" ■ ■ iHwian—at
MARCH, 1982
THE BELLES
PAGE 3
The Bookwork In The Appellation
by Steven Esthimer
The title of a book is more
than just the name the book
bears on its cover. It is a
descriptive or distinctive
appellation. We expect to
learn something about the
contents of a book from the
superficial statement that
first meets our eye. I have a
room full of titles at home. I
like books. O.K., I will be
honest --1 like owningbooks. I
have a lot of books which I
have not yet read. Let me,
none-the-less, share some of
those titles and some related
thoughts with you.
Most of my books are non
fiction and have direct and
informative titles. There is no
doubt as to what a book called
Hebrew Grammar or
Classical Approaches to the
Study of Religion will cover.
Equally clear are such titles
as History of Christian
. Thought, A Commentary on
Kant’s Critique of Practical
Reason, The Cambridge
Encyciopaedia of Astronomy,
and How to Fix Your
Chevrolet. There is a
plentitude (if not a
superfluity) of “how to” books
which are unimaginatively
but informatively named.
Some titles are
meaningful only if you know
whose work they refer to. I am
interested in Selected
Philosophical Essays by Max
Scheler. I am not interested in
such a book by, let’s say,
Olivia Newton-John. Other
titles are not merely general
and in need of our
acquaintance with the author -
- they depend upon the
reader’s or buyer’s real faith
in the writer’s work. Would
you read books called The
Problem of Human Life or
The Nature of Thought if you
were not convinced that the
authors had both oars in the
water? How about The
Question of Being, The
Meaning of Life, or a three-
volume work called simply
Ethics? You know when you
see titles like these that you
had better find out who wrote
the books before you put too
much time or money into
them.
Then there is the yawning
space that is opened up for
ambiguity by the move to
include fiction. Is The
Passions an adult romance,
and Scruples an indepth
exploration of moral
considerations that act as
restraining forces on people in
our society? What is The
White Goddess about? And
who is The Invisible Man? Is
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance non-fiction or
fiction?
For almost fiye years, I
have worked parttime at a
large book store in Durham. I
have helped thousands of
customers and seen a large
number of them reach for one
or another book because its
title captured their attention.
Packaging may help draw the
eye to a book, but the title is its
invitation, that is what
beckons us to take and read, to
share the author’s findings or
viewpoint. A large quantity of
books is sold because of the
appeal to their titles. I wonder
if readers of Walden Two are
disappointed?
There are titles for both
fiction and non-fiction which I
think do rather well at
reaching out and grabbing us:
American Gold (I like the rich
and patriotic sound of this
almost redundant title); Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas;
Everything You Ever Wanted
to Know About Sex but Were
Afraid to Ask; God’s Other
Son; or Delta of Venus-
Erotica. I would pull these off
the shelf to look them over.
Tom Wolfe went through some
grabbers in the 1960’s: The
Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-
Flake Streamline Baby and
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid
Test. Which would you pick up
first given a choice between
Billy Budd and The Naked and
the Dead? I rest my case.
And there are titles which
seem to have been given with
the intention of keeping us
from reading some good
books. Who would want to take
up a hefty book called Bleak
House? Houghton Mifflin even
made the cover gray. If
Ordinary People says
anything about its characters,
who would bother to find out
more than the title tells us?
Max Black’s The Labyrinth of
Language threatens the
reader who would fear getting
trapped in the book’s own
medium. Mortimer Adler’s
nearly 400-page How to Read a
Book repels us with a glaring
contradiction. And, there are,
of course, numerous titles for
textbooks which flatly state
the field they purport to cover
(Theories of History,
Economics, Constitutional
Law, and so on), and for that
reason alone put us off.
Perhaps the most
interesting titles along the
above line are those which are
intentionally obfuscating. We
find these typically in the field
of literary criticism where,
unless one were to open the
book to read the subtitle, no
one would know what Hateful
Contraries, On Extended
Wings, Pilgrim of Eternity, or
The Grim Phoenix had to say
about whom. These books are
written by scholars, published
by university presses, and
make contributions to a
dialogue that is limited to
include only the other scholars
who write similar books. The
titles keep out the rabble.
There are designations
which, in and of themselves,
tell us somthing about the
books to which they apply.
Brave New World and
Prometheus Unbound, like
many titles taken from lines
or names of works that are
classics, give us insight into
the works because of their
reference to something well-
known. And there are titles
which might put us on guard
for sexist views on both sides
of the fence; Man’s Place in
Nature; An Essay on Man;
Beyond God the Father; or
The Second Sex. A book’s title
can also date the work. Guess
when this freshmen English
anthology was published:
Grooving the Symboi.
On toe other hand, there
are book names which,
strangely enough, have no
apparent connection with the
contents of the book. Strange
Peaches i a novel about John
Kennedy’s assassination.
Somebody help me on that
one.
We react emotionally to
titles. They are carefully
created, designed, and
applied to books to attract us
to toe commercial product as
well as the material that
resides on toe printed page
within. Directness, cuteness,
allusion, and even aversion
are all employed to allure us.
And, of course, novelty is an
effective if not essential
device. There can be a
hundred books over time
called Cultural Anthropology,
but only so many Scarlet
Letter’s. It is ironic that
Oxford Press, the publisher of
toe world’s most respected
dictionary of English, found it
necessary to coin a new word
(and to define it in a
dictionary format on the
book’s cover, as a sub-title)
for a sociology textbook;
Socguide. It is possible for a
novel title to find its way into
our everyday speech. Joseph
Heller coined toe expression
“catch-22” for his first book,
in 1961. None of his titles since
then have had that magic. In
fact, his last book employs an
existing expression as its
title: Good as Gold. How
unoriginal.
That a title has an effect
on our treatment of the book
may be seen in my own
experience with a novel on
which I wrote my Master’s
paper: Thomas Pynchon’s
ST. MARY’S; THE NEW BLACK HOLE
by Frances Ellerbe
St. Mary’s may soon find
pigpens in place of its once
clean dormitory rooms
because of toe new strictly
enforced vacuum cleaning
policy. The policy, actually an
old one, but new to students,
will now be more rigidly
executed according to D^n
Marcia Jones. The policy
allows the maids to use the
vacuum cleaners only in the
public parts of toe dorm;
students, through their own
means, must maintain their
private rooms. Dr. Jones says
that in the past, toe maid
Would relax the policy
allowing students to use the
vacuums. Now, however, due
to damage and misuse of tire
machines, the true policy will
be more rigidly enforced. The
policy does not hurt students
who live in uncarpeted
fesidence halls; an
inexpensive broom will take
care of their cleaning needs.
However, this will not do for
students who live in carpeted
fooms. Therefore, in the
interest of sanitation, as well
3s storage space and student
finances, St. Mary’s should
allow students to use the
'’acuums for cleaning their
rooms.
If students have to
Purchase vacuums, the
problem of finding storage
space would ultimately arise.
More necessary furnishings
(study desks, beds, lamps,
etc..) already fill individual
rooms to capacity. A bi^
bulky vacuum cleaner would
only clutter already cramped
living space. Also, quarrels
would erupt between
roommates; on whose side or
in whose closet will the
vacuum cleaner be stored?
One might suggest the
attic as an ideal room in which
to store the vacuum cleaners.
However, several problenre
will inevitably occur with this
idea. A student must lug the
heavy vacuum up and do^
toe stairs therefore risking
both injury to himself and
damage to toe machine. In
addition, the stu/lenJ who
stores his vacuum in the atuc
makes it susceptible to
frequent unauthorized use.
“borrowing”. ConsequenUy,
students who “borrow the
machines will not know inuch
about their operation and they
will damage toe machines.
Storing vacuums in the atuc
only creates more problems.
In addition to the problem
of storage space, toe “new
Policy places an unnec^ry
Randal burden
Students, few of which have
part time jobs to
their incomes, must now re
fdjust their tight budgets to
Schase vacuum cleane«^
tostead of spending money on
school supplies, books, and
other essential items, students
will now have to make cuts in
their expenditures for those
articles in order to
accommodate toe cost of a
vacuum cleaner. The policy
strains the wallet, as well as
toe mental temperament of a
student who worries about
where she will get the money
to purchase a vacuum
cleaner.
with which to deal; infestation
of insects and germs attracted
While a vacuum cleaner is
a sound investment for a
young couple or anyone
“setting up housekeeping”,
toe college student does not
need to make such an
investment at this time in his
life. He will only live in his
dorm for a short time before
moving on to another room -
more than likely, an
uncarpeted one. Admittedly
toe college student will need a
vacuum cleaner later in life,
but investing in one now would
be comparable to an eight
year old investing in a car for
his future driving years.
by toe sloppy rooms. Many
students have stayed this
inevitable disaster by making
do with broom and carpet
sweepers. Far from adequate,
however, these utensils barely
get the surface dirt, much less
the dirt deeply ingrained
within toe carpet shags. In
order to thoroughly clean the
rooms, and prevent bugs and
ants from nesting in the
carjret, the students need the
suction power of the vacuum
cleaner.
Finally, the new policy
threatens toe sanitation of the
rooms. Dirt, food crumbs,
ashes, hair, and other sundry
items litter the carpet; each
day adds a . layer of
garbage and potential health
tazards. The residue must
cleaned soon or the school will
have an emergency situation
In summary, to avoid all
of these problems. Dr. Jones
and other appropriate
authorities should permit
students to use the school
vacuum cleaners on their
room floors. Rather than
prohibiting their use, the
school should require the
maids’ strict supervision of
toe machines. Students who
damage machines would
understandably have to pay
for their repair. This
arrangement would benefit
the students and at toe same
time would not cost the school
extra money. At any rate, be it
the solution or not, the school
must choose another
alternative besides the
current policy; students
cannot be expected to live in
filth.
Gravity’s Rainbow. That may
not strike you as a
particularly sublime
nomenclature until you
consider the manuscript’s
working title; Mindless
Pleasures. I am not sure that I
or my committee could have
treated toe same book by the
second title as seriously.
We are all taught not to
judge a book by its cover,
though. It seems that we
frequently do just that and
more, in spite of our teaching.
I am told that an interviewer
for a school or job forms his or
her impression of toe subject
in toe first moments of the
exchange, perhaps before a
word is even spoken. We need
to take toe time for a closer,
longer, deeper look at people
and books. There is much that
we will mis, and some lasting
mistakes we will make if we
do not.
Successful
Shackelford
Approach
by Foo Vaeth
Have toe words up, lift,
and push become a part of
your regular vocabulary? Do
you have the best looking set
of quads on campus? If the
answer to these questions is
yes, you are obviously a
Shackelford guinea pig.
Having opened with only a
$7,000 investment, Elizabeth
Shackelford in one year has
increased her profits to ten
times that figure ~ a growth
rate of 5000 percent. In an
assembly presentation, she
swore her system of adapted
isokinetics would give you a
high, but I can’t say I
experience feelings of
euphoria while working out.
Preferring my bet to any sort
of exercise, I must admit they
have me hooked. Shackelford
says, “You get hooked
because you can’t help it.”
When the program began in
September, very few students
participated. Today, celebrity
patrons include our Dean of
Students, marshalls, and the
Cold Cuts, and it even kept our
assembly chairman quiet for
an hour. Through the power of
advertising and a method that
produces results, Shackelford
has clearly developed one of
toe most popular forms of
exercise in the Triangle area
]\.c.
Symphony
To Perform
The North Carolina
Symphony, featuring guest
conductor Paul Polivnick on
toe podium, will present a
program of Rossini, Ravel,
and Brahms in Raleigh
Memorial Auditorium
Thursday, March ll at 8:00
p.m.
Polivnick, associate
conductor of the Milwaukee
Symphony, and a candidate
for toe position of artistic
director and conductor of the
North Carolina Symphony,
will lead the orchestra in
Rosini’s Semiramide
Overture, Ravel’s Mother
Goose Suite, and Brahms’
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor.
Tickets range from $4.50-
$7.50 for adults, $2-$5 for
senior citizens and students,
and $2 for children. They may
be purchased at the North
Carolina Symphony Box Office
in the basement of Memorial
Auditorium (733-2750) or at
the door on the night of the
concert.