Thanks for your article about Henry Darger [“Henry’s Room,” Dec. 17]. However, when I began to read it I got the same sick feeling that I got when I heard sometime in the 1980s that Chicago had allowed the USS Silversides, a famous World War II American submarine then moored at Navy Pier, to “slip away” to Muskegon, Mich. Now we’ve missed the boat again.
My wife and I aren’t serious students of art, but we often attend exhibits. The big Darger show put on at the Chicago Cultural Center several years ago is easily the most memorable we’ve ever seen. Many art exhibitions blend in with all the others after a few weeks or months, but not Darger. That was truly amazing. It’s a terrible shame that no one could find a way to keep this unique body of work, done over a lifetime by one of our own, at home in Chicago.
I learned from your article that Darger spent his life around the DePaul neighborhood where I attended high school in the ’60s. Now I can wonder if maybe I bumped into him sometime in Roma’s.
— Blaise J. Arena, Des Plaines
I have read your magazine since I was a girl (I’m middle-aged now) and I’ve always been mildly amused by people who write to you vehemently objecting to an article you’ve published. After all, yours is a general-interest magazine (with a Chicago emphasis) and no one can expect to be pleased with everything. I’ve generally been able to find something good, and something interesting, in each article.
But then came the Dec. 17 issue.
Your cover story concerns an emotionally ill man who coped with his life by creating a story in which young girls are tortured and dismembered. He fed his fantasy by placing news clippings about “brutalized girls” upon his walls. The resulting writings and drawings are presented to your readers as literature and art. People in the art world are spending large sums of money to preserve and display the sick output of a disturbed man.
This is followed by an article on Golden Gloves boxing, illustrated by a full-page photo of the bloodied face of a contender. Another photo shows a young woman who, in this age when video and movie fantasy violence are presumed to have a bad effect on children, brings her young son to watch real men inflict real violence on each other.
Then came the story of the three women who give parties. Apparently having nothing better to do with their time, they spent several days figuring out just the right combination of their silver, china and crystal. This is harmless, of course, but after the first two articles I was ready for something uplifting.
— Claudia Hausknecht, Lisle
Why would anyone like Henry Darger’s “masterpieces”? I guess this is the classic example of art being in the eye of the beholder.
— Joseph Daudish, Westchester
ACTABLE OR INSPIRING?
As I read your article on George Anastaplo [“His Final Answer: None of Your Business,” Nov. 26], I initially felt a sense of admiration for a man constructed of such fiber and intellect, who would and could stand so staunchly in defense of his convictions and principles even to the extreme detriment of his career and advancement.
But by the time I had finished, I no longer admired Mr. Anastaplo’s intransigence. His obstinacy was self-serving for reasons that are obscure to me even when viewed through the filter of his era.
It is around such intractable men that wars are constructed.
It is because of such rigid men that terrorism emerges.
It is that unyielding mentality that nurtures hatred. Try to imagine the impact Mr. Anastaplo might have had if he had chosen his course more judiciously rather than stubbornly.
— Bob Grant, Lombard
I have decided to send the article on George Anastaplo to two young nephews in Oregon. If they grow up to be half the man Mr. Anastaplo is, I will be proud of them.
— Karen S. Clausen, Chicago
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