Artists Missing a Certain Something

David Emmes and Martin Benson of South Coast Repertory left out an extremely important word in their letter of May 26, “Funding the Arts Makes Good Dollars-and-Cents Sense for O.C.” That word is some .

As in, “By its nature, some art cannot survive in the marketplace.” Otherwise, without the word some , there would be the ridiculous contradiction of Sam Goody Stores with their hundreds of affordable music tapes and CDs, Edwards Theatres with dozens of filmed performance art shows, cable TV with dozens of channels of artistic activities, and Laguna Beach with probably thousands of pieces of art of every composition conceivable.

Just maybe, David and Martin, what you do isn’t competitive. Maybe there are not enough people willing to freely give money for what you produce. Possibly, the lower and middle classes don’t want their money spent on pretentious upper-middle and upper-class “theahtah.”

STEPHEN J. MOORE, Irvine