To the editor: John Wirth’s regaling of the trauma he and his household suffered by seeing their house lowered to ash throughout final January’s fires and the balm that John Irving’s novels introduced him took me again to Steven Soderbergh’s fantastic Oscar acceptance speech (“John Wirth: After the fireplace took my house, John Irving’s books turned one,” Jan. 8). “I believe this world could be unlivable with out artwork,” the filmmaker mentioned.
In the identical means Wirth has been moved by the phrases of his favourite writer, he did a lot the identical for me and I’m certain many others. “The 4 of us sobbed as we entered the Palisades village, making an attempt to make sense of the ravaged city.” How may one not really feel their ache?
Phrases can generate empathy. Wirth’s phrases — his artwork, because it had been — introduced me nearer to these flames than another author up to now. In doing so, he made me sympathize that rather more for the fireplace’s victims. Irving could be proud.
William P. Bekkala, West Hollywood
