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editorial
have you met yourself
untitled
essay
tomorrow is yesterday
rain
writing
communicating
interview
photo essay
mea culpa
the year of the people
the ideal of the university
woodstock nation
christopher and the green blob
the time of a life
in march, a lifetime ago
wolfe
the conception
10 .0.c. jan, 2, 1067
tar river at flood
advertisements
photography credits
frederick sorensen
charles griffin
robert thonen
frederick sorensen
f. wayne morgan
frederick sorensen
frederick sorensen
james day
sid morris, jr.
albert pertalion
william r. day
john fulton
william r. day
lyn colcord
thomas n. walters
eileen barnum
thomas n. walters
rita anne korn
rita anne korn
frederick sorensen
GON@h Te Rod Ketner
Art and Design Editor. Bob S. Morris, Jr.
Associate Editor John Fulton
pusinets Manager 2 Kelly Almond
Goby EGiGl 2 Bev Denny
Fooy EditQe 0 a Glenn Tetterton
Reviews EQNGE: 2 William R. Day
Typist and Correspondence Director = Jennifer Salinger
Exchange and Subscriptions Director ___- Jan Harris
Publicity Diretiee Pamela Van Slyke
AGVisOr Ovid Williams Pierce
Staff: Lynn Ayers, Yona Creech, Al Fuller, Steve Harrison, Charles Mock,
Barbara Taychert, Bob Thonen, Stuart White.
The Rebel is a student publication of East Carolina University. Offices are
located on the campus at 215 Wright Annex. Inquiries and contributions
should be directed to P. O. Box 2486, Greenville, North Carolina 27834.
Copyright 1969, East Carolina University Student Government Association.
None of the materials herein may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission. Subscription per year, $6.00.
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Our multisociety has entangled itself in a monumental pile of noncommunication. We have contributed individually to the confusion
by adjusting our lives to the instant-reaction concept of our electronic lords: television, radio, computers, movies, and even stoplights, to
name only a few. We have accepted the media of mass communication as entities in themselves, not as technological servants. We respect
the media. It les beyond our presence of mind to question anything we are told by it or to try to understand with any more perception
than absolutely necessary. Our lords have so trained us.
Our problem: we are equating our ointeraction� with communications media to interaction with people. It doesnTt work. A mediumTs
message cannot be affected by our response, be it positive or negative. The message, by definition of its carrier, is objective and cannot be
altered or affected by the listener.
We have subconsciously chained ourselves to this idea of nonresponse so that our relationships with people have moulded to the same
form. The Form dictates that all actions result from the same motives. It says oIf you donTt understand a person, then assume enough
about what he says to sufficiently satisfy yourself.� It says, oDonTt show your ignorance"you may embarrass yourself.� It says, oKeep
your social habits instead of acting naturally while talking to someone"he may get the wrong idea.� It says, oDonTt look past the superficia]
to the basic"you may see something that disturbs you.�
The Form pervades our subconscious. ItTs called the Electronic Age. Like it or not, The Form will continue to isolate us from each
other so that soon we will merely be living machines, following punch-card patterns of behavior. Interhuman communication will soon be
dead. What are we going to do about it?
eS
IBVUN pup
L OONOOgsOOO00 Agasnos
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ayy sek eiciae
ad
If we speak
then let us speak with tongues
BRirelmeemelae(eielire
The language of a time belongs to those
that are of that time
and this
Is the age of aquarius
the day of mass feel
And men shall take what is and bend it into
now |
and lips will caress an electric love
While visions scan across, the screen -
~~ and life becomes
cool =
=
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt
there.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and
slime had they for mortar.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a
name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now
nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anotherTs speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from
thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Genesis, Chapter 11, Verses 1-9
E WAVE ENTERED
THE AGE OF
ELECTRIC JAN
TODAY MANKIND IS ENGAGED IN A STRUGGLE
TO REBUILD THE BIBLICAL TOWER OF BABEL
Drastic things are happening all around us.
Confusion, indecision, and revolution seem
to permeate the very air we breathe. Some-
thing is taking place within our minds, but
what?
Since the genesis of Western civil-
ization when the lonic Greeks aban-
doned their archaic religious state
and developed the phonetic alpha-
bet, it has been necessary for West-
ern man to put his thoughts in terms
of concepts before he could use the
system effectively. Until relatively
recently, communication has largely
consisted of either spoken or writ-
ten words made up of characters
from the basic phonetic alphabet of
twenty-six letters. As expanding ver-
tical communication increased our
reliance upon the written phonetic
word as a means of communication,
our patterns of sequential thinking
were increased. The development of
the printing press greatly magnified
the effect by eventually leading to
common literacy.
For at least twelve years of their
lives, most individuals are trained to
think in conceptual thought patterns
created by different languages of
communication derived from the use
of phonetic alphabets. The writer
has an idea or concept and writes
it down in a logical, orderly manner.
The reader is supposed to receive
exactly what the writer thinks, as if
he himself were the writer.
The invention of electronic mass
media, television in particular, has
introduced Man to a way of thought
formerly available only through art
forms, syllabaries, and other such
media: perceptual communication.
A person receives an image, not a
concept. He relies on his own senses
to interpret the meaning of the idea
represented by the image.
For example, the word o~eastTT is
a conceptual term in the English
language. Unless it is used in poetry,
it is designed to be used in a linear
or sequential connection with other
words in a logical manner. It is not
designed to be used alone. The
Chinese character for east,
is a combination of their word for
sun and tree.
Bh
The literal meaning of the char-
acters Is thus, ~o~sun seen through
the trees,TT the equivalent of our
oeast.�
Obviously, the Chinese ideogram
carries a much more profound per-
ceptual meaning than the English
word. Where the Chinese ideogram
represents an idea in terms of sen-
sual perception, the English word
represents this same idea in terms
of sterile conception.
Poetry is an attempt to present
perceptions rather than conceptions
10
and the result lacks preciseness
when viewed through the window of
conceptual logic. As a consequence,
poetry is not a conceptionally effi-
cient form of communication. For
instance, a math problem could not
be explained through means of a
poem. Poetry is, however, much
more efficient at communicating the
non-conceptual thoughts of feelings
and emotion.
Electronic communications are
now creating a severe conflict of
thought patterns in Western Man.
TodayTs younger generation seem to
be having more violent problems in
communicating with the older gen-
erations than previous youth have
ever had. Because of constant ex-
posure to perceptual communica-
tions, todayTs youth want to ~o~per-
ceiveT for themselves instead of
playing the observer's role of receiv-
ing the conception of someone
elseTs perceptions.
TodayTs youth want to participate
directly and to become involved.
They feel tremendously constricted
by the continual pressure to merely
observe. They are the first genera-
tion to be raised under the watchful
eye of the television tube and are
displaying the massive effect it has
had upon them. They are not satis-
fied with the concept of a rule or a
behaviorial requisite. They want to
know why they are told to do some-
thing; they want to perceive and feel
the situations that caused the rea-
sons for the ruleTs existence. Unless
they can relate the reasons directly
to themselves, they disregard the
ruleTs existence, and violence
erupts.
The effects of electronic com-
munications are not limited to youth.
However, the perceptual thought
patterns thus generated are picked
up much more easily by them be-
cause they do not have to remove
conceptual thought patterns first.
Countries such as Russia which have
not had a chance to become as high-
ly literate as the United States are
also finding it easier to adjust to
electronic communications.
The ocredibility gapTT which the
American government is experienc-
ing reflects the struggle of the ~~con-
ceptual-versus-perceptualTT conflict
on a young and old basis alike.
Americans are finding it increasingly
difficult to relate to or to be in com-
munication with the ambiguity of
the governmental bureaucracy when
it opposes the much more percep-
tual images of youth in revolt or
other active image appearing on the
television screen, regardless of the
opinions of the viewer. This is pri-
marily because for them, the govern-
ment exists on a conceptual rather
than a perceptual basis. It demands
receptive passivity and refuses ac-
tive function.
Another problem that govern-
ments are having as a result of this
conflict is evident when for some
reason the government would rather
not have the general public to be
aware of some particular set of cir-
cumstances, the instantaneous, glo-
bal quality of electronic communica-
tions makes it possible for the view-
er to operceive� things happening
which do not agree with the govern-
mentTs publicly conceptualized pro-
paganda regarding the event. Some
form of censoring that which the
public is permitted to view will be
necessary if governments are to
maintain the opinions which they de-
sire the viewing public to have.
Vice-President Agnew has drama-
tically shown what can be accom-
plished by creating a diversionary
focus of perceptive attention regard-
ing the American people. Additional
influence was afforded Agnew when
he capitalized upon the perhaps
subconscious fears we have of the
drastic changes in thought pro-
cesses that television is creating
within us. By using electronic media
as the focus of blame for the mas-
sive dissent in the United States, he
used television, a perceptual com-
munication, to attack the ~~percep-
tualnessTT of that communication.
Exactly how electronic communi-
cations are affecting changes in
thought processes is extremely diffi-
11
cult to determine. Marshall Mc-
Luhan, perhaps the foremost expert
in the field of communications to-
day, has written several books con-
sisting primarily of a series of
~probesT designed to explore pos-
sibilities. In a recent telephone con-
versation with this writer he de-
scribed several rather startling prob-
abilities.
He stated that because of the less
literate aspects of the South, it will
soon assume the vanguard of leader-
ship of the United States because of
the greater malleability to percep-
tual communication of less literate
people.
Electronic communication " will
eventually tribalize society and turn
the world into a ~~global village.TT We
will be much more aware of our na-
tural environment. This will reach
such extremes as experiencing gen-
eral disgust with pollution and a re-
surgence of Puritanism.
We will be faced with large scale
divergences of opinion, anarchy,
and the loss of governmental man-
date.
The more literate North will be
faced with a massive racial blood
bath within the next three years.
Finally, he stated that in the very
near future, society will be spending
the major part of the national bud-
get on headhunting, as the govern-
ment comes to realize that in order
to have the control it wants over the
minds of the public, it must resort
to stronger and stronger forms of
totalitarianism.
McLuhan bases the major rea-
sons for his predictions on the ignor-
ance of the American people regard-
ing the changes now taking place
within our minds.
Rebuilding the Tower of Babel
promises to be a difficult proposi-
tion to accept or to even recognize,
but the foundations are even now
being laid. The Western lifestyle is
fading as fast as the structure of the
Tower reaches skyward. We can
only wonder if Western Man will sur-
vive the gradual disappearance of
his way of life.
Bob Thonen
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Tomorrow
Is
\\ | Y
Ursierday a
Tomorrow is yesterday : Headlights peering through the fog
Some folks believe Illuminate the slanting rain,
All that will be like comets flashing through the sky;
Once was Fiery balls with streaming tails,
All that is to come Rushing and swarming headlong,
Has already been Exploding, quickly wiped away:
i believe A futile attempt to create a place
History Of permanence amid the constant change.
Is a spiral
Some of what
Was yesterday
Will come again
Some of what
Will be tomorrow
Has been
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Or multiple sides
Are drawn
So there can be no
James Day, president of National Educational
Television, is trying to find a new role for public
television. He in an innovator rather than a copier
of the ~~tried and true.�T
Communications is DayTs life. He has worked for
NBC, Occupational Forces Radio in Japan, Radio
Free Asia, and managed a television station in San
Francisco for 16 years.
While evaluating the dilemma of todayTs television
with one eye, Day gazes into the media of tomorrow
with the other.
15
WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TELE-
VISION (NET)?
My own philosophy is that public television is a state of mind.
We hope for the same degree of professionalism that is char-
acteristic of commercial television. But the commercial television
system is an economic system which dictates that popularity must
be the first criterion. It must reach the most people. | think public
television should put quality as the primary criterion.
Popularity should not be disregarded, but it should not be put
number one in the scale of values. My hope is that quality would be
an attraction in itself. For instance, when | speak of quality | donTt
mean long-haired music in the older sense. Bach versus the Beatles
"both are quality. The Beatles as the best of their breed would be
a sufficient justification for placing them with Bach.
| don~t mean quality in a snobbish sense. ItTs the best of whatever
you do, if itTs humor, pop music, or whatever. Quality ought to be
the first criterion. Each of us has an unserved area that can be
appealed to and | would hope public television would do this.
WHAT DO THE THREE MAJOR NETWORKS USE AS CRITERIA FOR
AIRING A PROGRAM? ~JULIAT? FOR INSTANCE, IS NOT ABOUT A
BLACK WOMAN AT ALL BUT ABOUT A WHITE MIDDLE-CLASS
WOMAN WITH BLACK SKIN...
The fare on commercial television is largely fantasy. ~~JuliaTT is
fantasy. She is not a real person. Most of the fiction is fantasy
whether it is space fantasy, spy fantasy, or whatever. ThatTs bad
enough in itself but most of the people who appear on television
are not real people. Even most of the newscasters arenTt real peo-
ple. TheyTre plastic; theyTre two-dimensional. They may have capped
teeth, a toupee, and a blazer with the station emblem on it. They
havenTt been mixed up in the news; theyTre news readers.
Where are the beautiful people, the people with whom you can
relate? They almost never appear on commercial television unless
theyTre on guest spots on someone elseTs program. Public television
ought to deal with reality in the sense of having real people on who
are not always beautiful in the physical sense.
YOU MENTIONED THE WORD o~FANTASY.�T MOST OF THE TELE-
VISION SHOWS ARE FANTASY AND GIVE THE ACTORS A QUALITY
THAT VIEWERS LIKE. ARE THESE PROGRAMS SO POPULAR
BECAUSE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC DOES NOT WANT TO FACE
REALITY?
| am very hesitant to generalize on the American people. | donTt
know to what extent they have been given the opportunity on tele-
vision of dealing with reality. You speculated that the American peo-
ple may not want to face reality. The reality | am speaking of is not
only harsh reality in the sense that America is in real danger today,
:
i
but also the joyous reality to which young people attach themselves.
ThereTs a real joy to reality as well as a starkness and | think public
television should deal with both. Real people are a joy.
| think reality can be joyous; | think reality can be entertaining;
| think reality can be exhilarating. It is not a matter of coming home
at night and saying, ~~lTm not going to turn that television set on to
public television or educational television. ITm just too tired.TT Well,
tiredness has nothing to do with it. You know? The way to overcome
tiredness is to engage in something else that is exhilarating: think-
ing.
DO YOU THINK TELEVISION WILL EVER INCORPORATE FEED-
BACK?
Technically, lots of things can be done which wonTt be done.
ThereTs no economic pressure for feedback. The thing that interests
me about this is the speculation.
This television generation is acutely aware of things because of
television and radio. Suddenly youTre put in touch with the whole
world. If the Congo blows up today you know about it today. But
unlike a hundred years ago, you have no way of responding to it.
Edwin R. Murrow said some years ago that television is almost an
insulation from reality. While things grow worse"and in fact they
are growing worse"weTre insulated by a cushion of fantasy.
WHAT HAS TELEVISION DONE TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION?
| think that public television is at its best when it tends to provoke
conversation. It is a good show if you can watch it for an hour, have
to turn it off, and want to talk about what youTve seen. ThatTs good.
But itTs rare; it almost never happens on television.
DO YOU FEEL THAT TELEVISION HAS A SOCIAL RESPONSIBIL-
ITY?
Yes, it does and in some cases it discharges this social respons-
ibility with magnificent news coverage. But it is a business and itTs
operated on essentially business principles.
The British did a study in 1962 called the Pilkinton Report. A
group of distinguished citizens did the study which set forth the
social responsibility of television in Great Britain. As far as | know,
America has never undertaken such a study. Now this study became
virtually law, that is to say, it became the basis for law. Broadcast-
ing in America grew almost uncontrolled to what it is today. Public
television here has been underfed in some respects and underled,
too.
HAS ANYTHING SIMILAR TO A o~HEADSTARTTT PROGRAM BEEN
ATTEMPTED ON PUBLIC TELEVISION?
We have one now that appears to be a real sensation! Done by
the ex-producer of ~~Captain Kangaroo,�T itTs called ~~Sesame Street,TT
and it is shown five days a week in color. It incorporates all the
17
known techniques of commercial television.
ItTs designed primarily for pre-school ghetto youngsters to prepare
them to benefit from their education. It has the Muppets, some of
the liveliest animation you're likely to see anywhere.
ItTs the first real attempt to use all we have learned from com-
mercial television in a program that is designed primarily to educate.
HAS IT BEEN SUCCESSFUL?
In the ratings, something we never use, itTs outdrawing ~~Captain
Kangaroo.�T ThatTs a great success. So we will see if this is the be-
ginning of something new.
There are some who will argue against using the kinds of tech-
niques for education that we are using, but obviously if you are go-
ing to reach ghetto youngsters, you have to use entertainment to
catch their attention. The big job is to get their attention first. We
are now convinced that it can be done.
WHAT TYPE OF PROGRAMMING DO YOU FEEL IS MOST FITTING
FOR TELEVISION?
ThatTs a very hard question to answer, and of course is the heart
of the problem we face here. We are doing on NET what | think are
the outstanding documentaries being done on television today.
ThereTs only one thing wrong with them"people arenTt watching
them.
The reason ITm in public television is that | hope to affect people,
either to move them toward solutions to problems on the one hand
or to make life deeper, richer, and more meaningful on the other.
HOW CAN THIS BE DONE?
One way is through other people. We can relate with someone on
the screen who fascinates us, interests us, intrigues us. We need
more of these kinds of people on the screen"young people who
have not had a chance to be heard and older people who are never
heard in that context. They may be on ~~Meet The PressTT but never
on a regular basis. It may be the only way of reaching a large num-
ber of people.
It may well be that more people are affected by a three-minute
bit on ~o~Laugh InT�T than all the documentaries that we do on public
television. Laughter may be a way in which people can be reached.
WHAT WOULD YOU PREDICT TO BE THE NEXT MAJOR CHANGE
IN TELEVISION FORMAT?
We started an experimental project about two years ago based
upon the feeling that virtually everything in television today is de-
rivative of other art forms. Drama really is staged on a stage and
television cameras pick it up. It is modified for television studios
but the television studio is a stage. News is really radio with pic-
tures. Music is a concert hall performance.
But the question is: how can television draw a creative talent
unless it is a medium within its own right? A playwright would rather
write for the stage than for television for the simple reason that he
can say more on the stage than on TV because TV goes into peopleTs
homes.
So we got five artists-in-residence for a year and had them play
with television. Out of it came a concept called ~~video space.TT Let
me explain. When you think of producing a television program you
think of a space which is the studio, but in video space you think of
a space which is the screen itself. It doesnTt need a studio. Second-
ly, it has to do with the manipulation of the system itself; itTs elec-
tronic. You canTt visualize it and thereTs no way | can tell you what
it looks like visually. The closest thing to it perhaps is a light show,
but the colors are created inside the system. The camera need not
be focused on anything. You can manipulate the electricity to get
images and colors out of the system.
18
This is what | see happening to television: itTs going to look very
different than it does today. There will be a great deal in it that
younger people as they grow older will understand and respond to.
ItTs going to be electronic.
IS THERE ANY WAY TO GET AROUND THE FACT THAT TELE-
VISION DOES NOT TREAT THE VIEWER AS A MATURE ADULT?
No, not under the present system which is based upon popularity
by ratings. The most popular programs are the ones which give some
support to the basis that we are not all adults and are not prepared
for adult programming. Many of the programs that have been reason-
ably adult have failed in commercial television; they have not reach-
ed a large enough audience to justify their existence.
WHAT EFFECT HAS TELEVISION HAD SPECIFICALLY UPON
YOUNG PEOPLE?
| have absolutely no doubt that television has a profound influence
upon young people, the television generation, those of you who have
grown up completely within the age of television. | am inclined to
agree with what McLuhan argues in this respect that it does make
different people of you. | think your way of perceiving the world is
undoubtedly influenced by television in a way that is beyond me.
You tend to see things in a mosaic rather than in linear waves.
| think the all around sensorium, the desire to be surrounded by
sensation, is the predominance of feeling over rationality.
THE ELECTRONIC AGE HAS OBVIOUSLY CHANGED OUR LIVES
RADICALLY. WHERE IS THE ELECTRONIC AGE TAKING US?
A number of things might happen. If television generally continues
unabated along its present course it may lead us to one of the worst
disasters that we could possibly face: we will all grow bored with
living. | think boredom is one of the real dangers that lie ahead.
One of my arguments against most of television is that it gives a
distorted picture of life, two-dimensional and shallow.
When | say that television may lead us to ultimate boredom, it is
easy to be cynical and obviously, as | have indicated, there is an
awful lot of television today | donTt care for. The best thing to do is
turn the set off and do something else, in fact do anything rather
than sitting slack-jawed and glassy-eyed and looking passive.
19
© issn,
| ore Spree Lalusordalicor of the Wibntos
\atintwniwnitintT snlp Comp anicalut wilder.
? Sl Mow Fe
_ _. MEA it
ie CULPA "
oWhat are you going to say to her?� FosterTs
wife asked.
oI donTt know,� Foster answered.
oAre you going to answer the letter?�
U Yes.
oI mean, are you going to answer it now? I
know you will eventually write to her,� she per-
sisted.
oYes, dammit, ITm going to write to her. To-
night. January the third. Sometime between 10: 30
and midnight.�
She didnTt reply. She turned and left the living
room, quickly and coolly enough to make it clear
that he had been wrong to snap at her, and that
she intended to hold it against him for awhile.
Foster brooded over the letter he had received
from his mother. He hadnTt called her long dis- i}
tance on Christmas day, and she had written a |
long, weepy letter explaining how she had waited
all day through phone calls from all her other
children until the oone phone call she had waited
for never came.�
17 18 1g) 20 Zl 22 ZS 24 2S) 26
Foster mostly ignored his mother. He told himself often enough
that he loved her, but in his stinginess he added that he loved her
because she was his mother. Furthermore, he secretly believed
that if the person who was his mother wasnTt his mother, he
wouldnTt like her at all.
Southern Baptist religion and her children had been the focal
points of FosterTs mother for most of her adult life. She believed
in and swore by them both. But when her children had come of
age and sloughed off the church, they essentially sloughed off
their mother too. So immersed was she in the Southern Baptist
dogma, that she felt it a sin not to constantly try to regain her
children for the church.
Love her or not, Foster didnTt like to write letters and he didnTt
like to make phone calls. Letters to his mother were little more
than weather reports or medical reports on his children. After the
first hellos, the phone calls were the same as the letters, only
more strained.
He wondered if his anger over her letters was because he act-
ually felt guilty for not calling his mother, or because she was
once again with meek persistence forcing him to show love for
her on her own terms.
oFoster?� his wife called from somewhere beyond the hall.
oYes?� he answered.
oFoster.�
oWhat?� he answered with more volume.
Silence. Having shouted his name, she would never shout the
message.
oWhat do you want?� he hollered, irritation tingling all over
him.
Silence.
oShit!� he said to himself as he got up and went to see what
she wanted.
oCome kiss Cynthia goodnight,� she said as he walked into
his daughterTs bedroom. :
oGoodnight, Sugar Bear,� he said to his daughter.
oGoomah plee nuh mee mawk,� she said as he kissed her.
oWhen will she learn to talk?� he asked his wife in mock im-
patience. oSheTs already eighteen months old.�
oShut the door on your way out so I can get her to sleep.�
Foster didnTt miss the clipped answer. It was a technique his
wife had copyrighted. It told him his humor wasnTt appreciated
27
since he had snapped at her earlier in the evening. It told him he
had longer to wait for forgiveness.
He shrugged to himself and went back to the letter he had
started.
Dear Mother,
No doubt there are some persons who can correlate
phone calls with love. You seem to correlate the two
with no trouble. However, I personally see no con-
nection.
When I question my love for someone, the answer I
come up with is never a phone call, or letter, or a pre-
sent, or any of those things.
It would seem to me that my love for you is an abso-
lute or constant you could always take for granted, an
assertion which needs no proof.
Foster re-read what he had written in his first flush of irritation.
Since kissing his daughter goodnight, his mood had changed and
he crumpled up the letter.
oNo, dammit,� he said to himself and tried to uncrumple the
letter. oIf I donTt follow through on this letter, sheTll force me
into phoning or writing a bleeding hearts apology for not calling
on Christmas.�
He continued the letter on the wrinkled paper.
And anyway, Mother, if you equate phone calls with
love, why didnTt you call me? Why must love flow in one
direction? If this love/phone call bit is real, then you
should have popped out of bed on Christmas day and
phoned me and the rest of your unforgetting siblings.
oChrist,� he said, and crumpled up the letter again.
oYou tacky bastard. Why donTt you call your mother?� He
wondered, along with everything else, if he should be talking to
himself so much.
oSheTs just trying to hang the guilt on my neck.�
oWell, she must be doing it or you wouldnTt be so mad about
a silly phone call.�
oDonTt be so self-righteous. I allow other people their way.
Why canTt they allow me mine?�
oYouTre so wonderfully objective and open-minded. You make
me sick.�
oMy trouble is that I can see attractive things on both sides
of the argument.�
SEES
ener a seers
See
i:
oYour trouble is that you canTt take a stand.�
oLook, ITll call her. Why not? Why hurt an old woman merely
for the sake of pride? That kind of pride is childish.�
oYou donTt think her demands are mature, do you?�
oNo, but why should two persons be immature because of one
adolescent action?
oVery big of you. YouTre rationalizing away the fact that sheTs
stronger than you, that sheTs using your phoney maturity and
guilt to get you to call her.�
oI donTt give a shit! I'll call her anyway.�
He got up and started for the phone. oITm going to telephone
Mother,� he called to his wife. oDo you want to say hello?�
Silence again.
oNow where the hell did she go?� he asked aloud.
oTTm in bed. Will you please be quiet? YouTll wake the kids.�
oYou didnTt tell me goodnight. I didnTt know you were in bed,�
he answered defensively, allowing a wee bit of aggression to slip
into his voice. He was beginning to feel bullied.
oGoodnight,� she clipped again.
He flushed at the dismissal and closed the bedroom door.
His phone call to his mother was unsuccessful. Her patented
melancholy and excessive forgiveness of his guilt easily nailed him
to a cross of her own choosing and he too quickly promised to
write and phone more often, a promise they both knew would be
the occasion of more guilt since it was sure to be broken.
If FosterTs phone call was unsuccessful from his point of view,
it was a bloodless coup for his mother. She said goodbye by
promising to pray for GodTs forgiveness when her son came back
to the church.
He walked around the quiet house, agitated and not ready for
bed. Impulsively, he made himself a sandwich and opened a beer.
When he had finished the sandwich and beer, he ate a small jar
of olives and drank a cup of tea. Finally he bathed, shaved, and
went to bed.
He couldnTt sleep. He mentally rewrote about ten ex post facto
letters to his mother. He couldnTt relax. He squirmed and turned,
trying to do it without waking his wife.
oWill you be still?� she said, her back to him.
He expelled a long sigh.
He knew that if he made no apologetic overture of some kind
for snapping at her, they would spend the next several days com-
28
municating through grunts and monosyllables. A spoken apology
would be too much. She would suspect gratuity and remain cool.
He offered to rub her back.
oWhy not?� he thought to himself. Besides, he felt the faint
nudge of the curse of Adam.
She didnTt answer, but she didnTt stop him.
It took ages before she relaxed under his rubbing. So long that
he had grown sleepy and indifferent to his desire. But her relaxa-
tion was tinctured with anticipation, so he moved over to her.
She didnTt really get involved, merely accepted him, and her
uninvolvement kept him dispassionate. His dispassion allowed
him to carry her almost mechanically through three levels of
satisfaction and she lapsed into a cozy sleep, still in his arms.
Foster remained awake.
Under her weight his arms started to ache after about an hour
and with a great effort he moved his wife to her pillow. His arm
had fallen asleep and it tingled and stung when the blood started
to flow again.
Foster was dozing off when he heard his daughter start to cry
in the next room. He faked sleep so his wife would get up to see
about the child.
The crying increased and he knew his wife was sleeping too
soundly to hear. She had actually awakened at the first cry but
realizing that Foster wasnTt sleeping, she hadnTt moved.
He got up, slipped on his robe, and eased into his daughterTs
bedroom. She was pointing to the dresser drawer and quietly
crying. Two days ago they had taken away her pacifiers and put
them into the drawer. Foster picked up his daughter and said
softly, oNo, no, Sweetie. No pacifier.�
She doubled her crying and pointed at the drawer again.
Foster sank into the rocker and started to hum and rock.
oShhhhhhh; shhhhhhhh,� he insisted quietly.
oYahhhhhhh; yahhhhhhbh,� she wailed louder and louder, point-
ing to the only comfort left in the world.
oShhhhhhh; shhhhhhh,� he pleaded, rocking more vigorously.
oYahhhhhhh; Yahhhhhhh,� again louder.
oOK, OK, OK,� he said as he moved to the drawer and extract-
ed a worn Binky.
Her crying trailed off when he popped the pacifier into her
mouth. She rested her head on his shoulder and started to relax.
When her breathing was regular and rhythmic and ten minutes
had passed since her last sniff-sniffing, he gently put her back into
her crib and covered her with her blanket.
Foster tip-toed back to bed and judged the time to be about
4: 30; it was actually 2:10.
He had a great temptation to think that he had brought com-
fort to three women on that January the third and just before
he fell asleep, Foster almost believed it.
Albert Pertalion
29
30
The Year of the People by Eugene J. McCarthy
(Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 323 pp., $6.95)
Disgruntled sports fans of American politics salivated when
they heard of the new book by Gene McCarthy on his 1968
presidential campaign. And it is a sumptuous new book: a sym-
bolic dove on the cover, catchy chapter headings, and a carefully
edited appendix. Seven bucks plus tax.
People, for some reason, are rarely objective on the subject of
McCarthy. Was he the proverbial white knight (divested of
sword and lance), or a tool of the New Left? The answer lies
smoldering somewhere between these two extremes, but The
Year of the People brings a notoriously ignorant public some-
what closer to the truth.
The contest for the Democratic presidential nomination turned
into a rigged rat race, and left a lot of people disillusioned and
disappointed. In this book Senator McCarthy attempts to dispel
some of the disillusion which came his way by a lengthy presenta-
tion of his own political philosophy. Palatable stuff to most
readers, but not when it is used to justify and banish the inevit-
able misjudgements made during the campaign.
The Year of the People succeeds in producing a measure of
sympathy for the Senator which is difficult to suppress. At times
he had to maintain two conflicting roles. One was the professional
politician, who must get out in the garden and grub for votes.
The other was a poet, guided by a morality and a sensitivity
sadly unique among politicians. The Year of the People makes it
perfectly obvious that Eugene McCarthy is a happier man recall-
ing poems along the Maine Turnpike than juggling and scramb-
ling for delegate votes inside a barbed wire fortress.
Switching off between these two views, The Year of the People
chugs along and trails off. Methodical and dry when Senator
McCarthy is speaking, but strangely whimsical and perceptive
when Poet McCarthy pipes up. The book presents no conclusions,
nor does it pretend to. ItTs an explanation of an unsuccessful
quest for the presidential nomination, unsuccessful because in
the end Eugene McCarthy was defeated by the totally unre-
sponsive system he had dedicated himself to reform.
William R. Day
The Ideal of the University by Robert Paul Wolff
(Boston: Beacon Press, 156 pp., $5.95)
Is a university a place to gain an education or is it a place to
get a degree? Are the two compatible? Does a university fail if a
student drops out, or does it succeed if he decides that education
is not for him? What is a university?
Robert Paul Wolff is a professor of philosophy at Columbia
University. He wrote this book after ColumbiaTs student riot
of a few seasons ago. He has co-authored another book with New
Leftist Herbert Marcuse of San Diego State. So watch out, right
wingers, this isnTt your kind of book.
Wolff is not convinced that American education is working.
He sees too many students struggling in high school for grades to
get into that ocollege of their choice,� then struggling four more
years for the grades necessary to get into graduate school. And
then their youth is gone. Suddenly they are one of NixonTs oMid-
dle Americans� before they have ever had a chance to find their
identity.
Grades to Wolff mean nothing; they are merely a convenient
way by which society and the deans of admission categorize each
yearTs batch of graduates. Wolff suggests that grades and degrees
should be abolished. Then each man would be judged as he is,
not as he appears on paper. But Wolff is a practical man and
acknowledges that with America as it is, such suggestions are
meaningless. He states, oOnly a social revolution of the most
far-reaching sort could free education from the twin curses of
evaluation and ranking.�
Among many others, Wolff makes these two positive and prac-
tical suggestions: First, destroy the multiversity. Establish sep-
arate schools for the sciences, the technologies, and the social
services. Leave the traditional disciplines free to recreate the
university. He makes this suggestion because he sees criticism
as one of the important functions of the university. A university
31
which relies upon governmental grants for social and scientific
research cannot offer criticism without endangering those grants.
With the onational security� departments on their own, the
traditional disciplines could fulfill their historic and important
function as critics.
Second, abolish the dissertation in favor of a doctorate sans
dissertation. America could then have the professors that it needs
without subjecting them to the ritual of psuedo-research. The
United States produces thousands of Ph.D.Ts every year. It is
impossible for each of them to make an ooriginal� contribution
to the body of knowledge without resorting to writing tomes on
scarcely consequential matters. Recently Yale University appar-
ently came to the same conclusion. That school has created the
Master of Philosophy degree"a degree requiring all of the doc-
torate course work without the dissertation.
Wolff's book was written to provoke thought. It succeeds. Read
it"itTs about your life, your university"your rat race.
John Fulton
Woodstock Nation by Abbie Hoffman
(New York: Vintage Books, 153 pp., $2.95)
Meet Abbie Hoffman, by self-admission oegotistical, horny,
show-off, and Yippie non-leader.� In great need of money for
his Chicago conspiracy trial, he sat down and in five days came
up with Woodstock Nation, a book so full of contradictions that
it completely resists evaluation by traditional methods.
Plot? None at all. Characters? Leading man Abbie Hoffman
himself, supported by a cast of lesser figures including John Sin-
clair, Richard Nixon, Woodstock Ventures, and many more.
Setting? Amerika 1969, divided into Pig Nation (them) and
Woodstock Nation (us). ItTs as simple as that.
Abbie is this, Abbie is that; Abbie is the Tom Paine of his own
revolution. He flits like Mandrake the magician through an un-
cm
real world of H.U.A.C. hearings, Pentagon marches, street battles,
and music festivals goofing on everyone in sight. He nominated
a pig for President, asked a Congressman if he could go to the
bathroom, and dumped money on the New York Stock Exchange.
These were events designed to dramatize various absurdities by
use of even greater absurdities.
So Abbie went to Woodstock, the biggest of the biggies, to set
up a hospital and spread the cultural revolution to 400,000 po-
tential revolutionaries. His only problem was that very few peo-
ple came to dig Abbie Hoffman"they came to dig the music.
When he got up on stage to harangue the crowd, Peter Townsend
of The Who broke a guitar on AbbieTs acid-tripping head and
planted a firm kick in his backside.
Woodstock Nation is a kick in anyoneTs backside, even after
the outrageous clowning. At times Abbie lets loose a few semi-
profound statements, like this one: oThe revolution is more than
digging rock or turning on. The revolution is about coming to-
gether in a struggle for change . . . the old system is dying all
around us and we joyously come out into the streets to dance
on its grave.� Abbie Hoffman wonTt be dancing on its grave"
he'll be turning cartwheels naked on the tombstone chanting the
Hare Krishna backwards at Spiro Agnew.
William R. Day
14
LS
18
1g)
20
Zl
22
23
24
2S)
26
Lom
®>
&
Christopher And The Green Blob
Early Saturday morning"itTs test-pattern
time on channel five.
Christopher comes, wrapped in the old
blue electric blanket with the plugs cut off.
He sees what Friday night has done to the
living room: the marks along the wall are
like stains ringing a bowl. And the bowl is
full! He stiffens his nose.
Then Christopher makes the television
bright and settles against the stained cush-
ions of the sofa. Friday night " Saturday
morning; whatTs the difference?
Always a window is open. And there is
Christopher inside the blue blanket shaking
with cold. And colder with fear when the
green begins.
Now he sees a trickle at the draperyTs
edge; it expands into a swelling mass that
moves like footsteps and sounds like whist-
ling wind. It ascends the wall, the closed
door; it forces beyond the cracks and takes
the house, the whole house inch-by-dreadful-inch.
Only the eyes of Christopher are steady. He sees clearly
what The Green Blob is.
That first night of his awareness to it he had slipped
from bed, dragging the blue blanket, and stood limply in
the hall. He saw and heard, or believed he saw and heard,
humped figures singing and rolling and striking the wall.
The singing, Christopher thought, was funny " funny
strange like the pitched laugh-scream of caged monkeys.
A zoo smell, too, reminded him of the strong turnip-juice
pools the dirty fox stood in. And someone whose tongue
stuck out like the plank on the edge of a pirate ship cough-
ed and splashed his blue blanket.
Christopher remembered the smoke, a thick green un-
movable fog that blotted the lights and made him feel cold,
so cold. A bad day-nursery dream, he thought.
So Christopher cried.
Then arms quickly lifted him, and the blue blanket was
tucked about him by hands with a touch that was familiar
but which he could not recognize.
Someone soothed him with a voice that was familiar but
which he could not recognize.
oThere Baby, itTs all right. Dent watch. Dont even
listen. Sleep, Christopher, sleep.�T
But he didnTt.
And always a window is open. And there is Christopher
shaking.
A door slams down the hallway. A toilet flushes. This is
ChristopherTs cue. With the blue blanket wrapped about
him like a protective cape, he hops across the floor to the
television and presses the channel selector.
Now when Mama or Daddy or whoever steps into the
living room there will be young Christopher awake or
asleep, but smiling.
He knows the patient little roadrunner has finished the
bloody old coyote for another week.
Lyn Colcord
34
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cm
_ In the operatorTs drunken temple
THE TIME OF A LIFE
(for William Saroyan)
a dream excruciates. The laughing Negro waves
again to the backyard boy as the train rolls
through.
And the messages get delivered. The deaths and
joys on yellow paper carried in a cap; news from
the pacific on a reéling bicycle. Stars hang in
the windows; the.boy grows wide: men come and ever go.
Sentimental say the critics,
i 0) 0) r- (o) 0) aa -\\an da) ce)ey4gme-lame-li(-)ammaelaceliaie)a|
(ore) 0} (oie ol-m ale o-180-1 ance) emma -i(-\7-16|
than by the heart's edge of a blunt blurter
of truth:
Just as crazy
Just as phony
Just as life
In March, A Lifetime Ago
Sitting in the speckled shade
Beneath a tree on a battered bench
In the city park at three oTclock
| search for an inner solitude
Wherein to think unridiculed
By the hectic hysteria of the world.
Enwrapped in winterTs last lonely breeze
| listen for screeching car wheels to lurch by
For the splashing ducks to chase each other
To the shores of some enchanted land.
Smugly inhaling stale cigarette smoke
While straining to hear the funeral sounds
From a radio battery which needs to be
Replaced, until an hour has passed
And the tired sun crawls to rest under a cloud
Freeing the lion wind to freeze at its will;
And | can do nothing but quietly cry
Realizing this sought-after peace is a treat
Found only in death, a rare delicacy
That | dare not taste just yet. And now
Retracing my steps in the drizzling rain
And inwardly smiling, | watch with distain
The illogical world going slowly insane.
37
A boy walking university briokwalks,
Mind teeming, Jnouth- open.
A leaf: the bogks omoldering. ont on 3
~ A stone; the smell. of ~citer pages >" Pax.
A door: ideas ~and people between the tie vers. -
Drool over the delicious JE wets 77% iS
Z0h;oniy god Ist listenT to that will O YE a a
ago Hungry, through. all thieT. o> - ai o
*Rutiimn-cabbage patclés of the; world.T -
aera Brooklyn� Monk |
oe.
" oracjous Tycotined saint:
yy te Ip And lesions. waited in the UneS
&
= The Conception
~ | conceived her in my mind,
the- child. you -never sired.
Her*hair,was, long and tales
it stripped. the, omoonlight trom the water.
Her eyes Were ~pools of évening Mts
ang she. seldom smiled
| carried herT ~in grave Jaught
and bore her ~with noypai
It ,was an éasy birth,>"* 7
- butTher life it.was not long
| must bury herT now in. lilies,
a stllir
ees
To F.T.C., Jan. 2, 1967
| thought of.
St. Francis among the birds:
when | saw you.
The grass was cold and wet
under my feet. =.
The rain fell,
like a soft igen weddi
of silver mist.
And | turne and sit-\op
the lace of my mantilla
streaming behind me.
mixing,
gait tears.
-
=
=
af
¥
ng veil
Tar River at Flood
High banks with the water
Snarling at them
Trying to tear them down
And invade the city
Broad brown expanse of swirling stuff
Eddies boiling to the surface
Water rushing to the sea
The pulse of the world
Sluicing through mighty veins
In the lowlands seaward
The water will cover the farmland
And destroy the corn and tobacco
Nature unmindful of man
Hail rushing down from the clouds
Water rushing wild from the river
Overflowing its banks
Men can but flee in fear
Before the oncoming flood
Go to
Jerry's
o
e S
| a S |
oo |
e� oa 7 |
| 2 a c a |
| oO + � ~~ : '
| | $8 sede: Cafeteria |
laa go us
oS . 2 © = 203 E. 5th Street
: 2 CORNER OF 8th. and EVANS
=~ © oO = =
oC = >. ae Villager
> ON D 8
= Emily M. Where you can see the food
om QA
co
Alvin Duskin
Big Value Discount - Downtown,
oWE THINK WE HAVE THE LOWEST PRICES
Funky :
before you make your selection
Fashions
_ a Im Sizes 3-13 and 414 11:30---2:30 LUNCH
5 = 4:30----8:00 DINNER
>
c., © =
Le) 2
a i n a 44 £ = GreenvilleTs : : se:
= @ AGN Notional whimseys attractive to quodlibetical
= 2 CY UE ae " fA = Most Unique Shop
Rw 4 1 H | Humans }
= 20 = UD aay ul The Mushroom |
a = x ee, Do come in and browse! 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. |
~~ = = et Ey ae (~til 6:00 p.m. on Saturday)
@ e and Students o
> East Carolina University School of Art Georgetown Shoppees, 521 Cotanche Street
Plus Donna Tabar
42
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43
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charles griffin
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