in all that sensationalism that was more suited to some Girls Gone Wild DVD.
Lyn Jensen
Carson, California

Mack the knifed
I just read the article about Walter Mack ["The Man Who Wanted to Know Too Much," Tom Robbins, November 1–7]. If there were more like him, the world would be a better place. What a travesty that the system that hired him is afraid of what he uncovers. This is a true story about the good guys finishing last.

Great piece!
Ellen Susman
Manhattan

Bugging out
Leslie Camhi's review of the Ecotopia photo exhibit ["Thin Ice," December 6–12]is interesting, but she is wrong about our "Pyrrhic" victory over nature. Two important members of the natural world are doing just fine—even flourishing—under the blindly expansionist and exploitative behaviors of humans: bacteria and viruses.

Our policies are pushing them to evolve resistance to just about anything we can come up with to protect ourselves: MRSA [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as the superbug], drug-resistant TB, AIDS (we may have antivirals but we're unable to stop the rapid spread of HIV or "cure" it—just how stupid and self-defeating is Bush's gag order and promotion of abstinence? How much stupider could a human be?), as well as other viruses which appear to be finding the human population an agreeable host. We're destroying the habitat of the former hosts, forcing these viruses and bacteria to look for new hosts.

Maybe there should be some photos of the HIV virus, drug-resistant TB, and others, so human "successes" are exhibited as well.
S. Hogg
Newport, Oregon