The New Yorker - USA (2020-02-03)

THE NEWYORKER, FEBRUARY 3, 2020 5

prudence. Perhaps a better analogue for

them is Tennyson’s view of Odysseus:

“strong in will /To strive, to seek, to find,

and not to yield.”

Dennis Donnelly

Englewood, N.J.

1

THE EQUALITY DEBATE

Joshua Rothman examines many perspec­

tives on what it means to create an equal

society (“Same Difference,” January 13th).

I wonder whether, for those seeking prog­

ress, equality of opportunity should be

the focal point. The concept implicitly

acknowledges that although we are not

all created equal, we should all have the

chance to attain satisfaction in life. Roth­

man considers whether a child who is

going blind should receive a larger share

of an inheritance than her siblings. I lost

my vision at the age of thirteen. The spe­

cial instruction I received in the years

that followed enabled me to attend college

and law school. I may not be equal in a

physical sense, but Connecticut’s pub­

lic­education system enabled me to pur­

sue my career. Of course, one person’s op­

portunity could be another’s closed door,

for any number of reasons. Still, equality

of opportunity is a good place to start.

Adrian Spratt

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Rothman suggests that “equality, desert,

reciprocity, and need” all have a func­

tion in society. As an experienced cho­

ral director, I uphold high performance

standards while creating a welcome en­

vironment for less talented singers. Not

everyone deserves a solo, and following

a code of conduct is mandatory. But ev­

eryone may audition, and all are given

the benefit of the doubt, because we all

need to sing.

Nancy Gifford

Doylestown, Pa.

ODYSSEUS IN SPAIN

I read with interest Giles Harvey’s piece
about the Spanish novelist Javier Cer­
cas’s long struggle with the “historical
memory” of Francisco Franco’s reign (A
Critic at Large, January 13th). “D.I.Y.
history,” as Harvey calls it, is alive and
well in Spain, in spite of historians’ warn­
ings against its anti­intellectualism and,
worse, its use in the service of political
goals. Cercas himself, fed up with the
predictable vitriol over the Civil War, has
joined the detractors even as he contin­
ues to write about Spain’s turbulent past.
Cercas’s case is compelling in the age of
fake history and fake news: he is some­
thing of an Everyman, whose narrator
insists on getting the story right, plowing
through archives and tracking down eye­
witnesses. Cercas’s history­fictions are
models for members of any civil society
who want to find out what truly happened.
Such inquiry may well become a weapon
of vengeance, but it is central to the cre­
ation of a democratic society.
Michael Ugarte
Columbia, Mo.

Harvey’s review of Cercas’s work, though
perceptive and brilliantly written, offers
Cercas’s flawed interpretation of a clas­
sical analogy without correcting the rec­
ord. Cercas’s narrator asserts that, de­
spite efforts to the contrary, he has be­
come “ordinary Odysseus, not glorious
Achilles.” In his mind, Achilles died
nobly for his cause, while Odysseus lived
a “long and mediocre and happy life.”
This is a misreading of Odysseus. First,
the hero is doomed to roam the world
for ten years, fighting for his life as his
crew members die horrible deaths. Upon
his return to Ithaca, he must kill a hun­
dred and eight suitors who have over­
run his home and plotted to kill his son.
Borrowing Emily Wilson’s new adjec­
tive for Odysseus, his life is rather more
“complicated” than “mediocre” or “happy.”
This is important, because the compar­
ison as written understates the nuance
and the audacity of Cercas’s own liter­
ary odyssey. It would be cruel to suggest
that his works evince only safe, slow

•

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