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Danny’s Rocking Chair Bnm Yoq Shonld Knoir MARCH 1967 THE PEN The College Beof 1?^' BY PALMERA BRITO The house was very quiet with only the noise of crackles of the burning flames in the fireplace, feeling a slight draft from cracks In the floor. The wind blew so hard that it made the shutters of the house go back and forth. It was a very lonely night. To distract my self, I turned to the T. V.; however, there was nothing to amuse me but the new^. I sat and watched the latest about a car accident and the escape of a convict prowling around town. It didn’t sooth me so I got up and turned off the T.V... My heart beat rapidly realizing the nearness of the prowler. I felt my body tremble. I felt safe but poor Matilda. I remembered thatlnstead of tak ing the car, she walked. She would walk the lonely road alone, tonight. I wished I could warn her of the danger. I sat on the cushioned rock ing chair that Danny had given me for Christmas. My happ iness while with him could never bp the same without him. I IK'S only because I have to. Poor Matilda never knew happiness like mine, with Danny, I recall when we brought this huge house, we always hop ed for children. Unfortunately we weren’t blessed. Ah, I must think of Matilda. I must try to warn her of this horri ble man. Reaching for the tele phone, I tried to dial the numb er but I couldn’t remember It. I dialed the wrong numl>er. I tried to remain calm. If only I could remember it, if only Danny were here, he would know what to do. I sat back in the rocking chair, and rocked back and forth. I felt very tired, so very tired. Poor Matilda, I must warn her someway. Ma tilda deserves this, always going out leaving me alone. Matilda never seemed to act like a woman her age. She should be in a rocking chair knitting like any other spinster. The clock ticked away loudly with a steady lieat, the big hand struck twelve. Matilda would be home from the bingo game anytime. She would be full of the latest gossip that she would tell me since she thought that it might Interest me. Matilda could never enjoy a quiet life, she was such a fool to think she could be young a- galn. The wind began to cease and the room felt warmer. For awhile I forgot about the con vict roaming around town. He wouldn’t come this way. Look ing through the window I-could see someone coming my way. It must t>e Matilda. I felt excited and ran out the door toward the lonely path. I shout ed “Matilda, Matilda, I’m here.” I couldn’t see her. Perhaps it was only a dog chasing a rabbit. I felt as sured and went back to the heuse. The wind started blowing harshly again. The light was out. Silly Ma tilda had sneaked into the house. She must have thought that I was already asleep. I wasn't that old. I quietly opened the door. I was happy that she was home, finally away from dang er. I was happy that the wind became softer again and there was a soft silence. I entered In the quiet house and whispered “Matilda”. I laughed because 1 heard her rocking back and forth. Flick ing the lights I said “You thought that you fooled me". Looking at the rocking chair I was so surprised to see Danny rocking in it. “Hello my love” said Danny. I replied “Matilda’s in great danger love. There’s an es caped convict roaming around town and Matilda hasn’t re turned from her bingo game.” "No dear, I went to the game remember, Matilda passed a- way a long time ago.” "Oh yes, I forgot. I feel so tired.” “Come love to bed.” The Fixer BY BERNARD MALAMUD THE FIXER by Bernard Ma- lamud is one of the most out standing books to appear in the past year. It tells the haunting story, not of one un fortunate man as the title sug gests, iHit of the afflictions ot an entire group of people, peing instructed by the anthropolo gists that there Is no “Jewish race,” the best way for one to descrllje this group Is as an ethnically related class of people relying for their social morals and religious ritual on the stingent Hebraic Law. With out the spectacularlsm of an Exodus or the terrorism of a documentary on Nazi cruelty, THE FIXER reveals all that one needs to know in order to understand the Jewish people, and himself, if he will allow the message of the book to go that deep. Following In a long tradition of confessional literature, stemming from the time when Saint Augustine set down his famous outpourings, THE FIXER reveals feelings and ideas through the meditative Introspection of a central fig ure, The persona in this case is an obscure Russian handy man whose only aesthetic quali ty is his being falsely and lllogl- cally arrested for the murder of a Christian child “for rit ual purposes”. Shedding lay ers of emotion and memory, the accused Yakov Bok reduces his existence to a set of first principles. These first prin ciples are contained In the re alization that man is both im perfect and limited but cannot be defeated without infinite loss to the world at large and to his personal heritage In parti cular. ^ It Is in the relating of these first principles to the external conditions of the Fixer’s pre dicament that Malamud reveals the subtle currents of the Jew ish consciousness so often missed in more didactic com mentaries. Yakov Bok’s innate modesty, abhorrence of the thought of coupling with a wo man during her unclean period, and consistent reticence In ex pressing emotion all reveal him as a person directed by a strong traditional ethic that Inspires Individual courage through obedience and abstinence. He recognizes his Internal cor ruption in the fact that he has, through fear, Invalidated this personal sanctity on many ac counts, In prison, he encount ers his fault in the decay of his marriage, he sees his self control shatter into jagged e- motional fragments, and in the last months of confinement, even dreams himself capable of murder, IHE FIXER’S external limitations are common to any Jew who lived at the end of the Czarist period In Russia, The Czar, in an attempt to maintain the security of his threatened authority, defen sively used the Jews as a scapegoat to salve his fears. Yakov Bok, a defenseless vic tim of this power, gradually DOVaASS... 1817-1895 , ,BoRN a slave in FEB,l8rj IN TALBOT CTY,EASTERN SHORE HE BECAME T>^E FOREMOST NEGRO ABOLI TIONIST./BEATEN a KICKED AS A slave; HE LEARN ED TO READ AT AGE TEN; ESCAPED TD N.Y. ATAGE 21. ON SEPT. 3,1838 /(DISGUISED AS ASAILOf^)WAS LATER APPOINT ED U^MARSK^ OF WASI^^ / Lewis’ la Vida' POETRY CORNER Children Of The Block Asphalt street, cement sidewalks and neon signs. The block, a hell to some, heaven to others. Here the rat race begins. Do unto others Iwfore they do unto you: the motto of the children of the block, I once was a child of the block. Running a footrace with a void destiny. I was somehow detoured. There are those who are still running or have fallen behind. Those who fall will be consumed by the vultures of the giant metropolls-flesh sellers and synthetic dreammakers. The Irony of the race is that both winner and losers are doomed. The Mock will crush them—the children of the block. a DOWERY Love begins to see the seeds of this oppressive force in the personsd weaknesses he finds in himself. His recognition of the kinship t>etween his own sins and the cruelty of his ac cusers is the ultimate horror that the Fixer must confront, but it Is also the key to his understanding of the demoraliz ing influence of fear. Once fear has lieen so encountered, hope is possible. The assertion of hope at the end of the novel is somewhat unexpected; but in light of what has transpired in the prison. It seems to be the most realistic ending possible. As Yakov Bok rides to his trial, bald and wasted by three ex cruciating years in confine ment, he realizes, as the read er does, that mankind having the power to assess life may also have the power of mercy. Bernard Malamud is a Jew and therefore, with the autho rity of Henry James’experience qurtlent, he writes about the lives and the prolonged agony of the Jewish people. There is, however, a fallacy In limit ing his effectiveness to the analysis of a small social group. Although outstanding in the pop ular stream of fiction that deals with minority cults, he also writes In the wider stream of existential literature. In es sence, each modern man is a self-made minority andthere- fore, the thoughts and feelings peculiar to a Jew or a Negro are not separable from the feelings of any person who feels himself to l>e different than the majority of persons he meets. The jail scene is common ly used in western fiction and provide a setUng conducive to self study. By so restricting a character’s activity and con tacts the author sets the stage for his realization of his per sonal weaknesses as well as his helplessness against the irrational force of his enemy and his indifferent surround ings. In microcosm, man is presented as a rational agent who must find peace within his own faculties and not from his environment which remains either coldly functional or open ly hostile. Prison Is the per fect place for revisiting the past. A man in prison no longer has_a_ social front to maintain; he is completely him- self moreso than any other time in his life. No present per version and no past sin is too great to be encountered in a place where suggestions of far greater sins inhabit every inch of space. In Albert Camus’ THE STRANGER, the convicted Meursault realizes the possi bility of finding peace as he stares at the night sky through barred windows on the night before his execution. Jean Genet, while not always in the prison, writes the open con fessions on a prisoner. In this same setting Yakov Bok sees himself In all of his Imperfection, acknowledges his Jewish heritage, once openly Love, a beautiful state: Movement....rhythm....time. Happiness.... Sometimes hot, Sometimes cold.... Dejection,., .frustration... Distrust, then reunion... Sweet talk talk... Soft words. Tenderness, and fondling; Is here. R. WAYNE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY No Where Man I once knew a man, a very nice chap. He owed his success in life to a world of abstractions. His masculinity' was attested to by his Marlboro pack. His Playboy subscription and his Ballentine Ale can. He was a man - A nowhere man. His social life was bolstered t>y his bar of Safeguard soap. His spray can of Ban deodorant, tube of Colgate toothpaste And his bottle of Llsterlne mouthwash. He could not offend— the nowhere man. Economically he had arrived as shown by his Bulck Holiday, Botany 500 suits, Florshlne shoes and Duplex luxury Pent- House Apartment He had arrived— the nowhere man. Synthetic, synchronized and symbolistic is the nowhere man. B. DOWERY By A Waterfall I recall the ceaseless silver splash. The dizzy circle of the foam-fleeced pool, And how our voices, like the Water’s spray. Rose urgent on the wind ,Then fell away. How you threw little twigs Into the stream And laughed to see them whirl In liquid light; How time and turbulence have Let us down, The dreams were scattered Then Go blind and drown. STEVE WILMORE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY Wins Boole Award New York Times News Service NEW YORK - “La Vida” by Oscar Lewis, a vivid socio logical account of slum life in New york and Puerto Rico, has won the non-fiction prize of the 1967 National Book A- wards. Bernard Malamud’s “The Fixer” received the prize for fiction, and Justin Kaplan’s “Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain” captured the arts and letters award. Winners^ ^in the two other dfitejgorles -were James Merrill for' his collection of poems, “Nights and Days,” and Peter Gay, a professor of hisotry at Columbia University, for “The Enlightenment,” and In terpretation of French thought in the Eighteenth Century. The selections were made by five panels of the National Book Committee, wh ich held their final meeting here last Thurs day. The list of winners was ot)tained from trade sources. The awards, accompanied by prizes of $1,000 each, will be presented Wednesday night at a ceremony at Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center. Vice President Hubert Humphrey is to be the principal speaker. In literary and publishing circles, the National Book Awards are ranked on a level with Pulit zer prizes. The National Book Commit tee, which established the a- wards In 1950, Is a non-pro fit, educational association de voted to the wiser and wider use of books. The prizes are donated by the American Book sellers Association, the Ameri can Book Publishers Council and the Book Manufacturers’ Institute. Lewis an anthropollst who gained popular renown in 1961 for his work on poverty In Mexuco, "The Children of San chez,” received the award In the category of t)00ks on sci ence, philosophy and religion. "La Vida,” published by Ran dom House, prompted a sharp controversy among political and civic leaders here and In Puer to Rico. Somecrltlcsofthework said it heU>ed to reinforce a distorted image about Puerto Rico’s social conditions by stressing the living conditions of a family of the most depriv ed economic level. Record Review BOOK REVIEW THE INHERITORS BY WILLUM GOLDING THE INHERITORS by Wil liam Goldings Is a novel about the beginning of mankind. Mr. Golding’s LORD OF THE FLIES is the better of the two, for Its symbolism and content. LORD OF THE FLIES is the story of boys beyond the reaches of ci vilization who revert to sa- denied, and finds a note of hope In the undying human will to live honestly. This l>ook Is a tribute to Ma lamud because it assures of the fact that he has more characters than the small Jew ish shipkeeper up his sleeve and because it affirms person ality as a source of interest and of hope. vagery. In THE INHERITORS, neanderthal man takes on the attributes of civilized man but cling brutally to savage traits, THE HERITORS Is one Of Mr, Golding’s secondary nov els. It is just a story of primitive man and his confront ation with the t)eglnning of civi lization, clan organization, fire, conquering water with boat and paiWe, fighting withbowandar- row and caveman’s love tech niques. In a way it Is a sort of animal story, with Lok and Fa the two main characters as trustworthy and loving as a horse and dog. Their island is Invaded by seml-clvlllzed man, the new people as they are called in the book. Lok and Fa react to this invasion in a very interesting way. They MY FAVORITE THINGS: Dave Brubeck Quartet BY TEO MACERO In the Columbia record al bum MY FAVORITE THINGS Dave Brubeck has taken many Rogers tunes and given them the Brubeck touch, Brubeck’s first recording of one of his special favorites, MY RO MANCE dates l)ack to an album he made for Fantasy Records at Mills College eleven years ago before he went to Colum bia. It was recorded with a single take, a solo by Brubeck, On the second recording the rest of the Quartet joins Dave after his new solo piano introduc tion. MY FAVORITE THINGS, a new di.Tilnslon for Dave is spir it and emotion, expresses his high regard for Rogers, one of our most prolific and l>est-lov- ed composers, Brubeck has given a new breadth to these songs in his own way and with his own mus ical personality. Brubeck’s performances are warm and finally drive the new people from the Island. Mr. Golding’s preoccupation with the primitive and nature reminds one of the romantic period in American Literature, with the exception that the sa vages of LORD OF THE FLIES and THE INHERITORS are neither noble nor Individualis tic. SECOND ARTS FESTIVAL SLATED AT CHAPEL HILL CHAPEL HILL - Interchange: The University and The Arts will be theme of the University of North Carolina’s Second Fine Arts Festival to be held here April 9-13, Headliners of the festival will include the Buffalo Philharmo nic, the Cunningham Dance group, Soprano Gretchen d’Ar- mand. Poet William Snodgrass and Henry Hughes, drama cri tic of The Saturday Review and Marie Coslndas, Polaroid land camera artist. The Carolina Playmakers will present “The Battle of the Carnival and Lent” by Rus sell Graves, UNC professor of Dramatic Arts, and works by Composer Roger Hannay, UNC music professor, will be per formed, The UNC Concert Bank will give a concert and several master classes will be conducted by visiting artists. The first National Student Printmaker Exhibition will be held under the sponsorship of the Ackland Art Center, Mau- ricio Lasansky, head of the print department at the Uni versity of Iowa, will partici pate in an informal panel dis cussion with Profs, Richard Klnnalrd and Victor Huggins of the UNC art department. Other festival events will in clude a performance by the North Carolina String Quarter and a modern film session. Chancellor J. Carlyle Slt- terson is honorary chairman of the festival and Travis Ab bott of Asheville, is student festival chairman. More than 75 students and faculty mem bers are participating In the presentation of the festival. A banquet for faculty and students who are staging the festival will be held on ghe opening day, April 9. Other faculty chairman in clude Dr. Charles D. Wright of the English Department; Dr. John Schmorrenberg of the Art Department, Dr. Foster Fitz simmons and Dr. Thomas Pat terson ot the Dramatic Art De partment; Dr. Rudolph Kremer of the. Music Department; and Dr. william Hardy of the Ra dio, Television and Motion Pic tures Department. The festival and the Caro lina Symposium are held in alternating years. They are financed by Student Government funds, gifts and solicitation. The first fine arts festival was pro duced In 1965. STUDENT OFFICUL RESIGNS AT DUKE DURHAM (AP) - The presi dent of the men’s student gov ernment at Duke University has resigned in a despute with the administration. In a statement prepared for the student newspaper, Joseph R. Schwab, charged that the administration has failed to al low student groups meaningful participation in the determina tion and enforcement of social regulations. Schwab referred to the ad ministrations refusal to allow house groups and fraternities to establish their own social regu lations and house rules involv ing the use of common rooms. Schwab’s article which ap peared in the Duke Chronical stated that a series of develop ments led to his decision. "I can no longer play at a game or assume a role, that has no meaning for me,” he said. The Illinois senior was among a group of student Ixxly presi dents who signed a letter ad dressed to Dean Ruks in which they voiced douljt atx>ut the war in Vietnam. As vice - president Guy T. Solle of Madison, Wise, will succeed to the presidency. MORE DISGRACE FOR COLLEGE The Elizabeth City Daily Advance The board of trustees of E- llzabeth City State College has brought more disgrace to the school by Imposing a censorship on the report submitted by a special study committee. By refusing to permit the public to know what the special com mittee found, it anything, it is rapping the knuckles of the that help to finance the college. The report was presented to the board by Dr, Elmer L, Pur- year, dean of Greenslioro Col lege, one of tour prominent educators who conducted the study which was requested to help counter public unrest and for use as a guide to ECSC’s future. The study group spent three days at the college and returned a 20-page report. The board of trustees spent five hours behind closed doors going over the report. A Dally Advance reporter was present and asked permission to sit In on the discussion but was told to leave. Refusal of the board to permit news coverage of Its meeting adds another black mark to the school’s opera tion and causes the public to wonder more than ever if charg es leveled at the institution and its officials during the past year or two aren’t justified, McDonald Dixon of Edenton, chairman of the board, said the report as a whole was pretty favorable, but that some things are very detrimental. The pub lic is entitled lo know the good points of the report, as well as the bad points and Is will ing to permit the chips to fall where they may. The way the entire matter has been handled from the beginning is just cause for the criticism that has been aimed at the school and' the board. If the trustees are ashamed of the situation they should re sign and let someone else take over. If they are not ashamed of the way they and the col lege have operated, they should not withhold the true tacts from the public. Super Stodium Ninth Wonder Of The World? A huge, domed, all-weather sports stadium, larger than the Houston Astrodome, is on the drawing boards. It would be by far the largest clear span wood structure ever built. Designed to keep fans out of wind and rain, it also shelters their cars. It’s 840 feet across, 198 feet wider than the Houston Astros’ indoor stadium, until now hailed as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Ceiling would soar 260 feet from floor — 48 feet higher than the Astrodome, which would fit inside the new stadium. Standard wood prc^ucts, in cluding laminated rib frame work and plywood walls, would make this super-ctadium dome far less costly to build than any other form of construction, says William R. Reed. Reed’s Ta coma, Wash., architectural firm, Harris & Reed, designed the structure for Weyerhaeuser Company. Incidentally, the all- wooa dome meets the 1-hour fire rating, the most stringent fire code m the nation. Four-level parking area, three under cover, lets sports fans drive to same level as their seat- ing section, park and walk short distance to seats. Members of the press would walk through hollow-arch framework to press box hung from center of ceiling. Main tenance crews would use the same passageways to replace lighting and maintain ventilat ing equipment, also concealed in the wooden ribs. The result is a clean, uncluttered ceiling with no need for scaffolding for maintenance crews. Actual playing field and most of the seats would be below ground level, snuggled mside the building’s poured-concrete foundation shell. Surface ma terial is of prefinished alumi num overlaid plywood panels. '^e multi-use stadium would seat 60,000 for bas^ball. 5,000 more as a football arena. Engineering and cost studies for the Weyerhaeuser colossus were done by consulting engi neers for 110-story twin towers of New York’s Port Authority’s World Trade Center. The firm, Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, says the proposed wood structure would witliHtand iw loads of 25 pounds per sqUjare foot and 110-milc*-an- hovlr winds. PATTERNS TO GOlWILD OVER humorous, CIRCUS ON PA RADE the first recording is an example of this. It opens with a wry little military march be fore breaking Into a swinging tempo and ends with Joe Morel- lo’s parade drum cadence dis appearing down the street, Paul Desmond is on alto sax, Joe Mor3llo Is on drums and Gene Wright is on bass. All play superbly, sharing in each oth ers musical Ideas as If they were second nature to them. Other pieces In the Album are: OVER AND OVER AGAIN, WHY CAN’T I, LITTLE GIRL BLUE, THIS CAN’T BE LOVE and THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD, Spring’s hottest fashion story is in print. Never have patterned fabrics been .such a ■wild success. And "wild” is the word. Many new fabrics look like abstract modern paintings. Others feature “primitive” prints inspired by jungle land scapes, or by African and In dian tribal art. More sophisticated — but wildly alluring—is the Pucci- type print. Popularized by Italian designer Kmilio Pucci, it blends fanta.stic .shapes and clear colors in dazzling pat terns. On the .same wild wave length is the 1967 craze for stripes of all kinds. The striped T-shirt shift is making the spring scene. So is the .striped blouse which trans forms a classic suit into a cur rent “happening.” The latter plan is followed by Medal I’s Pattern *8767 for misses, teen and pre-teen sizes; 12 .sizes in all. Included are stove-pipe slacks, an A- line .skirt, and a trim little jacket, adding up to a pant suit or skirt.suit as the occa sion d‘mands. Make it in denim or can vas, lim n or lightweight W(H>I in this .season’s bright colors. The catnly.st is a eotlon knit, silk or jersey blouse in big or little stripes. Another fashion “survival kit” Is cont.'iincfi in MetJall’s Pattern *877.'). The basic in gredient is a loi'g-sleeved, llghlly sli.iped shift. Prelty •shifty, too, is the neckline, whii'h (an be iii.ide three ways: round, bateau, or with a n'at rolled collar. Add a string-tied self-belt if you like. In a Pucci-type print, it’s a headliner! Snip off the dress pattern at the hipline for one, two or three blou.ses. A pattern for tailored pants completes this design for spring success. More spring guidelines: the tent dre.ss, newly narrow, and flatteringly closer to the body. It sha[>es up with kimono sleeves, a favorite 19(i7 touch, in McCall’.s P.ittern =8766 for misses sizes. 'I'his would look good in many fabrics: a "primitive” flower print, a new-as-tomorrow geometric design, even bright, brassy .solid. Hut whether you sli k with .solidsor rush into print, you’ll probably go wild over spring’:-; uninhibitf d new fashions. MM