The letters below were compiled from several issues; all concern Issue 10: Popular Culture.
Phil's poisonous poultry
Here at our bookstore—Normal's in Baltimore—we carry your mag and it is always a distinct pleasure for me to see Phil Milstein's name on the cover, and not only just because he sold my wife and children that diseased poultry either.
Blaster Al Ackerman
Baltimore, Maryland
Reader ravages recipe review
I received Hermenaut #10 an the mail a week or so ago, and have enjoyed it greatly, particularly yer editorial in the very beginning. One of my friends here was greatly incensed at the comparison of Paths of Glory with Beach Blanket Bingo, but of course he missed the point. Given the pop culture theme of this issue, how does a review of a cookbook full of wholesome, soulful, simple monastic recipes fit into the salty, fluorescent-orange-artificially-flavored-powdered-cheese-reduced-fat-extra-flavor-chemically-enhanced-snak-food universe of popular cuisine? A feature on the Glories of Grease, the Splendors of the Franchise, burgers, pizza, fries, or Taco Bell would've been more in keeping with the spirit of the issue.
Tess Gadwa
Editor, Brains 'n' Eggs
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Cookbook Reviewer Jeniffer Engel replies, "Spray it out your fluorescent-orange-artificially-flavored ass."
Idler interested in imaganative ideopath
Hermenaut #10 is much appreciated and, as usual, fucking excellent—I like the way you can do Bruce Lee as a Hermenaut without a trace of a smirk. SERIOUSNESS is an embattled virtue these days. Not to imply that your mag is solemn at all, but there is a certain note of grave inquiry in it which beats all that postmodern shit hands down.
You should publish a book of your Hermenauts of the Month. They are EXCELLENT intros to these people. I never heard of Paul Tillich until I read your piece on him, and now my friend Gav has a framed Tillich quote on his wall which consoled him greatly when his marriage was exploding. Now THAT is networking at its purest. Anyway, could I propose another Hermenaut? Sir Thomas Browne? Are you familiar with him at all? A seventeenth century English doctor and master of prose whose enormous free-floating brain is luminous to this day. His Christian faith was resilient and imaginative enough to admit the consideration of various colorful heresies, and his scientific mind, while fixed reverently upon death through constant raking into the bowels of the deceased, is still very playful, elastic, etc. I would love to present him to your readers.
James Parker
Contributing Editor, The Idler
London, England
