Jane Smiley, not without a certain perverse delight, says, in a letter to the NYTimes editor, that she's now rather pleased with the election outcome.

To the Editor:

Re "Into the Wilderness," by Paul Krugman (column, Nov. 8):

The Republican Party now gets to create the world it has been saying for a generation that it wants.

The Republican world looks to many of us like a Hobbesian jungle, where the poor and the unlucky have to play by harsh rules, but the rich and lucky have no rules at all.

It will be a world of mistrust, especially at the international level.

It will be a world where every square inch of America will be up for grabs, where there is no sense of common property, common heritage or common good, where the only American dream is greed.

The voters have indicated that this is a world they want, and the liberals have been told to shut up.

After the 2000 election, when it looked as if this world was going to be imposed upon the country in spite of the popular will, I was upset and outraged, but this time, when the voters seem to have freely chosen it, or chosen not to care, I am rather glad.

If this is the world they want, this is the world they deserve. At least there's clarity in that, and guess what? They can't say they weren't warned.

JANE SMILEY
Carmel Valley, Calif., Nov. 8, 2002