THE EDITOR, Madam:
MR. MARTIN Henry got himself into an awful mess in his article titled 'The Menace of Pottermania' which was recently published in The Gleaner. In it, he attempted to prove the menace by quoting heavily from an article in a Wisconsin (USA) satirical publication called The Onion.
This is a publication, available on the World Wide Web, whose style is to pull the leg of the high and pompous, while ridiculing everything in sight. The readers of The Onion know that there are no real truths in The Onion but intellectual and comedic jabs at what some people hold as the truth. Mr. Martin should have done his research before taking no less than seven quotes from one satirical article on Harry Potter.
The style of The Onion is easily understood if your readers should log onto their web site, theonion.com, and read the article on the current US Presidential imbroglio published December 7, 2000. In it , Al Gore is quoted as saying that if his recount request is denied he will file an appeal in the interplanetary Supreme Court. This illustrates The Onion's style.
I would have expected Mr. Martin to check his sources more carefully and to understand the type of publication that he is quoting from, before trying to make his case. As a regular reader of The Onion , I am able to say to Mr. Martin that his article personifies the type of individual that The Onion enjoys suckering.
If the publishers of the The Onion read Mr.Martin's article, they would have had a good laugh, as I did, because he used comedic pranks to assist him in making what he considers to be a serious point.
By the way, to read the source of Mr. Martin's quote, log into the web site theonion.com and type in "Harry Potter" in the search section.
My last words to Mr. Martin are "beware the web".
I am etc.,
BASIL NAAR
P.O.Box 659
Kingston 6.
