DEEPEST DREAMS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (October 27, 2000)

I very much agree with your reader, Deborah Thompson, who argues in the Letters to the Editor (October 28), that only a man could have written your review of Sylvia Plath’s journals (”Writing for Their Lives,” October 7). Indeed, the suggestion that a man can knock sense into a woman is a dead giveaway, as is the enticement to read the journals: “… to read the deepest dreams and impulses of Sylvia Plath is to fall in love all over again…” To tell the truth, I decided to buy the book then and there, and I am now enjoying it no end. I am quite happy that a man has reviewed the book for other men, like myself, as Ms. Thompson argues. Thus my humble proposal: why not publish two editions of your newspaper—one for men and another for women?