This column has become a cartoonish joke – keep up the good work
Re: “Fewer letters and more cartoons, please,” Have Your Say, December 1.
As a frequent contributor to this column, I can appreciate Hamish Watters’ irritation at the constant stream of letters from the same old writers, especially those who hurl mud at each other. Like him, I mourn the loss of the comics page (aka “cartoons”), and lament the demise of “Pooch Café”, “Dilbert”, “Calvin and Hobbes”, etc.
But there’s one thing Hamish doesn’t get. As I understand things, The Nation lost the comics strips as a result of failed negotiations with the distributor. I suspect that the distributor wanted too much money. The word on the street has it that The Nation is having financial difficulties. So, in a stroke of genius, to save money it expanded the letters section. Comics cost money. Letters to the editor don’t. And by allowing Eric Bahrt, Dr Frank, Nigel Pike, etc, to attack each other in provocative prose, The Nation transformed the letters column itself into an ongoing comic strip. If prizes were awarded for media ingenuity, The Nation would win a Nobel. I personally salivate in anticipation every morning to see what sulphurous rhetoric Eric, Doc and Nigel are going to deploy in their ongoing battle. It’s almost as good as a comic strip.
Even so, I wish they’d bring the comics back. A newspaper without comics is like tom yam kung without the kung.
Ye Olde Pedant
