THE MONSTER CHRONICLES

In response to “Making Monster Huge” (by Amy Wallace, April 4): Now I know what it takes for a black man to have his writing published--join a gang, take a life and get solitary confinement. It will all add up to a lucrative publishing deal and European publishers calling my work the “inside story in America today.”

Ask Scott about “The Jungle,” the South-Central L.A. neighborhood where I grew up and a stomping ground of one of the better-known Bloods sects. Perhaps, had my priorities been different, I’d be one of Scott’s sworn enemies. Instead, I opted for the Boy Scouts, football and a college degree. I guess I made the wrong choices.

I have admiration and a little envy for Scott’s success. He enrolled in “The Black Man’s University”--the U.S. penal system--and was reborn. His accounts should be heard. But when will white society see all of us? There are black women who don’t get pregnant before they get married, black men who have never been to prison and black writers who have positive stories to tell.

SERAFIM DAVID CONCEICAO

Los Angeles