CHALLENGE SEMINAR:
Book Views Images of Man
By HELENE SCHIFF
Modern man is waiting to see
what the future holds rather than
working to create his own image
of the future.
This was the conclusion of the
discussion at the Challenge semi- i
nar led by. Mrs. Kenneth Bould-
ing Tuesday night.
The challenge of forming a mod-
ern image of the future was left
unanswered in Fred Polak's book
entitled, "The Image of the Fu-
ture," she said.
HIistoric Study
The book, which Mrs. Boulding
translated from Dutch, is a his-
torical study of the rise and fall
of civilizations ' with respect to
their images of the future.
Polak describes the kinds of
images that were predominant in
the civilization of Greece, Rome,
the Middle Ages, the Renaissancet
and others and traces the course
of these images throughout his-
tory.
There are two basic images of
the future according to Polak's
book, Mrs. Boulding explained.,
One is a utopian view of the
present. The other view is escha-
tological. The good future lies in
a realm beyond earth.
Strength of Images
In noting the relative strengths
and weaknesses of each of these
images, Polak points out that the
eschatological image cannot be
destroyed by realities and that
when the utopian image fails there
is more immediate disappoint-
ment.
Man's development and social
thought have gradually been turn-
Six Win Positions
In Councdl Voting
William Beach, David Bird, Jer-'
ome Ebner, and Edward Radway,
all graduate students, and Fran
Jarc, '62BAd, were elected to full
term seats on the Business Ad-
ministration School Student Coun-
cil yesterday.
JOAN BAEZI
ing from the eschatological to the
utopian image, Polak says.
Our generation is at the end
of the 19th century peek of op-
timism, Mrs. Boulding commented,
agreeing with Polak. We believe
that' things are good in their na-
ture sand that good will come if
it is pursued.
People To Wait
As long as utopia is in the fu-
ture and people are willing to
wait for it, the intellectual cli-
mate is a healthy one. As soon as
emphasis is placed on tomorrow,
man's degree of freedom is re-
duced and his flexibility is work-
ing toward his goal is reduced,
she added.
Many people today have no real
image of the future. They don't
realize that it is harder to main-
tain the status quo than to ne-
gotiate change, Mrs. Boulding
said.
Man has brough the limit of
his time to the present and is
therefore unable to project into
the future. For example, too many
people are not able to visualize a
disarmed world, she said.
}
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
presents
Thursday and Friday
FURY
(7:00 and 9:00)
Saturday and 'Sunday
ROYAL AFFAIRS IN VERSAILLES
(COLOR)
(7:00 and 9:25)
Fritz Lang, who created some
of the landmarks of the Ger-
man silent film--Destiny, Sieg-
fried, Dr. Mabuse, Metropolis-
and whose early sound M. has
remained a popular favorite for
thirty years, had a Hollywood
career that was not greatly dis-
tinguished. Of his two remark-
able endowments, his moody
architecture could find no ex-
pression the films made in the
U.S.A. in the 1930's; the Hitler
Germany he had fled would
have been more congenial to
his striking pictorial talent.
Fortunately, his concern with
the meaning of society, his
grasp of social dynamics, and
his handling of crowds found
a happier outlet in a day when
social criticism was not smoth-
ered in the cradle or forced to
take indirect expressions. Of
the film we are showing this.
weekend, Paul Rotha has writ-
ten: "Fritz Lang's American ca-
reer began. brilliantly. His first
Hollywood film, Fury, written
by Norman Krasna, was an im-
pressive social document. This
story of mob hysteria and ...
lynching was set so solidly in
the American scene that no
spectator could deny the truth
4f what he saw, or entirely dis-
sociate himself from the guilt
implied. . . . The sociological
and dramatic strength of Fury
lay in the detail with which
Lang cross-sectioned the entire
community in which the
lynching took place. What in-
terested him was not so much
the incident which provoked,
mob hysteria, as the buried
strata of small-town prejudices
and hates which, it brought in-
to the open. His attack went
deeper than mob-violence. It
inidicted the society from
which violence grew."
Last week Cinema Guild pre-
sented the French Revolution
and the years immediately pre-!
ceding from an. Englishman's
point of view. This week, it is
told by a Frenchman, Sacha
Guitry. Both as actor and au-
thor of over 60 plays (the best
of' which have been compared
to Moliere's comedies), Guitry
has been one of the most bril-
liant figures of .the French
stage. His approach to the
Revolution is vast and episodic.
His story spans the 300 years
during which the Palace of
Versailles was the hub of
French culture and history. "It
is my earnest hope," says
Guitry, "that Royal Affairs in
Versailles (1957) will be re-
garded as more than a motion
picture, for it is, to me, my
crowning achievement in more
than half a century of activity
in the world of arts. Royal Af-
fairs in Versailles is more than
a filmed story. It is a kaleido-
scopic cavalcade of historic
events that encompass, three
hundred years of French his-
tory, underscoring the glory
and' the infamy of the sover-
eigns who ruled from the most
fabulous of all seats of royalty
-the Palace of Versailles. .
By bringing together a spee-
tacular cast--Guitry, as Louis
XIV (also as writer, director,
and narrator); Orson Welles,
as Benjamin Franklin; Claud-
ette Colbert, as Mine. de Monte-
span; Jean-Pierre Aumont, as
Cardinal de Rohan; Gerard
Philipe, as d'Artagnan; Edith
Piaf, as a woman of the masses;
Marie Antoinette, Pompadour,
Voltaire, and Moliere-to in-
habit his spectacular Palace, M.
Guitry has produced a film
about which The New Yorker
says "If pageantry is your dish,
you can get a surfeit of it," and
Newsweek says "The surprising
thing about this lengthy ex-
cursion into the =past is that it
is only occasionally a trifle dull
... (Guitry) keeps things light-
footed almost constantly for
300 years."
$I
4
Friday-Oct. 27
8:30 P.M.
ANN ARBOR HIGH
Tickets $2.75-2.25-1.75
On Sale At
THE DISC SHOP
1210 S. University
HI F1 & TV CENTER
304 S. Thayer
I .NMI