PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY" WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7. 1968 PAGE TWO TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY WEUNESIJAY. FEBREARY 7. 1~JIR Fi i.Iali{a.ehllL D. #. a a a aa alitfY , 1~VV 0 arts festival l1 Barth's 'Narrative s'-The Medium Is the Metaphor TIM p urETRS to Arlrl flinnflnriAlly A.n A.rldifinnAl I r Bay1.,VJ bAd5a aU awunuioanUy an OuuAaionai S! This review is not mine. While level to literature in emphasizingI I was. sitting in the Trueblood the "how" and paralleling it to Auditorium of the Frieze Build- human thought. He makes us payl ing last night, waiting for John attention to his means because Barth to come on stage, this they are saying something too. bearded limping fellow came up Last summer Barth and his to me and handed me a few sheets colleagues borrowed an electron- of paper, He told me that he had ics laboratory used by composers seenBarth's "act" before and had of electronic music. They were written-up an excellent critique. given free rein to invent what- What could I do but" edit it and ever they could, combining the hand it in to be published? "moving" medium of speech and This John Barth, professor of sounds with the stolid, unchang- English at the State University ink word of the printed page. His of New York at Buffalo, didn't "Narrative. lecture last night on any theor- vestigation. etical aspects of modern-day lit- The first Narrative is called9 erature; he is much too vibrant "Echo." Written for "monophonic; for that. Instead, he "performed" composer and disembodied au-. three of his recent compositions, thor," the narrative is supposed "Narratives for Voice and Tape to stand on its own coming solely Recorder." 'from the tape recorder, it being Noted for his novels "The Sot- the story-teller. It (our mono- weed Factor',andmorerecently,phonic composer and/oradisem- "Giles' Goat-Boy," Barth focused corder) uses the story of the on the often wide divergence be- Greek nymph Echo, her love for 4%.."+ a a mi at r~r a ai entirely that her other affairs poor exposition or points out a seem redundant;" such lines, sen- sual and yet biting, have become! part of Barth's style. The second and most puzzling of the three Narratives is com-I posed for "stereophonic tape re- corder and printed page;", it is a debate within one character. Each channel assumes a separate role in the conflict, and the print- i ed material (presumably to be read by the listener, but read by Barth last night) provides a psy- chological, analytic, impersonal comment and review. The chan- nels leave out words and the page responds "Fill in the Blank, fill in the Blank!" The arguing stops and the page comments on the weak metaphor. But is Barth doing more than commenting by example here? He shows us a writer filled with anxiety, and the very conversa- tion is his literary creation. Barth fools around with our sense of relationships so that everything is part of everything. In the end all three "voices" in unison ask simply "How in the world will it ever?" The third narrative is the most sensitive. It is entitled "Auto- biography" and is scored for monophonic tape recorder and visible but silent author." But it is not Barth's autobiography, the "I" is not John Barth; the 'I" is the very tape itself whose father is the author and whose mother L is the tape recorder. The speaker ' breathes the "breath of fiction." "You listeners give me life," it . says and as the tape slowly runs through the play-back we see for real the life of the speaker passing, second by second. Near the end the author leaves the stage and the tape continuestak ing about its death as we watch the reels spinning. We are present at the very second the speaker dies, as the tape runs out. Barth has made this polyester tape "human" and I actually felt I was watching someone die as the tape ran through. Creative Arts Festival Wednesday, Feb. 7 ROBERT BECKLEY Rackham Amphitheatre, 8 p.m. JOHN HOUSEMAN Aud. A, Angell Hall, 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8 JOHN STYAN UGLI Multipurpose Rm., 4 p.m. ONCE FESTIVAL Union Ballroom, 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 SONIC ARTS GROUP Union Ballroom, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11 YOUNG POETS' FESTIVAL Tom Clark, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan Union Assembly Rm., 2:30 and 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12 YOUNG POETS FESTIVAL Union Assembly Rm., 4 and 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13 YOUNG POETS FESTIVAL Union Assembly Rm., 8 p.m. ENDING "SPLENDID! INGENIOUS !" -Time Magazine "EXCELLENT PERFORMANCES !" --Carroll, N.Y. News -Wolf, Cue Mog. "YOU JUST HAVE TO GO SEE IT!" TONIGHT Progrom information r 8-6416 "A movie you won't want to miSs, --Judih Crst the Today Show 1* --Cosmopolitan Magazine j s Thursday "The Accident" 1 Olds Describes Art-State Battle Try Daily Classifieds tween the seemingiy permanent ; written word as in his novels and the transience of the spoken word. He took-up Marshall McClu- han's terms of "medium" and "message" and used them to ex- plain writing as "non-moving" media. "The medium may be the message, but it also may be a metaphor," he explained. Using the very processes of creating, speaking, and writing, he is able Narcissus, Narcissus' own destruc-' tion, and the blind prophet Teir- esias' prophecies. Echo pines away with love for Narcissus, losing her body, melting away to "pure me- dium." Combining almost Eliza- bethan grammar and vocabulary with modern vernacular, Barth produces such sharp humor that the complicated facts of the three stories seem unimportant. Echo "has been possessed by Pan so By NEAL BRUSS are least willing to give them, The artist and the State are to Olds said. "It's true, of course, a great extent natural enemies that in a democratic state like - and this is as it should be, our own there exists a good deal Prof. Clifton Olds of the art his- of freedom of expression. But any tory department said yesterday. state sets limits, either written or "It is absurd in this case to unwritten beyond which the art- think that the lion indeed can lie ists dare not go. down with the lamb," he said. "Thera is never any guarantee "The state, be it democratic or that those limits will everremain totalitarian, must insist on social, the, same. It is inevitable that the legal and moral stability. Any art- limits of freedom will be curtailed ist is dedicated to creation and by by the state when the state is the very act of creation threatens threatened from within or with- the status quo." out. Ironically it is at that mo- Olds discussed "The Artist as ment when freedoms are curtailed an Enemy of the State" as part of that artists seek even greater free- the Creative Arts Festival. The doms of expression," he added. title of the lecture, at least, was "Artists then, become enemies by Olds intended to be challeng- animosities are.no worse than the others we have to live with. They are facts of life which the artist must accept and even relish, for the artist rarely produces unless he is challenged. "The idea that art must be as stable as the state is a denial of what art is all about - namely creation and change." Olds admitted that the conflict can lead to the persecution of art- ists by the state - the cup of hemlock given to Socrates by his Greek contemporaries. "For those of you who are artists, I hope the cup won't be as deadly as it has been in the past. But if it is you'll have only those damned pictures you produce to blame - and I hope you all survive." SNEAK PREVIEW TONIGHT I 3020 Wasntenaw Ph. 434-1782 Between Ann Arbor & Ypsi Valley of thfe Show Time: Wed.-Sat.-Sun. 1:00-3:03-5:06-7:09-9:15 I I Mon. thru Thurs. 7 &x 9 Fri. and Sat. 1-3-5- 7-9-11 Sun. 1-3-5- 7-9 I BOGIE...KATIE.. the whole crazy MW-edup love story Is back In aon The elchn ..Mte leeches... the escape tRough the junle... WIR 103 PIC LS promf EY KATHARINE BOGART HEPBURN s .s. TECHNICOLOR Bogart's only Academy Award performance. EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT Vth Forum 210 S. FTH AVE. 761-9700 ing. "At the back of every aca- demic mind," he said, "lurks a desire to be controversial-to fill auditoriums like Paul Krassner or Timothy Leary." The history of art, according to Olds, has examples of -artists who were dubbed enemies by the state, although many artists were perse- cuted for their personal politics rather than for their paintings. The ancient Greek artist Pheidias was censored for putting a self- portrait on the shield of the god- dess Athene in the Parthenon. Church art was destroyed during the Reformation. Art has been attacked in theI twentieth century for being "de- generate" or Communist-tinged. A mural produced by Diego Riveraj for the Rockefeller Center in New York City was destroyed when it was found to contain a small portrait of Lenin.1 Artists seem to demand free- doms most at times when societies of the state almost automatical- ly," the professor said. "These Positively Ends Thursday ST = SHOWS AT 1,3,5 7; 9 P.M. -N.Y. TIMES "The Tension Is Terrific !" "Keeps You Glued. To Your Seat j" --MICHIGAN DAILY SNEAK PREVIEW TONIGHT FIRST RUN FOREIGN DRAMA Come as late as 9 00 and see both features Mon.-Tues.; Thurs.-Fri. 7:05-9:18 1 I I Starts Today NATIONAL GENERAL CORPORATION FOX EASTERN THEATRES 375 No. MAPLE RD. -769-1300 Friday 7:00-9:00-11:00 Sat. 3:00-5:00-7:00-9:00'11:00 Starts Today SUNDAY, 1 :00-3:00-5:00-7:00-9:00 i 1 , UMTIL DARK 1 FEATURE TIMES MON.-THURS. 7:00-9:00 I I Friday: W. C. FIELDS CARNIVAL i I I L sey& Pn ers aaccident" I Daily-Bernie Baker John Barth Program Information Dial NO 2-6264 at 1:30 5:00 8:10 only gasTECHNISCOPE. TECHNICOLOR* UNIrro ARTST Starts T ORROW! ORU S E GAT? There's a bullet at one end...and t hangman's noose at the other! "UNLEASHES THE PENT-UP VIO- LENCE OF SEXUAL LONGING AND ONRUSHING AGE. A DISSECTION OF HUMAN PASSION, ACCENTING THE MOOD OF HAUNTING IRONY," -Time Magazine "LIKE A PUNCH IN THE CHEST. PUT TOGETHER BREATH BY BREATH, LOOK BY LOOK, LUST BY LUST, LIE BY LIE. A COMPELLING FILM." -Newsweek Magazine "A GORGEOUS AND HAUNTING FILM!" -Esquire Magazine "TWO MASTER CRAFTSMEN AT WORK! A FILM TO WATCH WITH FASCINATION!" -Judith Crist, NBC Today "ONE OF THE TRULY NOTABLE PIC- TURES OF THE PAST YEAR!" -Archer Winsten, N.Y. Post TWO BEST Dirk- Bogarde - Stanley Baker FILM AWARDS The Joseph Losey 1967 CANNES ' Production of% FILM FESTIVAL aCCident Screenplay by t Harold Pinter Directed by seph Losey In Color I I NOTICE!! 11:00 P.M. SHOWING FRIDAY & SATURDAY "0 EOF THEYEAR'S 10 BEST! A PICTURE YOU'LL HAVE TO SEE- AND MAYBE SEE TWICE TO SAVOR ALL ITS SHARP SATIRIC WIT AND CINEMATIC TREATS!" --NEW YORK TIMES "THE FRESHEST, FUNNIEST AND MOST TOUCHING FILM OF THE YEAR!" -SATURDAY REVIEW "A MILESTONE IN AMERICAN FILM HISTORY"-STANLEY KAUFFMANN "THE FUNNIEST COMEDY OF THE YEAR"--CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "DON'T MISS IT!"-NBC-TV TODAY SHOW JOSEPH E. LEVINE PRESENTS MIKE NICHOLS PRODUCTION C This Hes a little about his hfuture UNIVERSAL PRESETNIS IEE VN EXPLODES INXOACTIONAS " C ElI V1 IR" 4 I ,Starting I I I i I - -- - a - - - -- - --