Truth and Justice

To the Editors of The Crimson:

As a guest at Harvard, I have refrained from commenting on local controversies in The Crimson. But the senior editorial board, by cancelling the Bloom County comic strip, has moved me to come to the defense of truth and justice. The specific strip to which the board objected in no ay makes "an offensive joke about homesexuals." Instead, it makes fun of an excessively macho man who fears that he may be gay simply because he's tempted to watch "Masterpiece Theater" instead of a football game. The board further states that the strip has "tastelessly poked fun at several groups." The board doesn't name the "several groups," but they include: the Reagan administration, corrupt politicians, sensationalistic newspaper reporters, people who try to impose stereotyped standard of beauty or be havior on their romantic partners. Of course The Crimson wouldn't want to embarras readers who are members of such groups. But before you permanently ban Bloom County from your pages, I suggest that you read its November 14, 1982 Sunday installment, in which assorted characters begin to complain about the things they find offensive and finally conclude, "My gosh...LIFE is offensive!!" (Opus the Penguin then notes that they are suffering from "offensensitivity") You might also take a look at the latest issue of Daedalus in which Stanley Fish and Wayne C. Booth debate with considerably subtletythe question of how one decided whether a humorist is being ironic or merely offensive-as exemplified in Randy Newman's famous line. "Short people got no reason to live." Then you can search for a totally inoffensive "cartoon replacement" for Bloom County and Doonesbury in good conscience. Let's see-is Nancy still being published? Alan C. Elms   Visiting Scholar, Psychology & Social Relations