‘LETTERS
Lassie bites back
Re Bennie‘s letter in the last issue. ‘Sillie wee lassie‘ indeed . . . Methinks it is the frustrated journalist who has the ‘wee‘ problem here.
So he doesn‘t believe in the power of film to influence society. Well he‘s either extemely naive or a closet misogynist. What does the M stand for anyway David? ,
The fact is, that throughout the centuries. society‘s institutions have given men an implied permission to abuse women. be this the media. legislation, literature or film.
Take the ‘rule of thumb‘ example ofJudge Buller in 1782. who held assaults on wives to be legal, provided husbands used a stick no thicker than a thumb! Or the Old English proverb: “A spaniel, a woman and a hickory tree. the more ye beat them the better they be.‘
With one in four women in the UK being attacked at least once in their lifetime. I was merely criticising the trend of ‘women as victim' films.
In my attempt to raise awareness of this issue. I didn‘t expect to be a victim of David M. Bennie‘s flippant trivialisation.
Louise Ewart Shawlands Glasgow
The rake’s progress
David M. Bennie‘s descent from mildly amusing to distastefully facetious continues apace. His childish knee-jerk hostility to the women‘s movement so evidently stems from severe personal inadequacies that one almost feels
sorry for him. However. at some
point someone has to take issue with his particular brand ofpuerile snideness. and after reading his
effort in the last issue of The List
(and the one in this weekend‘s Scotland On Sunday) I can stand it no longer. Apart from anything else. ‘jokes‘ like the ones he makes are as old as modern feminism — ie more than twenty years out of date. Besides which. violence against women is no joke. Mr Bennie — try asking your sister. mother or women friends (ifyou have any). Learn from your political elders and betters. and until you grow up. stick to being unfunny about the limited subjects you know something about.
Isabel Fletcher
Broughton Street
Edinburgh
For taking beastly Bennie so resounding/y to task, you have earned a bottle ofJose Cuervo 's finest.
Write to The List, Old Athenaeum Theatre, 179 Buchanan Street, Glasgow Gl 2JZ, or 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE. The best letter next issue will win a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila.
****ed
I buy The List to be informed about
the cinema and the theatre. I have
bought my last copy! Whilst I have no objection to the word ‘fuck’ in the correct context, ‘Scarey as fuck‘ on page 19, referring to the film Silence Of The Lambs is of no descriptive value.
Your magazine is promoting this word as an acceptable part ofthe English language, and neglecting to give a proper idea of how ‘scarey‘ the
film is.
I wish you would tell all those responsible for this phrase in the paper to go get fucked!
Joan Macpherson
Cotton Street
Balfron
The Openers column is designed to summarise new releases in brief, and cannot offer detailed assessments. We ran afull review ofSilence Of The Lambs elsewhere in the magazine. If Ms M acpherson is offended by the ‘incorrect' use of words like ‘fuck '. she must have been offended by The List before, and wouldprobably be offended by Silence Of The Lambs.
Reading list missed
I naturally want to add my voice of protest over Scotrail‘s outrageous
' decision to ban bikes from its express
trains — yet another symptom of this country‘s failure to implement the
kind of integrated transport system
necessary both for our short and long term economic futures. But who else has noticed the equally anti-social practice introduced by Scotrail in recent weeks?
Time was, when you could expand
l
your literary hOrizons with every journey — everything from The Sun
92'l he l.ist l4—27June WU]
J. PUDSMI'IH
? to Woman ’5 Realm would be left by
fellow travellers to make your
journey more stimulating. But now.
Scotrail‘s staff launch themselves into the carriages at Waverley and
. Queen Street with an unprecedented
vehemence to dispose ofall the debris they can find. I‘m quite happy to forgo the pleasure ofsitting next to used food cartons and empty cans of Irn Bru. but surely the deprivation ofnewspapers and magazines is inhuman. Furthermore. I can no longer leave behind my own comics in the beliefthat they maybe of
‘ benefit to the rest ofsociety.
Interestingly. in the good old days. I never once came across a discarded copy of The List. Obviously too good a thing to let go of. Sandy Roberts Bentinck Street Glasgow
Disco biscuit
Robert Fields‘ letter in your last issue. purporting to be a defence of working musicians. is obviously the rant of a fundamentalist headbanger.
‘Why.‘ he asks. ‘is going to see a live band so unattractive?‘ As a promoter. he should be asking
himselfthat question. I‘m amused by '
his irritation at the sight of people filing ‘like lemmings' into discos and karaoke nights— and Fields‘ customers. in their leather and denim uniforms. bobbing their heads to the next bunch'of Hanoi Rocks clones- these AREN'T LEMMINGS? Please point out the distinction. Fields. I must have missed it.
The fact is that people are still going out — as much they can afford to in the current climate — and they‘re going out to do things that they enjoy doing. Has he forgotten
a.
l l l l
that it‘s their recreation time? His
; tone is that ofthe old reactionary ! who thinks he knows what‘s best for ‘ all of us. And it‘s doubly insulting to read someone taking such a lofty
moral tone when his income is his prime concern. If he wants audiences to flock back
T to club gigs. he and other promoters
should inject the piss-boring run-of-the-mill gig with a little more imagination and excitement. instead oflashing out at the punters. Graham Vincent
Hyndland
Glasgow
Thelastpost
I know I went on strike at Xmas for more money — well. for some money.
actually - but this is my final. final letter. (We've read that before— Ed). I‘ve only got two weeks to live, but they‘re in July so that‘s alright. I‘ve contracted parrot fever from Sir Nicholas. my Norwegian Blue. Apparently it‘s sexually transmitted
. . . what a bummer. And me with my
Scotland On Sunday job all lined up
(viz ensuring nothing witty or
i interesting sneaks into W. Gordon
Smith‘s column: ie a sinecure: why
; do all Sunday qualities have a
optimistic Ed
resident bore on staff?) My feature
I
in SOS Magazine prompted only one .
tenuous job offer. but unlike some designer socialists. I wouldn‘t work for a Conservative Party P. R. organ however much they offered (and they didn‘t offer much).
Re last issue‘s letters. If Mr Ford‘s description of the Daily Record‘s ‘ehatty style and off-beat stories (ie
monosyllabic chuntering and human ;
interest fairy tales) was a spoof. it
fooled me. Graduates who read The .
Sun et al because of inverted
pretentiousnessare understandable. 3’
but if Ford really chooses the Record as his paper offirst preference. God help him. And for his information. the Sunday Scot pays more for a letter than this mag does for a book review! Where in Paisley does he live‘.’ Ferguslie Park by the sound of him. where Daily Record readers pass for intelligentsia. Re Beate Gross‘ letter— imagine living in Maybole. the probable inspiration for MacIlvanney‘s Graithnock. or even Gray‘s Unthank.
The best thing about The List is it‘s
not subsidised by the Scottish Arts Council. The worst is its ‘political correctness‘ — from features to classifieds. Even ifI wasn‘t an Anarcho-Conservative. ads for flatmates that state ‘No Tories!‘ would depress the hell out of me. I hate that kind ofstuff. Any classified ad that disqualified ‘unemployed g communists on housing benefit‘ 3 would be howled down. I may try and send letters from i beyond the grave if Dubber. Watts, l et al reappear. . .Au revoir. David M. Bennie Haddington Place Edinburgh Er. . . shouldn’tthatbe ‘adieu'?—
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