While I found Michael Lucinski's opinion piece amusing ("We Are the Champions," Nov. 14), there are a few points that I feel must be addressed as to the validity of his arguments. First, we are not "the self-proclaimed" largest student run magazine on the East Coast. There's no proclamation involved, it's based solely on fact.
Lucinski poked fun at the fact that we ran a cover story for the Center for the Arts saying that we "magically discovered it after a decade of existence." While this may have not been the strongest cover story, the article was a lot more interesting and newsworthy than Generation having its keyboards taken away, a story The Spectrum ran on the front page, because Feature Editor Kevin Purdy openly admitted to me they had nothing better to write.
Lucinski goes on to assert that him and myself have a "special relationship," and that we have traded verbal jabs. It's rather sad that the aforementioned "trading" has been much like a one-way street. I've poked fun at Lucinski repeatedly, and until Wednesday's column, have not received any response. I attribute this to The Spectrum's limiting his editorial freedom. Something, that, we here at Generation covet quite importantly.
He then goes on to ask a few questions about our publication, I'll be happy to answer them.
"How does it feel to produce 20 plus pages of text, and have students only read the frequently incoherent personals?"
I wouldn't know how it feels. You see, I work for a publication with an established reader base. The personals are a result of student submissions, we simply send them to print.
"What good is a literary editor if he's the only one who ever writes anything?"
I'd say he's damn good, because as literary editor it's his job to make sure we do have a literary section on a weekly basis. Despite lack of submissions, and lack of section writers, A.C. Chainsaw comes through every week providing the university with interesting fiction pieces, and a good laugh too.
"Isn't Pulse just a poor mans Prodigal Sun?"
Based strictly on content, I'd like to pose my own question: What does the Prodigal Sun offer that Pulse doesn't? Or for that matter, what makes them better? Quite honestly, the answer to both questions is nothing. On a journalistic and entertainment level I can confidently say that Pulse is a better arts/entertainment section, and well worth the paper on which it is printed. As for the Prodigal Sun, well ...
"Why do your graphics obscure your text so much? Is it to distract us from the lackluster quality of your articles?"
Quite honestly, our graphics serve to enhance the quality or our already excellent articles. We have a staff of artists and photographers that work diligently to provide us with the highest quality of graphics. We feature them prominently not as a means of distraction, but more simply a means of overall aesthetic enhancement.
I point out that there is nothing "half-ass" about what we do. And while I have on many occasions pointed out the misguided ways of Lucinski's ramblings, I have only once gone as far as to wholesale attack the quality of their publication. And that was done on our humor page in a clearly satirical way. If Lucinski would like to take this silly feud to that level I would be more that happy to oblige, but at this junction I think I'll simply continue to write about his latest opinion piece and it's misguided information.
Overall for The Spectrum's first attempt at ridiculing us was a good try, but I, as a veteran of the ridicule game, felt it lacked a focus. To truly mock us you need to pick out one target and go at it relentlessly, much like I do with Lucinski. Your attempt was too broad covering too many aspects of why you think we suck. That just leaves me to believe that there isn't anything in particular you could find to go after.
