GO TRIBE
RALPH PETERS's "Return of the Tribes" (Sept. 4) is one of the most thought-provoking analyses available on the seeming failures of globalization and the role that religion and magic play in the world's inability to attain that goal. It is apparent, after reading Peters's insights, that the only way globalization could occur (and even this on a limited and false scale) would be if societies were unified through the coercive power of a dominant religion or world government, both of which would spell the end not only of democratic ideals but also of civilization as we have known it.
GREGORY M. ROLLA
Oak Lawn, Ill.
THE TERM "must read" is overused, so shall we say that it would be exceedingly useful if some of the powers that be not only read, but also actually paid attention to, many of the key points Ralph Peters brings out in "Return of the Tribes." We Americans have this absurd notion that absolutely everyone is itching to embrace our way of life, if only their tormentors were gotten rid of. Peters shoots holes through that theory, and the historical empirical evidence supports him thoroughly.
To cite one example: For a Communist/fascist, Josip Broz Tito did a reasonably good job of promoting diversity in Yugoslavia--with an iron fist in the foreground, to be sure. The important holidays of all the tribal elements were honored, and the schools supported the various languages. He forced the tribes to coexist. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, it took little time for the various factions to pick up where they had left off some 70 years before. Considering such examples might be of value for our present battle in Iraq.
CHARLES RIEDMILLER
Maineville, Ohio
KAZAN CONSIDERATIONS
CHARLOTTE ALLEN's "Truth Teller" (Aug. 21 / Aug. 28) claims that Richard Schickel's biography of Elia Kazan "does not quite do Kazan justice." But neither does her review. She is fair in her assessment of most of Kazan's career, but dismisses his final years and says his heyday was short. Yes, Kazan stumbled after Splendor in the Grass and never made another good film, but Allen says nothing about the literary aspects of his comeback: the towering achievement of his autobiography, A Life, a brutally honest and wonderfully written 848-page masterpiece published in 1988 and hailed by Norman Mailer and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., among many others. Nor does she credit him as a fiction writer, even though his first novel, The Arrangement (1967), was a corrosively candid, compulsively readable roman à clef and tour de force, which, unfortunately, Kazan turned into an execrable film. Ignoring his literary work diminishes an imperfect giant, but a giant nevertheless.
DAVID EVANIER
Brooklyn, N.Y.
CHARLOTTE ALLEN seems to imply that Elia Kazan did not care for Clifford Odets, but, if you read Kazan's autobiography, you'll see that he loved Odets until the day he died.
ROBERTA HODES
New York, N.Y.
NO PLUTO, HAPPY HOLST
REGARDING "What Planet Are You On?" (THE SCRAPBOOK, Sept. 4):Look on the bright side: At least Holst's The Planets Suite is accurate again.
HARVARD R. FONG
Sacramento, Calif.