the minnesota review
2 April 1995

Department of English
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
Telephone (919) 328-6388
Fax (919) 328-48_9
Jeffrey Williams
Editor

Mas'ud Zavarzadeh
Department of English
Syracuse University
Syracuse. NY 13244-1170

Dear Mas'ud Zavarzadeh:

I find two problems in your letter of 30 March addressed to the Editors of College Literature demanding that they print your text, "Open Letters." First, you note the injustice or bad faith of their printing Sprinker's letter in the February 1995 issue ('You should have sent me a copy of Sprinker's letter,' assuming 'the right to be able to defend himself and answer his accusers'). I find this argument at best questionable in terms of the exigencies of journal publishing—how far does this extend? to anyone who is mentioned criticially [sic.] in an article? must the journal send any reference out and then hold each issue open for responses, however long or badly argued?—and at worst disingenuous, since those to whom you responded in your College Literature piece, in the Shopping Mall of the Post-al Left.' did not see your response before it was printed and did not have a chance to respond to it in that issue. (I don't say this as a personal quip, merely as a point of fact.) You had, very literally, the last word, and no one had a chance to answer your accusations. Thus, on this basis. I find it contradictory if not disingenuous that you make such a vehement argument precisely for your own interest, but do not at all seem concerned that those same protocols extend to anyone else. In short, are you arguing for this principle in general, or only for your own case? And, if in principle, why are you not outraged that this same protocol be extended to others?

Second, how do you determine when and where such an exchange ends? Doesn't this at some level become self-parody of endless academic response and counter-response, or worse, doesn't it become self-serving or self-aggrandizing? This I mean as a question of strategy and program, not as a question to contest specifically what you are doing here. What will it do to publish your interjections in these forums?

If possible, please send me the text that you mention in your letter of 30 March. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Jeffrey Williams