Harper\'s Magazine - 03.2020

LETTERS 3

pedagogical function. We are left in-
stead with, as Jackson puts it, “the illu-
sion that we had a place in history.”

Evan Warfel
San Francisco

Politics as Usual

Kevin Baker believes that Senator
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign “tells
us where her heart lies, what her
core values and principles are” [“On
Courage,” Easy Chair, January]. Hav-
ing read the senator’s three books on
public policy, I can’t say that I agree.
In 2003’s The Two-Income Trap, for
instance, Warren inveighs against the
notion of government subsidies, argu-
ing that they result in higher costs,
unintended consequences, and an
increase in cronyism. But in her sub-
sequent books, written after she had
become a politician, she advocates for
a range of substantial subsidies, with-
out explaining why her former rea-
soning has become invalid.
In the first book, Warren tells a
compelling story about urging Hillary
Clinton to persuade her husband to
veto a bankruptcy bill. Warren is un-
derstandably embittered when, months
later, as a newly elected senator from
New York, Clinton votes for an equiv-
alent bill. Warren criticizes this about-
face in her book, attributing it to cam-
paign contributions and politics as
usual. But in her own policy reversals,
Warren herself could be said to ex-
hibit the same sort of hypocrisy.
I share Baker’s frustration with the
current crop of Democratic candi-
dates, who—with few exceptions—
have seemingly little to offer beyond a
return to suboptimal nor malcy. Bak-
er’s policy preferences are undoubted-
ly different from mine. But even by
the reasonable standards Baker artic-
ulates, Warren is not the candidate
he seeks.

D. Eric Schansberg
Jeffersonville, Ind.

Ecce Dafoe

David Gordon’s article about the
Wooster Group [“The Forty-Year Re-

hearsal,” Letter from SoHo, January]

brought back a surreal mem ory from

my time in New York. In the 1980s, I

lived in the same SoHo loft building

as Elizabeth LeCompte, Willem Da-

foe, and Spalding Gray. I didn’t know

any of them well, but because it was a

small building, I would see them

come and go, and we’d exchange the

occasional greeting. They weren’t

particularly well known when I

moved in; by the time I moved out,

all of them were famous.

One Yom Kippur morning I

headed out for a walk and said hello

to Dafoe, who was picking up his

mail. Dafoe’s most recent movie

role had been as Jesus in Martin

Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of

Christ. Leaving the building and

walking up West Broadway, I nearly

collided with Harvey Keitel, who

had played Judas in the same film.

For whatever reason, I felt com-

pelled to tell him, “Hey, I just saw

Jesus getting his mail.” As one might

assume, Keitel had no response to

this but discomfort. Nervously, he

turned and practically jogged off in

the other direction.

Louis Erlanger

Brattleboro, Vt.

Corrections

“Click Here to Kill” [Report, Jan-

uary] incorrectly stated that mem-

bers of Amy Allwine’s family have

criticized the FBI’s handling of the

online assassination order against

her. In fact, they have not commented

on the investigation, and Harper’s

Magazine did not speak with them

before publication.

The December 2019 Index incor-

rectly stated that 49 percent of

women and 62  percent of men over

thirty receive financial assistance

from their parents. These figures are

accurate for men and women be-

tween the ages of thirty and thirty-

four. Additionally, the Index stated

that 29 percent of adults over fifty-

five did freelance work in 2019. This

is true only for those adults over

fifty-five who had worked for pay in

the past year.

We regret the errors.

2020

Vilcek

Foundation

Prizes

in Literature

Jenny Xie

b. China

vilcek.org

Valeria Luiselli

b. Mexico

Yaa G ya s i

b. Ghana

Edwidge Danticat

b. Haiti