READERS BITE BACK

Letters

Robert Mapplethorpe

I read the article on Robert Mapplethorpe ["Robert Mapplethorpe's Proud Finale," by Dominick Dunne, February] with great interest, and the magazine has to be commended for continuing to remind its readers of the terrible price AIDS is exacting from this nation.

However, I cannot say that I was pleased with the implied causal link in this article between Robert Mapplethorpe's artistic subjects, or even his private life, and this disease. I refer specifically to the description of Mapplethorpe as "the man who had taken the sexual experience to the limits in his work, a documentarian of the homoerotic life in the 1970s at its most excessive, resulting, possibly, in the very plague that was killing its recorder."

To allude to such a link, even as a possibility, amounts to sanctioning some of the most ignorant and harmful beliefs regarding the cause of AIDS, namely that it is caused by either homosexuality or behaviors related to it, "excessive" or not. This is plainly wrong, because none of these, with which mankind has lived and survived quite successfully for millennia, causes AIDS, AIDS is caused by a new virus that happens—as do many other, but less lethal, viruses—to be transmitted during sexual contacts, when carried from an infected person to another person by blood or genital secretions.

So the fact that Robert Mapplethorpe has AIDS has nothing to do with his artistic subjects, his sexual orientation, or even his particular sexual preferences, if any, while it has everything to do with his living at a certain time and place, such as New York in the early 1980s, that made it possible for him to become exposed to, and, evidently, infected with, a new virus.

Mapplethorpe is a most talented young artist, a man of great courage and a man who has the greatness to think about the welfare of others rather than to retreat into self-pity. This is what should have been said in your article. He deserves that much.

I cry for him and all the talent our society is losing. I hope you understand why the dignity of people like him, and the truth, are so precious to me.

MATHILDE KRIM New York, New York

What a waste of Dominick Dunne's considerable writing talent. That so much space should be devoted to a man who worshiped the anus is both laughable and terribly sad.

MAIA WOJCIECHOWSKA Mahwah, New Jersey

The emperor isn't wearing any clothes! Those sick, voyeuristic Mapplethorpe groupies could satisfy their prurient curiosity and save themselves thousands by just framing pages from Hustler and letting Larry Flynt hold court at the Whitney. I thought Vanity Fair had more class than to promote such trash.

DIANNE PINGREE Dallas, Texas

Years ago, upon seeing my first Robert Mapplethorpe photograph, I was so moved as to be tom between ejaculation and tears. Such sensuality, honesty, and control! I admired, was inspired, was a bit jealous, and was tempted to imitate him photographically. He captured moments and enabled me to see things as I never had before. He opened my eyes, my emotions, and my mind again and again. Mapplethorpe made my life fuller and richer.

JOHN-CHRISTIAN MENENDEZ San Francisco, California

How depraved can you get? A person who has a photo made of his rectum with a bullwhip stuck in it is not well mentally, and to display it in a museum and praise the person is just as sick.

AUDREY JONES Pittsboro, North Carolina

Yasser Arafat

Bravo! Articles such as T. D. Allman's "On the Road with Arafat" [February] may accomplish more than U.S. Middle East foreign policy has in the past forty years. Ideally, U.S. foreign policy reflects American public opinion. Until now, pro-Israeli PACS have successfully tipped the scales of congressional opinion toward the Israelis. If magazines such as Vanity Fair can help balance Americans' perceptions of the Middle East and its leaders, then perhaps U.S. foreign policy will follow.

PATRICIA D. SADD Alexandria, Virginia

Two questionable matters, at opposite ends of the spectrum of importance, in T. D. Allman's article: The first is that Yasser Arafat may have fooled the writer into thinking of him as some kind of Mr. Good Guy, but you don't fool me. The other is that everyone who knows anything at all about the social proprieties knows that a business card may carry a person's address and telephone number, but a proper carte de visite shows nothing but a name. Making Arafat's personal card seem to symbolize homelessness is playing right into the propaganda purposes of the P.L.O.

LEONARD BURKAT Danbury, Connecticut

Over the years, I have been disappointed with the mainstream media's one-sided depiction of the Middle East conflict. I found it refreshing to read at last an article on Arafat devoid of the simplistic ravings about terrorism. Arafat has pursued a course he feels could result in peace and a homeland for the Palestinians. Agree or disagree, Americans deserve and need to view the situation with an open mind.

M. J. MONSOUR Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Yankee, Go Home

I was so thrilled to read Peter J. Boyer's account of how Bill Kovach came to the rescue of us poor ol' redneck, provincial Atlantans ["Atlanta Bums," February]. Kovach's tale of woe was so dramatic that, by God, I wish it were true. Unfortunately, for most of the Journal-Constitution's readers, the difference between the pre-Kovach newspapers and Kovach-era award winners seemed negligible. The Atlanta newspapers are far from perfect, granted, but Kovach was far from being the answer to the readers' needs. His support from the New York and Washington journalistic elite was just one more sign that they don't understand what readers outside their own cities want.

DEBORAH SMITH Marietta, Georgia

Gee Wiz

Reading Angela Janklow's otherwise fine article about Suzanne de Pas$e ["Motown in Showtown," February], I became disturbed by her glib and unfounded reference to Berry Gordy's "disastrous cinematic outings (Mahogany, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, The Wiz)." As head of Motown Productions from 1973 to 1978 and producer of the aforementioned titles, I'm impelled to set the record straight. Mahogany broke box-office records in October 1975, and the film gave definition to a new concept: "black glamour." Bingo Long was one of the best-reviewed films of its year. The Wiz, albeit a box-office disappointment, swept the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards for Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Score, and Best Picture. If these are "disastrous," then Ms. Janklow and I don't function with the same set of definitions.

ROB COHEN Universal City, California

Dancing in the Dark

As a dancer in the New York City Ballet for ten and a half years, I am very disappointed that you printed a letter signed "Dancers in New York City Ballet" [February]. It made it appear that the view represented in the letter was the prevailing view at NYCB, and that is far from the truth. My wife, who is also in NYCB, and I have talked to many colleagues at NYCB who are just as upset as we are. Whoever took it upon themselves to speak for the dancers at NYCB did so without consulting us on how we actually felt.

PATRICK G. HINSON New York, New York

Letters to the editor should be sent with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number to: The Editor. Vanity Fair, 330 Madison Avenue. New York. New York 10017. The letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity.