Decadence vs. decency

“Decadence is despised by conservatives,” noted Manish Patwari [“Hooray for Sasha,” Letters, Nov. 3]. Why? Because our cultural élite no longer knows how to make room for it without negating ordinary civility. Any society “open” to the extent that it has difficulty recognizing obscenity illustrates perfectly what Santayana meant when he said, “There is no tyranny so hateful as a vulgar and anonymous tyranny.” Being “intelligent and street-wise” is not enough if you have no sense of context, no tactic of allowing the sexy and the dignified to co-exist without interfering with each other.

Decadence needs to be respected as dessert, not as the main course. To survive, it must be saved from boredom. In the long run, you won’t enjoy a world free of inhibitions if you lose your appetite. Alas, our lords of entertainment, in their perverse generosity, have enlarged our freedom by diminishing our prosperity. What we finally end up with is too diluted to be satisfying. After all, sensationalism is supposed to stimulate us, not annoy us.

The hardcore pornographers know this. They keep their offerings in the restricted-to-adults-only category. It’s an unequivocal choice—which is what much of the mainstream media has to learn. If gross pleasure is optional, why does the media act as if we can’t say no? A culture that ends up providing only decadence, with no allowance for propriety, is a culture of harassment.

Decadence remains an acquired taste, whereas decency is as fundamental as common sense. We’re born into the context of courtesy and respect before we approve the context of gratification and escape. Let’s not lose that balance. Instead of imposing decadence on everyone by taking it for granted, let’s just classify sexual explicitness and thereby keep it a matter of exclusive choice rather than mandatory sexual consumption. Joseph Joubert said it best: “It is perfectly acceptable to go to a brothel, but no one must be taken there.”

» L.S. Cattarini

Verdun: bilingual haven

John C. Underwood’s letter in the Oct. 27 edition of the Mirror [“Verdun forgets Fennario”] made me jump off my seat. I’ve lived in Verdun for five and a half of the past six and a half years. There are a number of things I want to point out:

Having lived in 10 Montreal boroughs or neighbourhoods since I was born, I can honestly say that Verdun is not only the most bilingual area on the island, but also the one in which francophones and anglophones get along the best.

Mr. Underwood states that “there are no cultural events that could be considered for the English in Verdun,” but here are some recent and future ones taking place in English:

Concerts: Susie Arioli Ensemble (Oct. 14); Kevin Mark (Nov. 4); Catherine Major (Nov. 20); Samina (Nov. 25); the many faces of Cello, (Jan. 18); Nathalie Cora (Feb. 5) and many other activities.

One last comment: The wealthier part of Verdun, towards the west, has many more anglophone residents.

It’s very easy to bitch about pretty much anything one knows little about. Unless, of course, Mr. Underwood is someone who simply likes to bitch about the francophones (just like the francophones who like to bitch about anglophones). In that case, my letter is useless.

» N. Foucault

Shooting straight?

In a brilliant cartoon in the Mirror on Sept. 15, Rosen made us all laugh and think. It had a news presenter reading, ‘‘Coming up next, more on global warming, hurricanes, storms, disasters, human suffering, mayhem and death. But first a word from our sponsors... the oil companies and car makers!’’

In your Oct. 27 edition, the Angel & Insect section was openly anti-gun, quoting the record-breaking number of firearm-related homicides Toronto is experiencing this year [Insect, “Guns and the people who cherish them”].

A few pages further in the same issue was a full-page colour ad from a video game company showing us heavily armed marines advancing through the jungle pointing their sophisticated automatic weapons and looking for targets with fingers on their triggers.

Maybe the Mirror should also look at itself in the mirror.

» Thierry Arsenault

More wrestling coverage

I really enjoyed Chris Barry’s wrestling article on Ryan Rider [“Riding high,” People, Oct. 6]. Keep up the good work and I hope to see more coverage of wrestling in the future.

» Brandon Gotownick

More news from Taiwan

Yes, ladies and gents, Keanu ist gott [“International Keanu mania!” Letters, Nov. 3].

And don’t forget Jean Reno, who does all the credit card commercials here—the only Frenchman and the only Jean Taiwanese have ever heard of.

» Thoth, Taiwan

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