Burt and Clint

To the Editors:

I'm one of the legion of moviegoers (and a lot of us are not culturally disfranchised) who like Clint Eastwood movies [Jan. 9]. Why? Because after a tough day of lecturing and sitting through a department meeting on course changes for the 83rd time, I find it fun to watch, in Gauntlet, a bus get the hell shot out of it.

Sure it's silly, but so is Star Wars. Maybe that's why both movies are fun!

Paul J. Nahin Durham, N.H.

I never felt culturally disfranchised until I read Richard Schickel's article.

Since I'm neither blue collar nor drive a pickup truck, I thought perhaps Schickel had merely missed me in the overall picture of Mr. Eastwood's audiences. But I can't believe that he never noticed any other women in those long lines outside the theaters. The Eastwood image of strong, quiet masculinity turns on a large female audience, even here in suburbia.

Darlene Broussard Lincolnwood, Ill.

And then there are those supremely intellectual, upper-class readers of TIME who have been known to tear themselves away from Forbes or I, Claudius and, cunningly disguised in blue collars, sneak off to see,Smokey and the Bandit--twice.

Laura Weig Mathewson New London, N.H.

So Burt feels he's a "prisoner of his big-screen, good-ole-boy image?" Doesn't he realize we love it? If I were Burt, I wouldn't mess with a sure thing.

Kitty Perry Pensacola, Fla.

How can Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood appeal to the same audience?

Reynolds is an ingratiating actor who, because he's fun to watch, can save even the junkiest movie. On the other hand, I can always count on Eastwood to be depressingly tight-lipped and humorless.

Susan Hayes Glendale, Calif.

Richard Schickel beats around the sagebrush in assaying the secret of Eastwood's success. The truth is that a violent society vicariously appreciates violence whether in the streets or on film.

Steve Marshall Jacksonville

I resent your passing off my favorite movie star, Robert Redford, as white bread without the minerals. If he's white bread, I'll take six loaves.

Gerry Rym Scarsdale, N. Y.

Union and Harkness As a graduate I am amazed but pleased to read your strong support of "quiet, scholarly Union College" [Jan. 9], lately the victim of hockey coach Ned Harkness's most recent sports blitz. The college's president made his first error in hiring a man whose coaching history reads like a Nazi blueprint for conquest.

Codman Hislop

Captiva, Fla.

Many alumni had hoped that hockey would emerge at Union the way lacrosse has at Johns Hopkins. Neither is a jock school. Both enjoy excellent academic reputations. Unfortunately the faculty at Union seems to perceive athletic excellence as incompatible with academic excellence. It is comforting, however, to know the college remains a paragon of academic purity to the point of rejecting men who are being accepted by the Ivies.

Edward C. Dukehart Jr. Baltimore

What you failed to mention in your article is the conduct of the team members over the past years. They have verbally abused and even physically threatened anyone who took an opposing point of view (this included me, editors of the campus newspaper and most of the student government). Many players were brought up before the campus conduct committee for repeated acts of vandalism.

Joseph Millett New York City

If Harkness is ex-Coach Harkness, I am ex-alumnus.

Roger Bombardier, ex-Union 73 Albany

Peasant Art of China

Robert Hughes dismisses the peasant art of China [Jan. 9] with a sneer. Contemporary Chinese art, however gaudy and ebullient, represents one aspect of what serious historians will look back on as the most remarkable societal transformation in all human history. Born and raised in prerevolutionary China, I recently visited the People's Republic and was astounded at the unsolvable problems that are being solved.

Peasant art reflects the energy of a grass-roots movement within a long-oppressed society that has moved from feudalism to socialism in one generation. It speaks to the Chinese people at this point--and that's what counts.

Richard H. Lock wood Barrington, Ill.

The Huhsien painter's portrayal of dam builders reveals considerable unrest in Shensi province. The prominently stacked rifles suggest that those construction workers fear imminent ground attack by a hostile force--perhaps militant conservationists or outraged admirers of traditional Chinese painting.

Richard P. Leavitt Hartsdale, N. Y.

More on the Language

I didn't really believe some of the gems attributed to the New York Times in Stefan Kanfer's "State of the Language" Essay [Jan. 2]. Then I read in the Times that Marsha Mason had "nothing on her bare feet." Now I believe.

Mary Ann Lucia Springfield, Mass.

If misuse of the word hopefully were the only abuse of the language committed by weather reporters, we could all relax and experience a meaningful learning experience from their communications. The other day a forecaster predicted that it was going "to get warm weather-wise." I'm glad he made that clear.

Steven R. Goates Provo, Utah

The Ph.D. Market

As one of the 9,000 academics who have just returned from the Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago, I found your article "Those Doctoral Dilemmas" [Jan. 9] to be accurate. Another aspect of the Ph.D. employment problem is the plight of those who, due to university and college promotion and tenure quotas, find themselves in spite of excellent records as teachers and scholars back on the job market. Most of the available positions are budgeted for newly created Ph.D.s and doctoral candidates. Many younger colleagues who have landed promising positions will predictably be in this situation in a few more years.

James V. Wehner Pittsburgh

It used to be that a person with a Ph.D. was one whose ability had been proved by the discovery of new knowledge or the successful defense of new ideas. How could 1,847 Ph.D. candidates in one year all discover new knowledge about English or languages, or develop new ideas and theories?

The degree simply no longer means what it used to. Should its possessors expect to get what their predecessors did?

Tom G. Mathew Jr. Ballwin. Mo.

Less TV Watching

People are watching less television [Jan. 9] because the programs are offensive. Situation comedies, daytime serials and police shows portray family life as abnormal, life as cheap, love as lust and sin as harmless.

The inevitable has happened: viewers are becoming increasingly selective, tuning out in disgust.

P. Stephan Sickler Philadelphia

By the time sex, violence, ethnics, discrimination, religion and role stereotypes are removed from the programs, there is nothing left but commercials (more than ever). And who wants to look at them?

George F. Platts Ormond Beach, Fla.

Possibly the decline in TV viewing will finally awaken network executives to the fact that it is actually possible to underestimate the taste of the American public.

Wilson F. Hunt Jr. Glenview, Ill.

Fonda at Work

In your article "New Year's Mellow Mood" [Jan. 2] you say: "Easy Rider Peter Fonda is out of work ..." On behalf of Film Artists Management Enterprises, which represents Peter Fonda, I can confirm that he is currently starring in a feature film titled High Ballin', now shooting in Toronto, for Jon Slan Productions, and has been so since Nov. 21, 1977.

Craig T. Rumar Los Angeles

Arab Investment

It would seem from the offer by a Saudi Arabian to help Bert Lance out of his financial difficulties [Jan. 9] that the Arabs are gradually buying out this country. Let them. The greater an economic investment they have in the U.S., the more likely they are to avoid oil price increases or oil embargoes.

Let's keep our cars running and our mouths shut.

Dan Jacobs Shawnee Mission, Kans.

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