I . - - 4 - -- .- 11 p tC t[ c ri MtZ J MAGAZINE' Sunday, November 23, 1958 The Lengths and Depths of Humor S. J. Perelman's Works Are Collected in a Volume Guaranteed To Bring Readers Nothing but Laughs Vol. V, No. 7' "The Most of S. J. Perelman"-A Review BydLane Vanderslice _ Page Two Education Without a Harness By Erhord Lippmann Page Three Garrett-Montague-Fitzgerald: A Review By Donald A. Yates Page Four The Great Assault on Nature's Secrets By Mahendro Parekh Page Five A Profile of Bump Elliott By Jim Benogh Poge Seven Help for the Emotionally 111 By Gerald Lundy Page Nine SGC: Group With a Lost Mission By David Kessel ______Page______Ten__ Creative Spark for a Society Page Ten By David Guilloume Page Eleven Lyric Poems: Rich in Mood, Insight By M. Abbott __Page Fourteen Lolita: An International Controversy By Garden Mummo Page Fifteen Man's Most Widely Practiced Art-A Review By Donald A. Yates Page Sixteen MAGAZINE EDITOR-David Tarr PICTURE CREDITS -Cover: German Information Agency; Page Three: German Information Agency; Page Five: Department of Aeronou- tical Engineering; Page Six: Department of Astronomy; Page Seven: Daily -Charles Curtiss; Page Ten: Top--Daily--Allen Winder, Others--Daily-David Arnold; Page Eleven: Department of Fine Arts; Page Thirteen: Daily-Allen Winder; Page Sixteen: University News Service; Page Seventeen: German Information Agency; Page Eighteen: German Information Agency; Page Nine- teen: Department of Fine Arts. COVER--The contrast between East and West Germany is strikingly shown in these two pictures. The wide difference between the two is reflected in the attitude of each toward education. The approaches to education in Germany ore discussed in on article beginning on the next page. THE MOST OF S. J. PERELMAN, By S. J. Perelman. 650 pp. New York: Simon and Schuster. $5.95. SIMON and Schuster has neatly sidestepped the question of whether the selections in this book are really the best of S. J. Perel- man by titling the volume The Most of S. J. Perelman. The 650 pages in the book, the publishers assure us, are the most Perelman selections ever assembled. And in one man's opinion-S. J. Perelman's-the selections are the best, for Perelman has made them himself.'Included are all of two of his earlier books, Westward Ha' and Acres and Pains, and many articles published in magazines- primarily the New Yorker-from 1930 to the present. Dorothy Parker has said for many years (and she said it again in the introduction) that Perel- man is-the best living humorist. If this is partially due to lack of competentacontemporary humor- ists, it is mostly due to the fact that Perelman is genuinely funny, and can maintain a consistently high level of humor throughout MOST humorists, if they have ever written enough td fill a book of this size, would have quickly worn out their small for- mulas of household difficulties and personal inadequacies and with this, their welcome. Not so with Perelman. He has his own comic formulas, to be sure, and he uses them often. His published titles with his cooks and maids or his encounters with one or another of a whole host of obscure trade magazines would easily fill a slim volume. But he depends less on these comic formulas for provoking laughsthan he does on original content. Perelman consistently writes well whether it be as the spirit moves him or on assignment such as in Westward Ha in which he described his voyage around the world for a national magazine.. IN THIS SECTION, although "sicklied over with the pale cast of sun-tan lotion," he fixes the ridiculous with the same firm eye he displays in his other essays. "The memory of the next half hour will haunt my dreams for years to come," he says, describ- ing his trip through a pyramid. "Doubled over in a half crouch, we groped our way along a gal- lery approximately the length of the Simplon tunnel, crawled up a back-breaking ninety degree in- cline studded with slippery metal cleats, and scrambled everlasting- Many Items Suitable for XMAS GIFTSf That One Could Finish Before Xmas YARNCRAFT SHOP NO 2-0303 10 Nickels Arcade ly through a Stygian channel no bigger than a rain-barrel and cer- tainly not as fragrant." On the journey, he says, he 'managed to enrich every existing medical concept of claustropho-. bia." NY SORT of discussion at all of Perelman would have to mention his cast of characters, from gossip columnist Louella Parsons the veteran hunched over her typewriter in the turbu- lent city room, eyeshade askew and corn cob ablaze, pecking out bulletins and gulping coffee from a cardboard container" to one of his earlier cooks, "Philomene La- bruyere, colored, no laundry." "Philomene was a dainty thing, built somewhat on the order of Lois De Fee, the lady bouncer. She had the rippling muscles of a panther, the stolidity of a water buffalo and the lazy insolence of a shoe salesman." Although a good swath of life comes under Perelman's pen, more than anything else, he satirizes the English language. Literary puns, an often amazing assort- ment of words from the un- abridged dictionary, metaphors made literally true and inane word contrasts are the means by which he assaults the English language. IT ALSO helps explain why Perelman's earlier writing is not noticeably -dated. Given a slightly humorous situation, he develops it himself, without using topical material for an easy, though quickly fading, laugh. Unfortunately f or his popularity with the avant guarde, Perelman is not a political or social humor- ist. The nearest he comes to any kind of humorous social criticism is an occasional parody of Clif- ford Odets or Saks Fifth Avenue. Deep themes, or significant so- cial criticism will not be found in-Perelman. Humor will. -Lane Vanderslice Artist in Society (Continued from Page 12) slons which resulted. By the art- istes storming against the conven- tions and proclaiming the arts the realm of the different, the field of the arts was seen as a refuge or place of developmentE for not only the persons legiti- mately qualified for the arts, but also for any non-art, lunatic fringe social misfits. The shoutings and flauntings of these latter have come to be iden- tified with art and its practice to the hurt and confusion of theI qualified practitioners and the public in general. The practitioner wonders "can these values be valid"?, and the public, in ex-r asperation, concludes, "they're all mad." FHERE IS presently a fourth classification of the art prac- titioner taking form-the design- er-artist. The industrial revolution andI rise of industrialism took over most of the art areas and largely replaces the traditional art prac- titioners with the industrial and commercial designer. The designer, largely an Amer- ican invention, has gained tre- mendous prestige both on snob+ appeal and on actual merit, partly because our culture is largely a snob one and partly because our culture is oriented to the idea of technology and efficiency. The designer is the production line's solution and adaptation of the artist role. He is a high rank- ing (often executive) member of{ the hierarchy, yet geared to the desires of the public through the more or less successful inquiries of consumer research devices. Also, in a system and era geared to narrow tolerance of deviation, his products are ground out in absolute uniformity one after an- other, by methods toward which the public is favorably inclined, even though largely ignorant ofj the actual processes. The art pro-1 duct is fabricated in an accepted manner, whereas the product of a studio carries with it not only the possibility of being different (a quality, as noted, more talked than1 achieved or, desired) as well as being tainted by the differentl (that is, probably immoral) "art- ist." t Even though the designer and his wares are accepted, there isx still some of the old fear of thek "artist," much as actors are still1 looked on with suspicion by many. there will be personality and ~ad- Justment difficulties, NOT AL of these, however-in probability, very few if any- -willbe as a result of being an artist: lawyers, housewives, and shop clerks are also liable to devia- tions from the social norms. It is interesting, however, that whentan artist or arts-hanger-on is deviant, the blame for this is usually laid to his identification with the arts. This general attitude -almost entirely confined to the western world--seems to stem from the era of the rise of Christianity when the arts were declared be- yond the pale as pagan. However, the artist may or may not (depending largely on the in- dividual) identify with and be ac- cepted by his society as easily as most other highly specialized members of the group. The designer is in a position rather similar to that of the art- st, but, because of the bent of our society to venerate mass produc- tion, and the great urgency to keep up with the Joneses by even the lowest middle classes, the designer has a far greater prestige and, often, income. In effect, connec- tion with an assembly line obliter- ates any questions of unaccept- ability. The artiste is often in sad condi- tion. Not only are the artiste's j notions of his own position often FINE ART-The aesthetic value unreal, but the ideas concerning of art or the difference between him are usually unreal also. fine and applied art is seen in The prime examples of artistes this statue. today are probably those engaged in motion picture making, The ex- it should be noted that the classi- tremes of animosity and adulation, fications are types rather' than the absurdly varying tensions and particular persons; it is quite pulls and drives in alnlost every probable that one individual will phase of their lives, the values partake of more than one type. which are and are not meaningful Also, the development of a new to them, make one wonder not at type does not wipe out previous the maladjustments one notes so types - they can and do exist often, but at the fact that as deli- simultaneously. cate an entity as the humand mind can survive at all. 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He will produce goods (of the highest aesthetic qualities) as items directly utilitarian whether that utility. be on the level of a: stool or bowl or that of a ritual mask or funerary object. He will be valued to the degree in which he meets his society's demands for his goods. His adjustment to his society will be due largely to his r I p "'Your .hest Bet-Call2 VETEANS NO 3-4545 NO 2=4477 SERVICE TO WILLOW RUN and WAYNE MAJ PHONE EARLY FOR GROUP IIE3 GROUP RATES TO BOTh Al 14 i' ' 4 f' " Red * Pink " White " Turquoise * Royal Blue " Light Blue * Black PARALLELING the rise of the own efforts and abilities, not to designer has been a change in his engagement in the art areas. the public towards art that could The role of the artist will be well change considerably the role considerably more complex. The of art in the culture and, there- society in which he finds himself fore, the role of the art practi- may be comparatively simple or ticner. extremely differentiated. Com- Rather suddenly the masses, on plexity of social ordering offers an ever increasing scale, are in- wide choices with the possibility terted in art in all its phases, that the choices nmade may not be areas, and eras. This fairly recent the best. development, in conjunction with . Tension and insecurity are con- the acceptance of the designer, stants, and there is the possibility holds the possibility for the arts of regrets continuing long after a and their practitioners to once poor choice has been made. These more identify with and work for factors (which operate for all the society as a whole. members of the society) may seri- In closing this discussion of fously affect the' individual on classifications of art-practitioners, whom they bear. Almost inevitably o The Best in Oriental Cuisine Our chefs are ready to prepare the most delicious food for your enjoyment. 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