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SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1969I
NIGHT EDITOR: MARTIN A. HIRSCHMAN
i . r.. .n.r.
Harvey and
the city government
THE SMOLDERING dispute between
Sheriff Douglas Harvey and the new
city administration proves that "law and,
order" may well have its way - and no*
amount of Democratic liberalism will stop
it.,
For as Harvey denounces the Mayor,
threatens to move into city parks a n d
provokes confrontations on city streets,
Ann Arbor officials privately shake their
heads in dismay. But they refuse to do
anything to stop it.
No amount of public rhetoric praising
new "cooperation" between Harvey and'
Harris will m a k e the inevtable show-+
down fade away. Because the mayor and
the sheriff profess politics which are an-
tithetical. Both have overlapping juris-
dictions. -Both w a n t their policies to
stick. And the, stakes in the struggle are
nothing less than the future of govern-'
ment and law enforcement in Washte-
naw County and the city,
Sometime, somewhere, the sheriff and
mayor must decide once and for all who
really runs Ann Arbor: Harris and the
council, or Doug Harvey.
So far, it looks like Harvey takes the
credit.
Look at the record. Sheriff Harvey call-
ed the shots on South University, ignor-
ing city pleas to restrain his' deputies.
Harvey denounced the mayor for pre-
venting proper law enforcement at West
Park, and Harris' own police backed the
sheriff all the way.
When Harvey threatened to move into
last Sunday's Gallup Park concert, the
city called it off-claiming a threatened
influx of motorcycle hoards endangered
public safety./And now the city has .ob-
liged the Sheriff by virtually prohibiting
any rock concerts in any park--except in
Gallup Park or the Fuller Flatlands along
the Huron River.
The city, of course, has pegged its con-
cessions on technical issues to save face-
police reports, for example, really did
show rmotorcycle gangs would flood the
city (40 cycles finally showed up). But In
the background, like a spectral club,
stands Harvey and his admiring public.
Legally, the city points out, Harvey re-
tains jurisdiction to move anywhere in
Washtenaw County - that means city
streets, and University land and build-
ings, which are all public property.
But Harvey's legal jurisdiction would
mean nothing if it did not rest on enor-,
mous political strength. County Sheriffs
do not bust heads, threaten to break up
public concerts, denounce mayors and
curse university presidents simply be-
cause the law gives them its blessings. '
THEIR SANCTION comes from the
public, which acclaims them or dumps
them as it pleases. And in Washtenaw
County, the public has put its sheriff on
a pedestal. '
Not everybody, however, loves Doug
Harvey and his troopers. Backroom whis-
pers in City Hall and the University will
tell you that some very influential people
in this city hate him and say Harvey has
got to go. Why, then are they silent?
The city helplessly isists it can neither
muster a case for Harvey's removal by
the governor, or an investigation of his
conduct.
Perhaps the city has neglected its
homework:
Harvey maintained a barbaric "incor-
rigible cell" without lighting, furniture
or toilet facilities until March, 1968
when the Department of Corrections
finally responded to public outcries and
ordered him to close it.
Attorney General Frank Kelley asked
the Washtenaw County Board of Super-
visors last August to investigate charges
Harvey was profiting from county funds.
Harvey, for example, ran up large bills
for alleged "extradition" trips to Cali-
fornia (although his trips did not coin-
cide with the extradition dates planned
by California law officials but with the
Rose Bowl). He took $500 for a convention
trip to Las Vegas, allegedly to help pay
for his wife's expenses (although records
show she was in Ann Arbor during the
jauht).
THAT HAS become of the investiga-
tion? Nothing. Even though a mem-
ber of the supervisory board called
Harvey's responses "totally evasive and
absurd," the board dropped the investi-
gation and a circuit court refused to order
a grand jury to pick it up.
But the list of Harvey's misconduct is
not complete:
Harvey was censured by the State La-
bor Mediation Board when he fired several
deputies for joining a union;
Harvey eagerly hired several policemen
after their own police ,forces fired them
for misconduct;
Harvey has been repeatedly charged
with brutal treatment of prisoners and
brutality in the streets; and
Under saner circumstances, any one of
these charges alone would justify-would
require - a major investigation of the
sheriff. The city has the power to request
one, but refuses.
Finally, the city refuses even to take a
public stand against Harvey-because po-
litical pundits say such a move would
only hurt Harris instead of help him. But
these are political gymnastics-both the
mayor and, the sherrif are irrevocably
past the game of political niceties and
saving face. The battle lines are drawn:
either Harvey controls law enforcement
in this city, or the Harris administration
does.',
NO, WE DID not elect the new adminis-
tration to compromise its promises of
humanitarian government with billy club
repression. The city has ,a moral and po-
litical obligation to do everything in its
power to oust Harvey. Nothing less will
do. Because when lives and liberty are at
stake, silence condones the crime.
-DANIEL ZWERDLING
Adding a
By R. A. PERRY
Contributing Editor
House of Sleeping Beauties, by Yasunari
Kawabata. Kodansha International Ltd.,
$4.50. Translated by Prof. Edward Sciden-
sticker.
Yasunari Kawabata, born in Osaka in
1899, won the 1968 Nobel Prize in liter-
ature "for his narrative mastership, which
with great sensibility expresses the essence
of the Japanese mind." W h a t, judging
from Kawabata's new book of short stories,
House of Sleeping Beauties, are the qual-
ities of the Japanese sensibility that Kaw-
abata portrays?
Certainly there is the sense of the ma-
cabre that stretches from the Kamakura
tgeli scrolls to the Poe-emulating stories of
kutagawa. Kawabata's story called, "One
Arm," included in this present collection,
begins with the lines: "I can let you have
one of my arms for the night," said the
girl. She took off her right arm at the
shoulder and, with 'her left hand, laid it
on my knee." In the eroticism which is bas-
ic to Kawabata's fiction there is also an
undeniable androgynous turn. The haunted
hero of "One Arm" exchanges the loaned
arm of the girl - "plump and round" -
for his own, and as he carresses his new
appendage, he imagines the nubile breasts
of the girl. This slightly hermaphroditic
neurasthenia stretches from Genji to Mis-
hima.
Kawabata's penchant for detail is not
in itself exclusively Japanese;tthe demands
that detail makes upon the reader, how-
ever, is perhaps a Japanese trait. One can
too easily consider, as in painting, details
as decorative, as filling up the page or can-
vas, but detail in Japanese art at its best
- as in Kawabata - should resonate to
the core of the artist's subject and the au-
dience's sympathy. When we read in Kaw-
abata "I rested her little finger on the in-
dex finger of my free hand, gazing at the
long, narrow nail as I rubbed it with my
thumb" we must recall that in Japanese
old men, only old men, can lie with them
for a night of anguished bliss. The "rules
of the house" are special, and are pro-
claimed in what must be one of the most
erotic opening lines in all literature:
He was not to do anything in bad taste,
the woman of the inn warned old Eguchi.
He was not to put his finger into the mouth
of the sleeping girl, or try anything else of
that sort.
Each time Eguchi comes to the inn, a
different girl awaits him, silently and pas-
sively. Each time, Eguchi f i n d s himself
forced, by the touch of a nipple or the
scent ofmoist breath or the color of lips,
to recall previous affairs of his youth, to
recall not only his lost potency but also his
forgotten failures. Each time, Eguchi feels
the ambivalence of passion and of distaste,
the desire either to mount or to murder his
sleeping partner.
The nue women indeed serve m a n y
purposes. On one hand they bring a sense
of rejuvenation. "There could be for an
old man worn to the point of death no
time of greater oblivion than when he lay
enveloped in the skin of, a young girl." On
the other hand, the futility is overwhelm-
ing and painful: "And around the old men,
new flesh, young flesh, beautiful flesh was
forever being born.' To #accentuate that
futility, it is tantamount to Eguchi, and to
Kawabata, that the females be virgins. The
strongest flashback that comes to the old
man is that of his first love: "The clean-
ness of the girl's secret parts came before
him and would not leave."
Filled with such sensual dreams a n d
strange present realities, Eguchi suddenly
faces the spaces in Time; a reminiscence
"comes through the opening left by a sud-
den emptiness in his heart." In the juxta-
positions between himself and the sleeping
virgins and between his present and his
past, Eguchi wavers between rage and res-
ignation, and Kawabata expands 'the mir-
ror images of death and eroticism far be-
yond the Elizabethan conceit.
I think Yeats provides the perfect em-
Ipote
blem for this story. Yeats wrote: "Desire
dies because every, touch consumes the
myth and yet, a myth that cannot be con-
sumed becomes a spectre."
As intimated, the story "One Arm" is a
surrealistic fantasy with descriptive prose
as powerful, as Magritte's paintings. Many
of the themnes which concern Kawabata in
House of the Sleeping Beauties form the
obsession in "One Arm." To be young is to
be clean, to never have been touched by a
man. When the "hero" dons the girl's arm.
his "dirty male blood" flows through it and
kills it. "Her own cleanness would leave be-
hind a drop of tragic dew, there under the
long shadow of the nail." Again, virginity
versus death, passion versus futility are
the themes in a story of mysterous ambig-
uity and symbolism t h a t only becomes
more potent and strange for the precise
details employed. S o m e of Kawabata's
writing is most beautiful,'for example:
, She would carry her legs lightly, like
a small bird, or a butterfly moving
from flower to flower. There would be
the same subtle melody in the tip of
her tongue when she' kissed. Like an
early Resnais film, meaning changes
with each viewing.
The third story in the collection. Of
Birds and Beasts, was written in the thir-
ties. It concerns a lonely man who fills his
time with the raising, breeding, and dis-
posal of birds and dogs. Here Kawabata's
described neuroses seem more stylish than
symbolic of mythical import, and his writ-
ing more discursive and repetitive.
As in the c a s e of Kawabata's novels
Snow Country and Thousand Cranes, Ed-
ward Seidensticker, Professor of Japanese
Literature here at the University, is the
sensitive translator. That Kawabata won a
Nobel Prize certainly casts honor on Seid-
ensticker, since most foreign translations
are made from his English version. Kodan-
sha, the publisher of some of the most
beautiful books on Japanese art, has pro-
vided an exemplary format.
4
prints, the exposure of a flexed toe can
represent sexual excitement.
Another characteristic of Kawabata's
stories that expresses a typically Japanese
artistic prerogative is the dependence upon
nature for images and metaphors which
expand and enrich meaning. The breaking
off of magnolia stamens mirrors the sex-
ual synecdoche of the woman's limb In
"One Arm." In a wonderful passage on a
fog which sealed windows "like a toad's
belly," Kawabata writes. "T h e pressing
dampness invaded my ears, to give a wet
sound like the wriggling of myriads of dis-
tant earthworms." "One Arm" is a mo-
mento mori of the m o s t claustrophobic
sort.
The title story in this colleption. "HOuse
of the Sleeping Beauties," is a masterfully
controlled narrative that wastes not one
word. It concerns old Eguchi, who comes to
a very special brothel. At this place young
girls lie in' a drugged deep sleep so that
Stanley Sweetheart, normal young pervert
By KEITH R. WOOD
The Magic Garden of Stanley
Sweetheart, by Robert Westbrook.
Crown Publishers, $5.95.
In his first novel, Robert West-
brook treats an o I d theme in a
contemporary manner. Westbrook
attempts to answer the question,
"What is the price of freedom?"
by portraying his hero, Stanley
Sweetheart, as a young student
caught up in the problems a n d
confusion that are a normal con-
sequence of university life.
Stanley Sweetheart is, -more or
less, a modern Man from Under-
ground. He is basically very inse-
cure, and his. search for security
leads him only further into his
own personal shell, toward inevi-
table self-destruction.
Stanley is a student at Colum-
bia University. He is, intelligent,
but undisciplined. His main prob-
lem is simply that he just doesn't
know what to do with himself. He
is bored w it h school, disgusted
with the American political sys-
tem, oppressed by the ugliness of
New York. In this sense, he is per-
fectly normal.
Stanley wants to break a w a y
from the confinements of con-
temporary society. He likes to
write, and he enjoys making un-
derground films, but just isn't sta-
ble enough to be successful.
There is one thing that points
in Stanley's favor, his ability to
charm members of the opposite
sex. But it isn't really c h a r m,
more it is a matter of luck. He has
a friend named Shayne who went
astray many years before. N o w
she, is inescapably trapped in-her
own mystical world of sex a n d
drugs.
Stanley steps briefly i n t o
Shayne's world but finds it utter-
ly repulsive because he realizes he
isn't needed to satisfy the orgias-
tic drives of Shayne. Shayne
would just as soon play with her
roommate Andrea, and when she's
high she doesn't need anybody.
Cathy Wellington is a very dif-
ferent sort of girl. She is a fresh-
man from Grosse Pointe; v e r y'
rich, very studious, very mannerly,
very good-looking, and very vir-
gin. She is, of course, very im-
pressed by Stanley's q u e s t for
freedom. Being tediously nurtured
by her parents, she is anxious to
join Stanley's mythical world of
excitement. Stanley has complete-
ly snowed the innocent freshman
into believing everything he says
is right.
Love, however, is a different
matter. Stanley does not love
Cathy, he is not Capable of love;
and Cathy has never experienced
anyone other than Stanley so her
infatuation is not real. Cathy has
visions of Stanley being very suc-
cessful and hence, a life of mat-
rimonial comfort. But Stanley is'
undisciplined and lazy. He with-
draws from university life, pre-
ferring to stay in the confines of
his small apartment living on the
nightly love supplied by Cathy.
Sex has become an integral part
of Stanley's life.
Stanley'sattempts at construc-
tive work a r e dissatisfying. He
tries to make an underground film
called Masturbation s t a r r i n g
Cathy's roommate, Fran. Fran is
somewhat less than attractive, be-
ing overweight and not the least
bit pretty. But by this time Stan-
ley has almost totally withdrawn
and easily succumbs to any desire,
he might have.
Being only a freshman, Cathy
has hours, so Stanley must find
something to do after midnight.
Although continuous affairs with
two women may be tiring, they
are not exhausting for a man who
does nothing else, so Stanley be-
gins to haunt the local bar where
Shayne and her friends hang out.
One of her friends is Danny, a
musician who has his own pys-
chedelic pad set up in the up-
stairs of an old theatre. Danny is
extremely intelligent, being born
with a remarkable gift of aesthe-
tics. He is an, artist in the truest
sense. But he is also hung up. His
parents had forced him to play
piano since early age so that by
the time he left home he was quite
fed up with it. So he took up hard
rock, acid music, and straight acid.
Quite E;>y chance, Cathy meets
Danny and she realizes in Danny
a sense of constructiveness that
is not present in Stanley. She be-
gins to see more and more of Dan-
ny until one day she learns of
Stanley's affair with Fran. Then
it's good-bye Stanley and resi-
dence with Danny.
Stanley is unable to cope with
this. He has lost his only bit of
security, the assuredness of having
sex with regularity. Fran has also
abandoned him because she can-
not put up with Stanley's unpre-
dictable behavior.
All Stanley has left is himself,
along with his lust for carnal sat-
isfaction. He returns to Shayne
and enters his magic garden of
exotic drugs and erotic sex. Along
with Andrea, Shayne's roommate,
he and Shayne begin a life of con-
tinual flight coupled with almost
unbelievable perversion.
Although h i s whole existence
has become a shambles, the
crushing blow comes w h e n he.
learnsthat Danny has committed
suicide. Danny has paid the full
price for freedom. Only now does
Stanley realize he is well on his
way to his own self-destruction.
In his effort to become free, to
escape everything that he cannot
understand, Stanley h a s totally
distorted reality. He has learned
Today's riters . .
KEITH WOOD is 'the Daily's
newlywed proletarian. T h e
sometime janitor is also a
graduate in philosophy.
R. A. PERRY, Daily contribut-
ing editor and chief music
critic, would rather have gone
to sleep than write this book
review.''
what life is and the price of being
free.
Although Westbrook's novel is
a timely one it is slightly over-
done. One has a difficult time be-
lieving all that is 'happening to
Stanley or understanding why.
The loose ends are not tied to-
gether and he does not delve deep-
ly enough into Stanley's con-
sciousness to give a reasonable ex-
planation of Stanley's behavior.
Mr. Westbrook also fails to give
the reader the full descriptions
that he might desire. One c a n
never form a good mental picture
of what is taking place or what
the isurroundings are. His descrip-
tions are nebulous, lacking in the
detail that is needed to make the
effect of the circumstances come
across. Heis particularly guilty of
this with personal descriptions.
His accounts of Stanley's sexual
exploits become almost boring.
Although he endeavors to explain
what is going on, he becomes rep-
etitious. It is true that Stanley's
erotic adventures are not supposed
to be aesthetically pleasing, but
Westbrook's repetition fails to
bring across the true orgiastic pic-
ture I think he wanted to portray.
Undoubtedly this book is des-
tined to be a best-seller because
of its sexual abundance, b u t as
good literature I think it leaves
quite a bit to be .desired. I must
admit that it isn't all that bad,
especially for a first attempt.
More than likely The Magic Gar-
den Of Stanley Sweetheart will be
a better movie than it is a novel.
1%.
wV
Letter
(Editor's Note: The following letter is a
copy of the statement Councilman Robert
Faber (D-second Ward) made to council
during its special session Thursday on con-
certs in the parks.)
To the Editor:
MOST OF THE middle age-plus citi-
zens of Ann Arbor have by now
roughly determined{ who they are and
where they are going. They may or,
may not be satisfied with their eco-
nomic or social condition, but they are
at least familiar with their routine
and comfortable in its repitition. Even
if the house or the -income is inade-
quate or the job not very satisfying.
the familiarity of the situation is
somehow comforting. With all the un-
happy uncertainities of- life - illness,.
accident, war, job insecurity - a very
large premium is placed on the status
quo almost regardless of the quality
of the status.
For a variety of reasons - ascribed
new dimension,
to our community'
because of a common, fear of change
and because the apostles of change so
frequently assume a similarity of ap-
pearance and performance that is un-.
appealing an antagonism has built up
within the community that beclouds
truth and befuddles reason. We react
emotionally and irrationally when we
confront long hair, bare feet and pos-
tures of aggressive disdain. When we
behold large accumulations of this new
breed we panic. And we have had large
accumulations of these people in the
parks since the ban on electronic mu-
sic was lifted. And we have panicked.
The time is hard upon, us for a more
thoughtful and studied reevaluation of
just what we have unleashed and just
what has transpired since hard-rock
has come to the park.
The concerts have turned out be-
tween 1000-2000 fans e a c h Sunday
since they have begun. They have been
extremely well and happily received by
the fans indicating at least a satis-
faction with the quality. The noise lev-
quiet appreciation of the whole scene.
If the gross and objectionable prob-
lems of the microphone abuse can be
controlled, if instead the microphone
can occasionally be used to advise the
crowd to a reasonable and legal be-
havior, the concerts can be a v e r y
meaningful event fulfilling a real and
evident need for a sizable portion of
a new generation and adding an excit-
ing new dimension to our community.
IN ANY DISCUSSION, however, on
the advisability of allowing continua-
tion of the rock concerts one'must re-
flect on the alternative considerations.
There is very little question about the
demand for the concerts and as long
as that demand exists it is virtually
certain an effort will be made to sat-
isfy it. The evidence of so many other
university communities should indicate
that the efforts, when made and abort-
ed, will lead to a violent and bloody
confrontation that will not quickly be
resolved. The law will be upheld, but
REAL AND OVERBLOWN stories of
obscene and lawless behavior hasi
deeply disturbed and frightened ai
large part of the community. Unfor-t
tunately and inevitably this has deep-
ened the split and heightened the ten-
sions between two, already widely di-i
vergent sectors. The problem, however,t
now that we have arrived at this point,z
is the resolution in,-terms of justice andz
tranquility. The memory and examples1
of other university communities is too<
distressing to rely solely and casually1
on repressive force. Minority justiceI
and majority consideration are deli-t
cate forces to keep in balance in the
framework of an orderly society, but
we must recognize the task and try tot
approach it wisely. Yielding to right-t
eous indignation and repression risks1
destroying t h e thin gauze of sanity1
that separates us from the jungle.
-Robert G. Fabert
Councilman, 2nd Wardi
July 10t
Unfortunately the article, as it ap-
peared, was more in the nature of an
interview with me than a synopsis of
the report. Also, oversimplification and
sensationalism in the reporting some-
what distorted the collective v i e w-
point which we hoped to express and
the tenor of the report as well. Argu-
ments concerning the ABM system are
rather tricky and if oversimplified can
be easily rebutted. In the hope of shed-
ding more light on the subject I would
like to insert some sections of our re-
port relevant to certain points con-
tained in the July 9 article.
Concerning the offensive nature of
Safeguard:". . It may be claimed
that although the Safeguard area de-
fense is neither technically nor theo-
retically sound, we have nothing to
lose by developing the system as a
full-scale experiment. The danger in
this delusion is that if the Soviet Un-
ion believes, or if certain elements in
the Soviet Union could effectively ar-
gue, that this useless system might
defense is both ineffective and at the
same time stimulates the arms race."
HERE AREA DEFENSE refers to the
ability of Safeguard to detect and de-
stroy missiles at distances of up to
several hundred miles. It therefore
protects large areas and as proposed
would in fact provide a light defense
for 97% of the continental U.S. In
contrast, pointdefense works at dis-
tances'of up to 25 miles and therefore
cannot effectively protect cities. Point
defense would not escalate the arms
rade to the same degree as area de-
fense since our cities would still be
vulnerable to a Soviet second strike.
In our cost analysis we drop all costs
associated with area defense both. be-
cause it is unworkable against a first
s t r i k e and because of its offensive]
characteristics. We assume that it will
eventually be dropped from the Safe-
guard program pending further re-
search.
expansion of Safeguard into a Revised
ABM with some credibility, is $40 bil-
lion compared to some $5 billion for
superhardening."
Finally on superhardening: "If we
assume that all Russian missiles will'.
carry a 25 megaton .warhead and will
have a Circular Error of Probability
(CEP) of 2,000.feet, then four missiles
would have to be detonated per Min-
uteman. In order to destroy 95% of
our 1,000 Minutemen they would have
to launch about 6,000 missiles (as- .
suming 67% probability of successful
launch and detonation). This is to
be compared with Secretary Laird's
estimate that the Soviets would have
about 500 such missiles in the mid-
'seventies."
TiE CEP is the radius of an ima-
ginary circle drawn around the target
in which 50% of t;e delivered war-
heads will fall.
Let me close by quoting the lead
paragraph of our conclusions: "Pro-