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By ROBERT BENDELOW
Two months ago, the job was im-
possible. Now it's simple. Remember
when you had only 22 seconds to do
your job? Well, now you've got 10
seconds more than you. need, still
22 seconds.
Minds crumble against the sheer
he Line -
boredom and monotony of the line.
Nothing much happens, except that
another engine, perhaps with a dif-
ferent color -spring comes this time,
instead of the usual greasy black.
Every 22 seconds another one comes,
and every day you've put on another
1200 pieces.
22 seconds a Ford
iRbert klai On &'eok4 and 7hinf4
Twenty-twc seconds isn't much
time to do a complicated job. But
once it's learned, the part goes on
in 10. The first weeks, it took 30 or
40. All you had was 22 seconds.
Pick some action fairly complicat-
ed, then repeat it 15 times in six
minutes. Then repeat it another 15
times, in another six minutes, then
again, and again, and again ....
Boredom is murderous, the mental
frustration is worse. If you think
about what you're doing, you'll go
crazy. So you don't. You don't think.
All you do is put on parts. Place -
Screw - turn - Lift -- Place -
Screw- . . . And you're cheaper
pounds. On your other side,
man's tightening head bolts.
wrench weighs 70 pounds, and
two cables holding it up.
the
His
has
STRACK'S LONG SEAO. .
Monontony, so you try his job---
splot! 70 pounds of wrench, driven
by 200 pounds of air pressure had
to move something when the belt
jammed. It moved you, over a parts
bench, and into the aisle, about 10
feet away. He lets go at the right
time, you didn't. Well, at least it
breaks the monotony.
Somebody's humming. Radios
don't work in this racket and around
all this metal equipment. Humming
or singing to yourself is the only mu-
THE ANTI-POLITICS OF FREEDOM
(Continued from page 15)
tant part of coaching," Strack be-
lieves. "But one of the nastiest things
ever written about me was that I
was a good recruiter, and couldn't
do anything else. A good coach has
to both get talent and a maximum
effort from it."
"Of course, you have to be able
to take criticism as well as glory.
It's a tough business, to be in the
limelight and then have to accept
what they dish out. But if you like
the praise you have to accept the
rest."
Winning is difficult . . . "Just the
pressure alone on five 20-year-olds
can beat a team. It's tremendous. I
don't know how I would perform un-
der today's conditions."
But there is no in-between
"Winning is important for the play-
ers. They have to be able to take
pride in their performance."
Winning has to be now . "I
can't live on past victories and
neither can anybody else. There
aren't many residuals in sports. So
what if I won last year. Where am
I now?"
But, in every event, winning has to
be . . . "Nothing can compare with
the feeling you get from victory--or
from defeat - especially when it's
your livelihood."
A livelihood that holds little ten-
ure anchored only by the conquests
of the moment. A livelihood whose
justification dangles precariously
amidst an impossible double stand-
ard inherent in inter-collegiate ath-
letics: a coach theoretically exists
primarily for the benefit of the
young athletes with whom he works,
yet in order to survive in a victory-
conscious society must exact his own
reward; a rewa-c? which at times
may tempt him to consider other
than the interests of those athletes.
A livelihood in which one man's
success means another man's fail-
ure.
"It's not an easy profession," the
coach of the Wolverines admits.
Especially when your own family
rubs it in.
At the Los Angeles Classic last
Christmas, Strack had reason to
cringe when his daughter pleaded,
"Daddy, can you get me Lew Alcin-
dor's autograph?"
Strack would have preferred his
autograph on a tender to play bas-
ketball at Michigan.
The difference between a winner
and a loser has rested on less.
"He was a god man, he did his share,
His fault was that he was human.
The line isn't. You can't be." ,
than any machine they could bring
in, so you'll have this job for a while.
It's a short exercise in Hell.
Anything to break the spell will
be accepted. Practical jokes, they're
a lot of fun. Two months after the
line's been making you metallic, you
find your air wrench has a reverse.
So does the wrench next to you. So
you switch it. The man next to you
Turns - Lifts - Places -- Screws
and screws and screws and screws.
Of course, somebody has to put
his part on, so you tighten it when
it gets by the guy. Then you switch
his wrench back.
Or maybe another job, perhaps a
slight change in the routine. That
little wrench you use weighs two
sic you'll hear, at least it takes your
mind off of what you're not doing.
What were those words? But then,
one phrase sticks, and is repeated
over and over and over. It's stuck
in a line, and you can't stop it any
more then you can the line.
Endless repetition is dehumaniz-
ing. Initiative doesn't exist, and im-
agination is outlawed. Change is a
cussing word. Repetition is the bless-
ing, following its tail like a prayer
wheel.
Once it was new. The job was
something different in itself, but
that was untold thousands of parts
ago. Then 22 seconds was a breath,
gone quickly, too short to really
measure. But the line has slowed
time, if it. moves at all. Now the 22
FAIR LANE FESTIVAL
presented by The University Musical Society of The University of Michigan
CHICAGO SYMPHONY'S BAROQUL ORCHESTRA
TICKET ORDER FORM-1967
Sunday, June 4-3:00 p.m.
ALL BACH PROGRAM
Suite No. 1, C major (5.1066)
Concerto for Flute, Violin and Harpsichord,
A minor (8.1044)
Concerto for Violin, A minor (5.1041)
Suite No. 3, D major (S.1068)
Sunday, June 4-8:30 p.m.
ALL BACH PROGRAM
Suite No. 2, B minor (S.1067)
Concerto for Harpsichord. D minor (S 10521
Concerto for Two Violins. D minor (5.1043)
Suite No. 4, D major (S.1069)
PERSONAL FREEDOM and person-
al authenticity, though never
held quite in such disrepute by the
older generation as some young
people believe, seem now to be more
pressing and essential concerns
among the young than they have
been for some time. They take their
examples and their theories where
they can find them-from French
existentialists, German romantics,
Russian mystics, this bearded poet
and that barefoot ex-professor. And
why not? But it is curious that so
few have noticed, as it were under
their noses, that the great works of
American literature have been ob-
sessed with the issue of personal
freedom and personal authenticity
for more than a century.
It took an outsider, necessarily, to
make this clear. D. H. Lawrence's
Studies in Classic American Litera-
ture, published in 1923, finally un-
veiled the fundamental issues of our
literature nearly a century after
Tocqueville's Democracy in America
posed the basic questions of our so-
ciety. Lawrence saw in American lit-
erature the western preoccupation
with mind and will carried to its
extreme limit, to a point where it
must give way, so that human con-
sciousness might at last return to
the body. If you haven't heard more
about Lawrence's Studies it is be-
cause fundamental books raise fun-
damental questions, and therefore
must be frightening a little-or a
lot.
The best academic work I know
that clarifies and extends Law-
rence's perspective is Marius Bew-
ley's The Eccentric Design: Form in
the Classic American Novel. Bewley
argues that the classic American
writers are those who believe in
democratic values and ideals, in op-
position to the Hamiltonian-types
who subvert those values and ideals
in our political and social life. He
names Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville,
Henry James, and Fitzgerald. In the
form of their fiction, Bewley says,
they tried to create a unity between
self and society that politics had
failed to make.
For.Bewley, then, as for Lawrence,
the ultimate location of freedom is
within society. Both Lawrence the
novelist and Bewley the critic; held
an essentially political view of per-
sonal freedom. Whatever means are
used to define freedom or to attain
freedom-"self" or "will" are more
common terms from our literature-
freedom finds expression in a com-
munity.
THIS IS A familiar view among po-
litical theorists-of contemporary
writers perhaps Hannah Arendt has
best expressed it, in her On Revolu-
tion and elsewhere. But there have
also been psychological, and now
psychedelic, views of human free-
dom, which insist that men are free,
can only discover their true selves,
outside society and in opposition to
it. The gap between the political and
anti-political views of personal free-
dom certainly goes far beyond the
grounds of literary criticism; but we
Robert Sklar, assistant professor of History and American
Studies at the University of Michigan, is the author of F.
Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Laocoon.
Address (after Mayl
10)
Jean Martinon, Musi c Director-Violinist
CHICAGO SYMPHONY'S BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Sunday, June 11-3:00 p.m. Sunday, June 11-8:30 p.m.
ITALIAN BAROQUE PROGRAM
LOCATELLI-Concerto Grosso in C minor, Op. 1, No, 2 BAROQUE CONCERTOS
CORELLI-Concerto Grosso. Op. 6, No. 8 HANDEL-Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 6
PERGOLESI--Concertos for Violin and Flute TELEMANN-Concertos for Trumpet; Three
RICCIOTTI--Concertino II. G major Trumpets and Two Oboes; Two
VIVALDI--Concertos for Piccolo, Flute, or Bassoon Violins; Three Horns; Flute
VIVALDI-d-Indy-Sonata No. 5 for Cello and Orchestra HANDEL-Concerto Grosso No. 5, D major
Antonio Janigro, Guest Conductor
CARAMOOR FESTIVAL OPERA PRODUCTIONS
Julius Rudel, MusiThursday, July 6-8:30 p.m.
c Director-Organist;
Wednesday, July 5-8:30 p.m. "THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE
"CURLEW RIVER" The story about Shadrack, Meshack and
A modern musical adaptation of the 12thAedgoadtirefncofig
Century Japanese Noh Dance Drama, Abednego and their defiayoKing
""Sumnidagawa" Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Operas Composed b y Benjamin Britten
To be performed in costume with acast of twenty-five singers and instrumentalists
(Duration time: Approximately one hour fifteen minutes each)
YEHUDI MENUHIN and THE BATH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Sunday, July 16-3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 16-8:30 p.m.
PURCELL-Suite from Theatre Musick
HANDEL-Concerto Grosso, F major, Op. 6, No. 9 GOEHR-Little Music for Strings, Op. 16
MOZART-Violin Concerto. D major, K. 218 MOZART-Piano Concerto, E-flat, K. 449
"YEHUDI MENUHIN, soloist HEPHZIBAH MENUHIN, soloist
BLACWOOD-(ALincln Cnte Comissin)BACH-Violin Concerto in a minor
BLACK OD-nCenter Commission) B (Mr. MENUHIN)
BACH-Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, G major HAYDN-Symphony No. 49 in F minor
BRITTEN-Variations on theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 (la Passione)
STRATFORD FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA OF CANADA
Oscar Shumsky, Director of Music
Sunday, July 23--3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 23-8:30 p.m.
HAYDN-Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major
OSCAR SHUMSKY volinist-Conductor ALL MOZART PROGRAM
MURRAY SCHAFER-Minnelieder for Mezzo- Serenade No. 12 in C minor, for Winds, K. 388
Soprano and wind Quintet Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219
PHYLLIS MAILING, soloist OSCAR SHUMSKY Violinist-Conductor
MENDELSSOHN-Octet, E-flat major, for Strings, Piano Concerto, No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482
Op. 20 JOSE ITURBI, Guest soloist
Concerts will-take place in th e open air, from the Terrace
State Zip
Order Complete Season (10 events)
or your Personally selected five
events, for special series rates.
(Check all concerts requested):
Sunday, June 4.......3:00 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 11......3:00 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 5 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 6 .. 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 16......3:00 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 23. 3:00 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
Cs
(°l
Cl
are talking for the moment chiefly
about American literature, and now
for the first time we have a bril-
liant and highly contemporary in-
terpretation of self and personal
freedom in American literature from
the anti-political point of view.
The book is A World Elsewhere:
The Place of Style in American Lit-
erature, and its author, Richard
Poirier, is chairman of the English
Department at Rutgers and an edi-
tor of Partisan Review. American
literature, Poirier says, offers "the
most persistent, the most poignantly
heroic example of a recurrent liter-
ary compulsion, not at all confined.
to our literature, to believe in the
possibilities of a new style. The new
American style was meant to release
hitherto unexpressed dimensions of
the self into space where it would
encounter none of the antagonistic
social systems which stifle it in the
more enclosed and cultivated spaces
of. England and of English books."
In Poirier's view, the great Ameri-
can writers struggled not to 'unite
but to separate-to free themselves,
to free their selves, from society, be-
cause the freedom and opportunity
they wanted for their selves could
only be found outside society.
To those who keep up with con-
temporary styles, Poirier will sound
quite familiar. His way of looking
at works of art is very much like
Susan Sontag's - which he recog-
nizes - and his way of looking at
the potentialities of the human self
a little like Timothy Leary's (without
the drugs)-which he does not ex-
plicitly acknowledge, although Poir-
ier and Leary both share the Ameri-
can philosopher - psychologist Wil-
liam James as a mentor.
pOIRIER'S approach to literature
is an unusual one for academic
critics. He insists that it means little
or nothing to judge a work of art
"success" or "failure," at least by the
common criteria of form or finisied
shape or 'meaning.' Here his aesthet-
ic views come closest to those Miss
Sontag put forth in Against Inter-
pretation. What matters in a work of
art is the activity of creation. Art is
not a product it is an action-and
therefore it can only be approached
through its style. Only Poirier in-
sists that this approach to art be-
longed to Emerson a hundred years
before Miss Sontag. In fact, he says,
it has served as the paradigm for the
great American writers ever since
our literature began.
Poirier traces the roots of this aes-
thetic sensibility back to transcen-
dentalism, that curious combination
of European romanticism and Orien-
tal mysticism that flowered in New
England in the early nineteenth cen-
tury-in order to bring it alive for
the unlettered, let us call it the orig-
inal floating league for spiritual
discovery. Thus the relevance of
Leary, too.
If you look back at Poirier's defi-
nition of American literature, you
have to admit that 'turn on, tune in,
drop out" makes this point more
succinctly. But of course Poirier is
not talking about "station WDNA" or
the two billion-year-old nervous sys-
tem, he is talking about creating
works of art-a subject which the
contemporary prophets and mystics
have so far graced with more heat
than light, unless you believe, with
Marshall McLuhan, that art is what
you can get away with. Yet to relate
Poirier here to Leary is not simply
frivolity. This is the point where, as
I have mentioned, Leary and Poirier
acknowledge the same teacher, Wil-
liam James in The Varieties of Reli-
gious Experience.
Poirier turns William James's psy-
chological views into a kind of lit-
erary structure. "There are moments
of sentimental and mystical experi-
ence," James wrote, "... that carry
an enormous sense of inner authori-
ty and illumination with them when
they come." For James these spir-
itual mon
ing, and
with the
James w
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3 f
PAGE EIGHTEEN
APRIL. 167 THE DAILY MAGA E APRIL. 67 THE DAILY MAGAZINE