Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
October 17, 1947.
Will Red4iit
. . . from the list of essential readings
announced by the faculty committee. The list
appears on the first page of the Salemite, and
it has been stressed that this is the first list
of a series to be released.
Later lists will doubtless include a wider
selection of books varying in range of subjects
and authors. Many Salemites, however, will
quibble over both the omissions from this first
list and the calibre of the books included.
Such controversy is a healthy indication
and one of the primary purposes of the spon
sors. No one can criticize the list or suggest
additions without being familar with the books
included.
With this innovation, Salem will join in
the pace set by the leading educational in
stitutions of the nation. Some schools are re
quiring the readings; others are incorporating
them in regular curricula. Salem is not in
sisting, only advising the list of readings.
P^ui4f.n4Uft....
... of studying the “Great Books” ex
clusively was initiated at St. John’s College in
Annapolis by Stringfellow Barr and Scott
Buchanan, noted educators. Walter Lippman
says that “Men will some day say that St.
John’s was the seedbed of the American Ren
aissance.”
On June 3, 1941 the first graduates of the
“New Program” at St. John’s received an A. B.
degree. Under the Great Books program, the
students had learned mathematics from Euclid,
Apollonius, Descartes, Newton, Russell; liter
ature from the masters ranging from Homer
and Aeschylus to Tolstoi, Ibsen and Lewis Car
roll; philosophy from Plato, Aristotle, the
Bible, etc. In each class they studied not
about the masters, but with the masters.
The idea of the Barr-Buchanan plan is
stated in an article, “Socrates Crosses the Del
aware” in the June, 1939 issue of Harper’s
magazine: There is no magic in books; no
guarantee goes with them. Books are only
teachers, and, as such, are only means to an
end. The end is men who think for themselves.
^ Poitii ....
. . . was applied to the books chosen for
the St. John’s plan. Salem’s list of “essential
books” passes the test. Try it on the lastest
best sellers:
1. A great book is one that has been read
by the greatest number of persons . . . from
age to age.
2. A great book has the largest number
of possible interpretations.
3. A great book raises questions about
the great themes in human thought.
4. A great book must be a work of fine
art—it must have an immediate intelligibility
and style which will excjte and discipline the
ordinary mind by its form^ alone.
5. A great book must be a master piece
of the liberal arts, a work whose author was
or is a master of thought and imagination,
w’hose writing has been faithful to the ends
of these arts.
Opjon jHette/L ....
When asked if we have an honor system
at Salem, many of us pass hurriedly over the
question with a simple answer of yes. Do^we
really understand what is meant by an honor
system? We, as a community, so to speak,
have student self-government. This govern
ment has i)laced its trust in us through the
honor system. Student Government places
upon each individual the responsibility of show
ing her appreciation of that trust placed in her
not only by her own conduct but also by using
her influence to maintain the honestj" of others.
Our rules are not made just for the pur
pose of restricting us, but our benefit is con
sidered in everj' regulation whether we know
it or not. New privileges are always being
sought; yet do we actually show or apprecia
tion for these privileges granted us and are we
willing to accept the responsibilities that ac
company the privilege or do we gripe about
what we don’t have? If we have to complain,
w'hy not do it in a constructive manner so that
if there is some fallac3% it may be corrected.
The spirit in which we undertake things
and the unity and co-operation of our entire
student body leads toward the success of the
honor system.
Mary Bryant
This picture is not a perverted cartoon, but a puzzle. If YOU can find
the names of ten faculty members come rushing over to the Salemite
office; you may be the lucky winner of a movie ticket. The winner
and answers will be announced next week.
Qood Jloc^ At Qood RooJz^,
by Peirano Aiken
It jolted this warm philanthropic
heart to come upon a man who says
that he hates human nature “with
a dreadful hatred.” People just
don’t say such things—think of all
the dreadful complexes they might
give to those of us who habitually
assert in raptures of benevolence,
“I just love people”. I was dis
concerted—or in the word of the
day, frustrated.
It startled me even more, however,
to find a supposedly sane character
whose intention is “always to tell
the truth, henceforth, to all the
human race”. I immediately sus
pected jesting.
So it happened that after finish
ing Act 1, scene 1, of Le Misan
thrope, visions of arrogant fops
sucli as Algernon of The Importance
of Being Earnest, and that nifty
cliche ‘ ‘ comedy of manners ’ ’ came
simultanously to mind; and, feeling
that it had cleverly classified Mol-
iere, said mind congratulated itself.
It became apparent, though, that
Alccrste, hero and titlebearer of Ie
Misanthrope, was deadly serious.
He honestly believed in being hon
est; and it grieved him that Oeli-
mene, his charming lover who found
six lovers of various natures more
interseting than one misanthropic
one, did not agree with him.
Out of this situation excitement
arises—not only the usual suspense
of plot but a philosophic suspense
as well. One wonders just who Mol-
iere is satirizing: life’s misanthrop
ists or its false flatterers. At first
Celimene with her wit makes Al-
ceste appear a moralizing fogey,
but in the end he proves his super
iority by remaining true to her when
the other lovers leave her in dis
gust. She does not agree to marry
him, however, and the play ends
with Alceste, in tragic bitterness,
declaring his intention to become a
recluse. The only real happiness
comes to the lovers Eliante, Celi
mene ’s cousin, and Philinte, Al
ceste’s friend, who are middle-of-the
-readers, inwardly sincere but tact
ful upon occasion.
One of the most interesting facts
about Le Misanthrope is that it is
the product of Moliere’s own un
happy experience—he having mar
ried a young woman, Armande Bo-
jart,, who was the prototype of
Oelimene. And strangly enough at
the first performance of Le Misan
thrope, nearly a year after they had
separated, Moliere and Bojart played
opposite each other in the roles each
had held in real life.
After reading a couple of acts
one begins to sense the high serious
ness which Moliere himSelf must
have felt in writing the play. Al
though misanthropes are never lik
able, Alceste demands increasing re
spect by his complete honesty. Mol
iere’s work is then not only a
clever comic satire but is also a skill
fully written tragedy for a man who
fights for his integrity in a world
that demands falseness.
by Frances Horne
War and Peace has been called
the greatest novel ever written.
Having read it, I can siy with truth
fulness that I haven’t been able to
enjoy another novel because of the
embarressing contrast between it
and War and Peace.
The length of the book is awe-
inspiring-something like 1361 pages
divided into fifteen books. Fortun-
ately, it is the sort of book that you
can read for awhile, put away for
weeks at a time, and start to read
again without any feeling of having
lost the thread of the story.
l^olstoy’s style is splendid for its
complete simplicity and naturalness.
It just flows smoothly along—makes
very easy reading.
The period of history War and
Pease covers is the Nayoleonnic in
vasion of Russia—roughly speaking
from 1805 to 1813. Actually War
and Peace is two books; one deal
ing intimately with the lives of in
dividual characters, the Rostovs,
the Bolkonskis and the others; the
other, an assortment of historical
essays, is inserted layer like into
the first. These essays can be en
tirely omitted if you want to follow
thestory, but they are well worth
reading.
The most enjoyable thing about
Tolstoy is his amazing capacity for
describing a person in a couple of
sentences in such a way that you
never forget it. For example his
reference to the beautiful Helene as
“the personification of that radiant,
completely self-assured imbecility
that is the special quality of merely
beautiful women;” or what he says
about the cynical old courtier, Prince
Vasili “who, like a wound up clock,
by force of habit, said things which
he did not believe himself and which
he did not want others to believe.”
But what is best of all is Tolstoy’s
complete grasp of his subject, the
people, the places and the incidents
and his great bredth of vision that
combine to give one of the finest
books of all ages.
Mo^ MettefU
Dear Editor:
Your editorial, “No United Nat
ions”, has the distinct aroma of a
World Federalist supporter. Con
gratulations on initiating interest
at Salem in such a vital issue. Col
lege students cannot awaken too
soon- to the crisis that is at hand.
World government is the goal that
the UN must seek in order to avoid
world ana#chy.
■ Bob Merritt
N. C. State College
Dear Editor:
To make Cozy Corner a twenty-
four hour smoke-and-study room was
a realized dream of many Salemites.
May we suggest further that a
“Zone of Quiet” be observed at
the top of the stairs for the benefit
of those who ar^ trying to study.
Eager Beavers
by Cat Gregory
Her name was Little Microcephalic, but
her friends called her Mike. Some of them
called her Congo for a joke because, with her
blonde hair, and her little head coming to a
point the way it did, she looked like an ani
mated native hut. There were diverse opinions
about the cause of this condition. Some said
it came from wearing a dunce cap in school
during the early formative years of her bone
structure. Others said that her forehead
sloped because there was no brain underneath
to pooch it out.
Be that as it may, Mike was at the moment
the shining wonder of the English Department.
She had, on an oral examination, just proved
herself to be the most cultured and discerning
stTident in the college. You see, the Faculty
had recently decided that Great Books were
the keystone of education.
“You cannot live adequately in this atomic
age , they said, “unless you have read thirty,
any thirty, of the 100 Greatest Boojis.” (There
had been some dissension among the faculty
as to what the Greatest Hundred were. Sev
eral teachers bore bite marks, incidental to
their scholarly debates on the subject).
Now they were quizzing the students to
ascertain their reading standards. It was
found that their reading ranged from philo
sophy (Lloyd C. Douglas and Day by Day) to
humor (printed Corliss Archer scrips) to mod
ern problems (the stories in Seventeen).
Then they called on Mike. **W^hat are your
favorite books?”, they asked her. i
“I read a book on how to write a best
seller called Grate on the Public ”
“Plato’s Republic!” screamed the faculty
with joy.
“—and Destry Rides Again,” she finished.
Destiny and Sin,” they chorused, whisper
ing it must be by Dostoevsky” to one another.
Then they cupped their hands and patted
her little pm head approvingly. She made
straight A’s from then on, and in time became
the head of the Department.
Catherine Gregory
Salemite
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