Editor,
I was horrified to read Graham Gentz’s review of the play “Painting Churches,” which appeared in the June 30 – July 6, 2014 Lobo.
The reader is stricken with the terrible dilemma of deciding which is more offensive: the poor quality of Gentz’s writing or his racist and misogynistic remarks. In describing a leading character: “She has some redeeming moments when she turns the bitch level up to 11 …”
Later, a paragraph composed entirely of these three words: “White Person Problems.” No further explanation given.
I suppose if the reader has to ask, we are presumed too ignorant to be worthy of any clear thinking on the topic.
If these ugly, inchoate remarks aren’t enough to convince the reader that Gentz is not just a feeble writer unable to articulate a point, but a complete clod, here you go: “It is impossible to give any amount of shit about these affluent, ignorant wretches …”
And finally, “… attempts at slapstick that all fail … like dying farts.” When a flailing writer resorts to profanity and pubescent nonsense while struggling to make a point, an editor, his mother, someone needs to step in. It’s just bad writing.
HOW DOES A DYING FART FAIL?
All of this leads me to these more troubling questions, Dear LOBO: What are your journalistic standards? Are works edited before publication? If so, for what?
Is it okay for your featured ‘columnist,’ indeed any of your writers, to refer to women as bitches? Should public works such as this play that appears at the Adobe Theatre, or any work for that matter, be treated with respect regardless of their artistic merit?
What does it say about our paper, the Daily Lobo, when the ‘culture columnist’ can’t write and tries to express himself by using four-letter words?
These are big questions concerning the integrity and quality of your paper. In terms of the writing itself, it is so woefully inadequate it would not be fair to call it a review.
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Indeed, there is no man to better sum it up than Mr. Gentz himself as he concludes his sloppy rant: “… basely aggravating and offensive, and even a few more weeks of rehearsal wouldn’t have saved it from itself.”
Apparently not.
Tom Sloan,
Daily Lobo reader
