MAILBOX

This week: Jerry Seinfeld takes a few more hits after our career critique from last week; Ron Paul supporters love their man (and our coverage); Armond White needs to leave David Chase and “The Sopranos” alone; and a personal story about a stint in jail gets some respect.

Stop Worshipping Seinfeld
Regarding your Seinfeld piece (“Bizarro Jerry,” Oct. 31-Nov. 6), it seems to me your article is “about nothing.” The catchy title stating Jerry is “not master of his domain,” promises an article that would allude to his life somehow being beyond his control. The facts you discuss show his affairs being managed exactly as he wants it. He is portrayed as mean-spirited and greedy and artistically shallow. But there’s no indication he strives to be any different from that, or is failing in any way. In fact, we should expect nothing less, as excepting the artistic aspect, those shallow and selfish qualities were one of the hallmarks of his character on “Seinfeld,” and one of the primary things that made the show such a refreshing alternative to the sentimental, corny gunk pop culture usually churns out. The larger and more important point you could have touched on is why fans of the show feel a desire to connect with Seinfeld beyond watching him on TV, when in fact they should have more important and meaningful things to focus on than celebrity worship.
—H. Roundstein, West Village

Seinfeld’s Not Funny
What we’ve realized about Jerry is that he was never that “gifted” a comedian in the first place. Larry David carried the show “Seinfeld” on his back. We know this for several reasons. One being that the show completely deteriorated in its final two seasons, after David left. The style of comedy went from clever, dry humor to almost pure slapstick. I cringe when I watch some of those episodes on reruns. And now we see what both men have done post-“Seinfeld.” No comparison. And look at the rest of the cast. Jason Alexander and Michael Richards turned out to be completely unfunny when left to their own device. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is a decent actress, but she’s not particularly funny either. I have a feeling this Bee Movie is going to be a disaster. It’s almost as if Jerry maturing in the wrong direction. On television, he behaves like a dumb child. And all the spots with him promoting Bee Movie are so painfully unfunny as to be almost unbelievable.
—Mark Grueter, Brooklyn

Ron Paul’s My Man
I just wanted to say thanks! for your article on NY Ron Paul supporters, “Apostles of Paul” (Oct. 31-Nov. 6). It seems a bit odd to thank a reporter for simply doing their job correctly. But with so much anti-Paul-spin in the media these days, it is refreshing to read un-spun articles.
—Tom Biggs, Newtown, Penn.

Fuhgeddaboutit, Armond
Thanks to Armond White for providing us another withering cultural critique in his “American Gangster” review (“Original Gangstas,” Oct. 31-Nov.6). But how can he yet again blame, of all things, “The Sopranos” for debasing American film culture? Is White really not able to distinguish content from style? That “The Sopranos” provided an unflinching and unforgiving moral inventory of its characters while still allowing them to be their authentic, despicable selves was perhaps its most unique achievement. That Clinton, Hollywood and many viewers somehow failed to recognize the characters’ depravity says more about the public’s need to be spoon-fed ideas and morality than it does about David Chase’s series. What other recent American filmmakers have asked and expected more from their audience than David Chase? David Simon, perhaps?
—Michael C. Whalen, Brooklyn

Stand-Up Gal
Laura Dinnebeil’s “Feeling Caged” story you published (“8 Million Stories,” Oct. 31-Nov. 6) issue was exceptionally good. It was so precision-packed with human detail and self-knowing irony that I really wanted to read more and more of what went on that night and the following day. Full disclosure: I’ve reviewed her stand-up work in the past as a critic and am a big fan, so I’m not surprised she could take so outwardly humiliating a situation and make it personally riveting the way she did. That’s Laura: No whining. No impotent petulance. Just absorbing honesty and (a bleak as that ending might seem) guts.
—John Michael Koroly, Manhattan