Good and Evil

To the Editor:

Thank you for sharing the essay “Goodness” (Sept. 8) by the late and inspiringly great Toni Morrison. We do not know whether Morrison intended her insights to be applied to the current political landscape. However, the inference is that unless voters of goodness go to the polls, evil will likely be re-elected. As much as we adore the writings and personage of Toni Morrison, let’s hope she was wrong and that the voices of goodness can be heard over the bombastic voice of evil.

GRAHAM GRADY

CHICAGO

♦

To the Editor:

I couldn’t help spotting an intriguing connection between Toni Morrison’s magisterial essay chronicling the psychological power evil wields on audiences and Gary Shteyngart’s review of James Poniewozik’s book, “Audience of One” (Sept. 8), in which he describes President Trump’s “malicious genius” for captivating the American viewing audience, delivering “Must See TV.” To be sure, Trump may not be evil, but his ability to call on our darker impulses cries out for prophets of political goodness to discover ways to display “the language of moral clarity” that Morrison suggests is the basis of knowledge — and liberation.

Richard M. Perloff

Cleveland

The writer is a professor of communication and political science at Cleveland State University.

Mea Culpa

To the Editor:

Contemporary Germany’s willingness to acknowledge and take responsibility for the evil of the Holocaust is one of the most remarkable acts of self-reformation in history. But comparing reparations paid by Germany with hypothetical reparations for any other group of victims — as Susan Neiman does in “Learning From the Germans” (Sept. 8) — is misleading if the comparison fails to acknowledge the limited nature of Holocaust reparations. Germany agreed to pay Israel for the cost of resettling survivors of the Holocaust, and for “material damage” caused by the Holocaust — such as the appropriation of Jewish property and any forced labor of concentration camp inmates. No reparations were promised or paid by Germany — or anyone else — for the murder of approximately one-third of all the world’s Jews.