Better lives for our children’s grandchildren · by some friends

Posting 7. to General (no specific category), Walter A. Davis on censorship, posted by George Salzman

An alert from Thomas K. Wilson <> yesterday titled “Must read on the Rachel Corrie issue” sent me right to the Counterpunch article I’d missed earlier. Without rereading it now (it’s pretty long), one of the points emphasized is that art (in the author’s case in particular, theatre) is inseparable from politics, from life itself. I wrote to the author:

Subject: Your article, The Play’s the Thing
From: George Salzman <>
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 22:08:24 -0600
To: Walter A. Davis <>
CC: Thomas K. Wilson, O’Kelly McCluskey <

Oaxaca, Saturday, March 11, 2006

Dear Walter Davis,

      I just read your article,

Theater, Ideology and the Censorship
of “My Name is Rachel Corrie”
The Play’s the Thing
in Counterpunch www.counterpunch.com/davis03062006.html after T.K. Wilson called it to my attention. It is a magnificent essay. In Endnote 3 you said, in part, “I’ll also take that occasion to address the ideologically self-serving and misleading article on all of this by Edward Rothstein published in today’s (March 6) Arts section of The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2006/03/06/theater/newsandfeatures/06conn.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print pagewanted=print. “If that was not or will not be published in Counterpunch, where I could not find it, I would very much appreciate knowing where I can read it.

      I also wanted to call your attention to material on this deeply revealing action by the New York Theatre Workshop which is on my website, including my scathing criticism of Edward Rothstein’s New York Times article.

The New York Times doing “damage control” for the Israeli Government, posted 10 March 2006. (site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-03-07B5.htm)

Suppressing Truth in the Theatre — Anne Frank’s Diary good, Rachel Corrie’s bad!, posted 9 March 2006. (site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-03-05B4.htm)

      Thank you very much for writing your essay, which touches profound issues on ideology and its role in “our” society.
Sincerely,
George

==================================================

site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/

Professor Emeritus
Physics Department (generally inactive/dirección inactiva generalmente)
Univ of Massachusetts
Boston, MA 02125

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This morning I received the following reply:

Subject: Re: Your article, The Play’s the Thing
From: Walter A. Davis <
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 07:31:09 -0500
To: George Salzman <

Dear George,

     Thank you for your letter and for your superb piece exposing Rothstein’s article. The follow up article I mention I haven’t yet written. I’m hoping to do so today. But as you know this is an evolving situation. If and when I get the article written I’ll send it your way.

     Please feel free to share my article with all those you communicate with. You can also run it or reference to it on your web if you wish.

     Thanks again. I think we have a chance here to expose some central issues about ideology and its operation. (I’m in touch with people in NY and in London who don’t want to let this thing die).

best, walter

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