Friday, March 13, 1970 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Po'ge Fl've( Friday, March 13, 1970 THE MICHIGAN DAILY P6~e Five F, New Tadeusz Konwicki, A DREAM- BOOK FOR OUR TIME, The MIT Press, 1969, $5.95. Leopold Buczkowski, BLACK TORRENT, The MIT Press, 1069, $5.95. Stanislaw Dygat, CLOAK OF ILLUSION, The MIT Press, 1969, $5.95. By DAVID WELSH AFTER A MISGUIDED DE- BUT in 1952 with a Stalinist "production" novel (recently burned at the stake in China), Konwicki proceeded after the 1956 thaw in Poland to produce 10some of the most original fic- tion imaginable in the Com- munist bloc. The novel under review, now published for the first time in English transla- tion, is compared rather omin- ously on the jacket to Conrad and Camus, and has been called "one of the most terrifying nov- els in contemporary Polish lit- erature" (Milosz). To make things even worse, t h e novel starts with a suicide attempt from which the narrator is sav- ed by someone pushing an arti- ficial arm down his throat, forc- ing him to regurgitate whatever it was he took. But at least a third of the novel presents some of the most comic characters in modern Polish fiction and a love story that has what film-mak- ers ould call a "tenderly poig- nant' mood. Konwicki has had a g o o d deal of experience, in writing and directing films (the Grand Prix at Venice, 1968, f o r in- stance), so it is hardly surpris- ing to find certain film techni- ques used in his fiction. Long sections of the novel are cast in the form of flash-backs and/ or dreams - somewhat hackn- eyed devices to us, perhaps, but still new and fresh in a Polish context, where novels were for nearly a decade written under the stifling rule of "Socialist realism." These flash-backs and / or dreams are the "terrifying" part of which Milosz speaks. They recount the young natrrat- or's experiences during World War II, in Nazi-occupied Po- land, as he fights with the "un- derground", army against t h e Russians, in Soviet - occupied Lithuania. Of course, Konwicki never says who is fighting whom, or where, but an occas- ional place-name, phrase, brief description or single word strat- egically placed make it all clear enough, and in any case, Kon- Polish wicki here is working in the nineteenth-century Polish ;it- erary tradition, when authors had to carry on a ceaseless bat- tle of wits against the Russian censorship established in War- saw. Polish' readers are s t il l adept at perceivinghints or ,im- plications in novels. Other "terrifying" sections in- clude the narrator's long, night- mare-like "trial" in post-war Warsaw, as he tries to defend himself against charges of mur- dering fellow-countrymen dur- novels Indeed, in the course of a sen- tence, the narrator can shift from "I" to "he" then to "we," and the effect is that of fish in an aquarium, where one doesn't know which fish is following which, and it doesn't matter, because all the circling fish are tightly enclosed. To make things more arduous, the narrator clearly has diffi- culty in speaking at a l1, like Beckett or Cayrol. This defect (if it is one - Buczkowski no- where implies that it is) char- acterizes t h e entire novel, in which chaos dominates over ev- erything else. All the same, a terrifying and sometimes poignant narrative emerges, with brief scenes, here and there, that remain in the mind like personal experience- a major achievement for any novelist. FOR REASONS OF COPY- RIGHT, the original title of this n o v el "Disneyland") was changed, not very happily. Not that "Disneyland" is a satisfac- tory title either, though it pos+- sesses more exotic allure in Po- land than here. The trouble with Dygat's nov- el, is that it does not seem to h a v e much point. Of course, novels do not need to have a point, especially if t h e y are good -iovels. However, Dygat's "day in the life of" (I have al- ready forgotten his name) a celebrated athlete who lives in Cracow, is one of the least in- teresting novels I h a v e read this week. At least we may be thankful this character is not a celebrated novelist living in Omaha. In any c a s e, Dygat gives us some insight into his muddled brain, as he "becomes involved" (as they say in TV Guide) with several women (I have forgotten their names too'i, providing Dygat with the op- portunity for numerous pas- sages of embarrassing improb- ability. 'these are not improved by the translator's embarrass- ment at having to translate them. There is a blandness about the writing: Dygat himself is a very bland person, though it must be said in his favor that Bate and the shadow of Walter Jackson Bate, THE BURDEN OF THE PAST AND THE ENGLISH POET, Harvard University Press, 1970, $5.95. By BERNARD LEVINE In this set of four lectures de- livered at the University of Tor- onto last November, Mr. Bate tries to engage his general aud- ience with the relevance of this self-questioning study in the his- tory of 18th century ideas. Mr. Bate, whose previous work on Johnson, Keats and Coleridge are outgrowths of a deep-rooted concern with the interrelation of the classic-and-romance tem- peraments, here reorganizes fa- miliar material. The point of focus, "tradition and the in- dividual talent," to use T. S. Eliot's formulation, provides a center of discussion for that ser- ies of dichotomies which reflect the inherent division in the "18th century mind," and which generated the psychological in- tensity of 19th century roman- ticism: the struggle between neo- classic taste and romantic vis- ion. stylistic refinement and pri- mitivistic ideas, deorum and or- ganicism, skill and genius, imi- tation and originality, formal- ism and sincerity, fancy and imagination, ideas of order and the impulse towards revolution. The angle of vision in this series of lectures places the speaker in the observable centre of *his subject. One feels that Mr. Bate; is committed to his function as scholar by virtue of the common human element he finds in investigating the minds of great men. The conclusion of this study, the maxim that "you [ are ] enjoined to admire and at the same time to try, at all costs, not to follow closely what you admire ... ," is intended to serve as the statement of a general, and for Mr. Bate, per- sonal dilemma. The author, who has lived with the subject of this book in various forms since his essay in 1939 on Keats' negative cap- ability, has attempted to make relevant to the current revolt against academism and formal- ism his constant concern with what he calls the "eighteenth century debate with itself." The struggle for identity, he sug- gests, is a process by which rad- ical and conservative forces in history become the warp and woof of human metaphysics, a point of view that frames the past as a subject for continual contemplation. "The burden of the past," less a point of fact than a matter of mind, sup- poses that the genius of revolu- tionary periods, such as the lat- ter half of the 18th and 20th centuries, must have its roots in the past, and first struggles with its own consciousness of that past before it can recast the image of man. The art and literature of ro-, manticism fulfills itself in the person of the artist who out- grows the intimidiation of his tory. And the Age of Aquarius, presumably, has come to over- throw that period of "dry, hard" classicism that T. E. Hulme posthumously declared was due to counter the aesthe- tic and moral spiritualism of the 19th century. The present age, surfeited with such self- refining verities as imagism, new criticism, and logical postiv- ism has before it the precedent, of romantic release, originating in the Age of Enlightment with the now established shibboleth of a return to the intrinsic "na- ture" of things, The novelty of Mr. Bate's ar- gument is its attempt to, cor- rect some current conceptions about the origin of neoclassicism and the function of romantic re- volt. The period of classical li- terature in 18th century Eng- land, he maintains, did not ori- ginate in contempt of crude monuments of impassioned art, but rather attempted to culti- vate with due humility w h a t titans like Shakespeare a n d Milton left posterity, the polish- ing of imposing models of hu- man genius. Terms like "grace" and "propriety" became watch-. words of a faithful contingent refining the cultural accomplish- ments of the past. As a result, the gradual en- trenchment of neoclassical val- ues resulted in a simultaneous revolt from within the rational structure of neoclassical think- ing. It was the pre-romantic ad- justment of advocates in the front ranks (Pope, Johnson, Hume, e.g.) that proved to be primarily responsible for t h e full unleashing of romantic principles. Polarization was an internal not external phenomen- on, Bate contends. Indeed it was the impact of forces ex- ternal to the artistic process, al- vances "in knowledge, communi- cation and general civilization," that gave rise to the recurrent stoical notion that culture was devolving, a notion which pre- pared the psychological ground for a grass-roots overhauling of existing forms of expression. The attractiveness of these arguments, however, does not assure ther of general accept- ance. As an audience we are in- vited within the periphery -of Mr. Bate's purview of a parti- cular dilemma in the realm of ideas, and in the course of the lectures we seem to be follow- ing a not unfamiliar pattern of argument, relieved to come fin- ally into the open air of roman- tic ideas. We are glad to learn once again that the classical past is not alien to our repeat- ed search for revaluation, and that respect for monuments of the past does not preclude the natural striving for personal ex-' pression. M. H. Abrams, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Emerson Marks, in The Poetics of Reason, and Mr. Bate himself, in From Classic to Romantic, have by parallel paths pointed the way out of an abiding problem. If we wonder whether our close attention to the argument is amply enough rewarded by its general import, we need only consult Mr. Bate's respect for Johnsonian common sense: that to maintain balance in our response to experience we have to seek out not what seems continually new, but rather what will "fill to mind" as we "wear out the day." What is so rare in academic writing is the willingness of the writer to bend to the burden of the problem his pwn presence genius int ensifies. We wonder if Mr. Bate doesn't purposely confuse the referent of the Johnsonian ,we" or "one" used throughout his study. "We are thrown back," he claims, "upon o u r - selves and the realization that it is we who are collectively creating the circumstances we deplore . " . (p. 8>. And in a similar vein: "There is already more than enough from the past to occupy a longer life than any of us is given. No, one did not make one's entry into some- thing so important-- or jtry to maintain oneself in one's dif- ficult middle years - by open- ly advertising one's inadequacies and dread of impotence, espec- ially in a calling that one was by no means beit g forced to choose" (p. 96). The argument thus stated reveals finally a por- trait of the man wholly engaged in his subject. , : ' b 0 0 k s b 0 0 k s. ing the w a r (by implication, they were Communists), preced- ed by a gruesome street acci- dent xhich adds to the general feeling of horror and oppres- sion. These sections are, per- haps, all the more horrifying by being juxtaposed with th e scenes of comedy which make up the narrator's life "now." There are characters like the sexy Regina, her ferocious lov- er the partisan (with an arti- ficial .arm), Miss Malvina and her dotty b r o t h e r, creepy "Count" Pac, who insists he is merely a downtrodden "prole," and Glowko. the most incom- petent policeman in fiction. Stranded in an isolated com- munity, d ue to be evacuated when their valley is flooded to make a resevoir, these individ- uals squabble, make love, eat a rid drink (to0o much, some- times) in a series of scenes cre- ated by the hand of a present- day Gogol. BUCZKOWSKI'S EXTRAOR- DINARY NOVEL has won crit- ical acclaim in Warsaw's liter- ary circles ever since it w a s published in 1954. In transla- tion, it was also highly esteemed in Japan. No reason for this has ever been put forward. Since 1954, the question has been asked "Why has not Black Torrent been translated into English?" Atlast one has ap- peared, and the only question that remains is "Who is going to read it?" To be sure, there are similar- ities in theme and setting be- tween it and Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, e.g. the ag- ony of children under the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II. But there similarities end: in terms of fictional tech- nique, Buczkowski's novel is something entirely different. For a long time, the reader stumbles through strange, ap- parently disjointed incidents, often without being at all sure w h o these strange personages are, or ,who is speaking. Long conversations are reported ver- batim, inside other conversa- tions, and the quotation marks have to be watched carefully. Also . One of the nicer aspects of the eagerness of publishers to cash in on the Black Power movement is the publication of many novels by black authors who otherwise might have been passed over. Collier Books has just relased three1 nteresting new paperbacks in their Afri- can/American Library series. George Lamming's Two Worlds C olli d e, an autobiographical novel which ievokes the coming- of-age of a Barbadian boy in his dying primitive culture, has elicited from V. S, Pritchett:" "One is back again in the pages of Huckleberry Finn." A novel by Richard Rive, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, cen- ters around the Sharpesville Massacre of 1960 and delves into the racist tactics of the South African police; the title of the novel is Emergency. A lighter tale is told by Ferdinand Oyono in Boy!, a novel concern- ed with "what it means to be a black houseboy in a white Afri- can household." Ballantine Books,, in coordi- nation with an organization called Friends of the Earth, has published The Environmental Handbook; it is both an antho- logy on the ecological situation today and a compendium of pro- posed tactics aimed at amelio- rating that situation. A useful biblography, including a list of films, may be found here. The incredible, tragi - comic trial of the Chicago 7 is pre- sented by Bantam Books in an abbreviated form as The Tales of Hoffman. Segal's love for the millions Erich Segal, LOVE STORY, Harper & Row, 1970, $4.95. .By DONALD KUBIT A sense of skepticism invades the literary-minded when he dis- covers that portions of the book he is reading "first appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal. This fear seems justified when, novel completed, he can envision sub- urban housewives wiping doleful eyes with their gravy-stained aprons. Yet some degree of es- thetics is involved here, if for no other reason than the fact that a movie based on this book will star Ali MacGraw. Love Story deals with two parallel love themes: the amor- ous adventures of a poor Rad- cliffe girl and her rich Harvard male, and the relationships these two have with their par- ents. Oliver Barrett IV has a run- ning feud with his All-American, upper-class father who "runs a lot of banks." Oliver loathes "be- ing programmed for the Bar- rett tradition," resents his fa- ther's intervention ("would you like me to make a call . . ."), and possesses an ambivalent attitude toward Position In Life versus individual discretion. The sha- dow of his overbearing father haunts every decision Oliver makes and only after meeting Jenny does he become his own boss, giving up the hand feed- ing of his subservient state in favor of personal pride. Jennifer Cavilleri is a good Catholic girl who overcomes the loss ofiher mother by being a success at Radcliffe. She shares with her father the epitomy of parental rule. Theirs is a com- panionship, on a first n a m e basis that displays the moral intimacy of a family brought closer together by the loss of one of its members. Oliver' and Jenny hit it off immediately: he overwhelmed with her intelligence and phy- sical beauty, the by his back- ground and t e prospect of a societally esteemed future. Through the laws of magnetics t they are drawn together. Al- though Jenny is a bit of a bitch (with a sense of humor), Oliver sees in her another side of life -the sensitivity inherent in those who have had to struggle to get where they're at. He mar- ries her, despite his father's cutting him off, and they begin a life of "scrounging" until Oliver graduates from law school and once again gets "in the money." The story moves in leaps and bounds and we are forced to de- termine the characters' e m o - tions only by identification with our own lives. What we have here are "types" acting as we would suspect with results as predictable as the hockey game between Harvard and Dart- mouth with Oliver the captain of the Harvard six. Love Story is incredibly easy to read, which may be in con- sequence of its shallowness and its inability to involve the read- er any further than as an in- nocent bystander. It does pro- vide some facile, amusing dia- logue and second-rate poetic in- sights, such as one attributable to familiarity with the world of the super-rich: the Barrett's live in an area where "the houses are behind the trees." One can understand how this book - into its 3rd printing before publication - would be excellent material fop a movie, and it will be interesting to see whether more is done with the substance of the story or whe- ther it will remain a tear-jerker for Wednesday afternoon bridge clubs (and college coeds). Your kind of mus.i......... I Every one of the songs from her9 albums in one book. Here it is, words and music to all of your Judy Collins favorites, complete with comments, playing instructions, reminiscences and photographs. More than a songbook, this is a very personal I look at one of today's most popular folk singers. A perfect * gift for every Collins fan. An Elektra Recording Artist 5 Hardcover with 8 1 full-page color plates 9 Paperbound I ~ I I he ceased publishing during the worst Stalinist period in Po- land (1948-1955). Perhaps these two elements (sentimentality and blandness) help explain the phen omenal popularity of Dy- gat's novels, including this one, in Poland and the Soviet Union. At least seven printings (over 100,000, copies) of t h is novel alone have been completely sold out, and his earlier work is fre- quently reprinted. As usual, the MIT Press have d o n e an excellent production job. The peculiar-looking object on the jacket is, of course, the celebrated Kopciuszek Mound outside Cracow, which is not nearly as phallic as the design here. Today's writers . . DAVID WELSH is a Professor of Slavic Languages and Litera- ture at the University of Mich- igan; he translated the three novels which he reviews above. BERNARD LEVINE'S new book on Yeats, The Dissolving Im- age, is scheduled for April pub- lication by the Wayne State University Press; Mr. Levine is an Assistant Professor of Eng- lish at Wayne. DONALD KU- BIT, a senior LS&A student majoring in English, hopes to attend the creative writing pro- gram at the Universitybof Iowa. Comments on all book re- views are welcome and should be addressed to the B o o k s Editor. Encyclopedia 1 by Lillian Roxon 1 PoCK ENCYCLOPEDIA has . nformatioin that is available I Iowhere else-facts on over 1 600 groups AND THEN complete listings of their r records, singles, flip sides 1 JEDIA and LPa bumtracks.Equally 1 Wmportant, the commentary 1 is alive and exciting, "an A to Zombies pleasure trip." X HOWARD SMITH, THE VILLAGE I VOIC. _ $931 . , . ° : ., r: '; . , , - '4 . I ( "' R . S'x r .;. h, q ,. ° .d y q Y 4 4 t' _S,: t". , .. t X . /" f 6t. J.. v ,: s. s -: ' ! I ' It Has Been Shown That a Simple, Inexpensive Tune- up Can Reduce Carbon Monoxide and Hydrocarbon Exhaust by as Much as 50% on Most Cars. FREE TUNE-UP THE SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, in Cooperation with ENACT, Will Perform Free Tune- ups to as Many Cars as Possible, and Will Conduct Tours of Our Exhaust Emission Research Facilities. SAT., MARCH 14 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. (come early) PARTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT A DISCOUNT PLEASE NOTE: We Cannot Help Cars with Maior Mechanical Problems (Such as "Oil Burners") or Brand New Cars (Less Than 5000 Miles). THESIS DEADLINE MARCH 16 Avoid the Hassle. Check our Rates and Professional Service CAMPUS MULTISERVICE 214 Nickels Arcade 662-4222 Grosset & Dunlap Inc., Dept, COR A AINLGENERAL COMPANY5 SP.0. Box 152, Kensington Station, Brooklyn, N'ew York 11218 Please send me the following: ROCK ENCYCLOPEDIA -- copy(ies) at $9.95 JUDY COLLINS SONGBOOK,.-- copy(ies) at $9.95 Hardcover.I --copy(ies) at $3.95 Paperbound I enclose check [] or money order p in the amount of $.............. Name3 Address - - --I , City State, - N N - ----= = 1Wso - -=N N 1W N= 1 AN INTERVIEW IS LIKE A BLIND DATE. You invest some time and effort. And once in a while, you come up with a great relationship. Many engineers find a truly rewarding relationship begins in an interview with the Carrier Air Conditioning Company representative. He's looking for a particular kind of engineer. One who will bring to work a mature brand of enthusiasm for taking things apart to see what makes them tick. Try FLENTS®@ We'll help you turn that talent into the ability to design, make, and market air conditioning units of every conceivable nature. Equipment that cools everything from a bedroom to an Astrodome. We're the largest manufacturer of air conditioning products in the world. And we're looking for the new men who will keep us at the head of the pack. We need Product. Development Engineers. Production Engineers. Sales Engineers. Service Engineers. You might be one of them. Talk to our representative. He'll be on campus . . When it all gets too much, just put a pair of soft, pliable Flents Ear Stopples in your ears. Instant peace and quiet! Study, sleep, medi- tate, turn on to your own thing . .. with Flents. One pair 40¢, 6 pairs $1.75. And if a late-studying, light-burning roommate is the problem, Flents Light Shield is the an- swer. Comfortable, light in weight ., . it really keeps you in the dark! Black, pink or blue. Each $2.50. I WEDNESDAY. MARCH 18. 1970 m