C. S. Lewis, in the introduction to the 1961 edition of The Screwtape Letters, tells of one subscriber to the Manchester Guardian, which originally published the series, who canceled his subscription because “much of the advice given in these letters seemed to him not only erroneous but positively diabolical.”
Today I got an e-mail from someone who read my latest American Spectator Online article. In the interest of objectivity, I shall quote a portion of his opening paragraph unedited:
You are the most out-of-touch, backwards-thinking, and plain ignorant author I have read on the subject of Islam. Your blatant, and apparently deliberate, disregard for the abhorrent inequalities and lack of human rights inherent to Islam is despicable.
He goes on to castigate me for my defense of Islamic culture.
Now this certainly doesn’t prove…
a) that I’m as good an author as Lewis, or
b) that my correspondent is as dense as the Guardian subscriber.
It’s possible, for instance, that I’m just a bad parodist, and that thousands of readers came away with the very same impression, but weren’t exercised enough to write to me.
And there’s always the possibility that my reader’s letter was itself parody, and that I didn’t get it.
That is truly bizarre.
My husband just had that happen to him – but with someone he knows personally – who totally misread/misunderstood something that he wrote.
Isn’t that style of writing around much anymore?
Or, are people in general just not so bright?
I wouldn’t broadbrush the American people just yet. I have two obtuse readers so far, and I would sooner blame this guy for scanning without thinking before calling him a thick-head.
yes well…as you may remember, if you’re not blocking it out, I have compared you favorably with that particular writer before – and I meant it. So there.
Yes, I was blocking it out.
This is my view: Even standing on Lewis’ shoulders, I’m still shorter than he is. 🙂