Saturday, October 30, 1971

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Five

Saturday, October 30, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five


Within

the

D a n n y Lyon, CONVERSA-
TIONS WITH THE DEAD, Holt
paperback, $6.95.
By ROBERT CONROW
Books Editor
Conversations with the Dead
's a rare book. It is not only
haunting and compelling, as
prison accounts can easily be.
But most importantly, it is blaz-

oners. Lyon instilled an obvious
confidence in his subjects which
is dramatically reflected in his
photographs. The camera, in his
hands, became seemingly no
more intrusive than would, say,
a fellow inmate. At no time does
Lyon's focus slip into either
shallow sentimentalism or gawk-
ing kicks. Even the photographs
which are posed (and there are
a few) convey more the mun-

FVa us
anization as endured in mean-
ingless daily routine. Both the
prison records and the letters
which the inmates wrote to Lyon
convey this aspect above all
others. One such letter, printed
in full and ironically marked
"Censored" by prison officials,
expresses painfully the rock-
bottom despair of Aaron Evert
Jones-an inmate currently do-
ing life. For Jones, "each morn-
ing goes by like long worms, or
something. Man, I am so tired
of this place, it's funny." His
appeal is direct, honest, and, like
that of the book, profoundly un-
embellished.
Like many of his fellow in-
mates, Jones is the victim of a
law which says a man may be
charged as an "habitual crim-
inal" and given a life sentence
if he has had two prior felony
convictions and is charged with
a third. In Jones' case this
amounted to one burglary when
he was seventeen, later shooting
a gun into the floor during an
argument, and getting caught
with two stolen license plates.
The law's absurdity is strik-
ingly obvious, yet Lyon delib-
erately underplays the legal side
of such questions. The important
part for Lyon is not what goes
on outside prisons-but inside.
He forces us to reconsider vis-
ually, and one might add viscer-
ally, the impact of the law's ab-
surdities. Juxtaposed with the
prison mug shots of Jones are
the photos Lyon took. In them,
one sees the same man without
his prison numbers and, there-
fore, without the labels which
our troubled society feels impell-
ed to place on those who find it
difficult to conform to the way
of life we commonly call justice.
One photo shows Jones smiling
with a fellow inmate, another,
standing coldly isolated against
a concrete wall, and still anoth-
er, perhaps the most significant,
shows him waiting idly by his
cell.
The introduction to Conversa-
tions with the Dead plus the
concluding several pages are de-
voted to the accounts of a 40-
year-old diagnosed psychotic'
named Billy McCune. Twenty
years ago, when he was dis-
charged from the Navy for in-
eptitude, Billy McCune return-

Arnold Toynbee, C I T I E S ON
THE MOVE, Oxford University
Press, $6.75.
By JACK EICHENBAUM
The Cities on the Move are
today's mechanical megalopoli
gobbling up rural landscapes by
galloping along major transpor-
tation routes. Arnold Toynbee,
the historical eminence, sees
them necessarily coalescing into
an international behemoth called
Ecumenopolis, the World - City.
And he joins the populous ranks
of irritated urban scribes in re-
coiling at their homogeneous
escapist suburbs, n e g l e c t e d
slums, automobile - caused ma-
lignancies and unjolly, uncom-
munal social life. If these de-
ficiencies aren't c o r r e c t e d,
Ecumenopolis is going to be in
bad shape.
This is the essence of Toyn-
bee's contemporaneity. Most of
the book, in fact, reveals his
more familiar perspective on an-
cient history. Seven of ten chap-
ters are rather thoroughly de-
voted to yesteryear's cities "on
the make" in which the military,
political, and spiritual adven-
tures of ambitious city states,
empire capitals and religious
centers are retold. The book
jacket claims that delving into
the history of cities can help us
comprehend current trends but
such analysis is curt and casual
at best. What emerges are three
distinctive reflections on cities:
the premechanical past, the
present messy prosperity, and
the future vision.
Toynbee's recent personal af-
filiations, encapsulated in the
preface, p r o v i d e the most
coherent link' for these perspec-
tives. He is acquainted with
Constantine Doxiadis, the Ecu-
menopolitan entrepreneur, and
Jean Gottman, the megalopoli-
tan geographer. His present in-
quiries apparently crystallized
on one of Doxiadis' Delos cruises,
an annual journey devoted to
exploring Existics, the Doxiadis--
pioneered science of human set-
tlements, aboard a ship of sages.
As far as the historical analy-
sis is concerned, we are con-
fronted with a potpourri of
names, dates, and events rang-
ing from China through South-
west Asia and the Mediterran-
ean to Mexico and Peru. The
fate of city states' attempts to
dominate their agricultural hin-
terlands and long distance trade,
the fluid status of capital city
locations in imperial states, and
the allure of holy cities are la-

boriously documented. But the
result is an often repetitious
overload of disconnected ac-
counts lacking much organiza-
tion beyond a nominal classifi-
cation. We are told, for example,
in three different chapters, that
capital cities are s o m e ti m es
chosen for convenience, strate-
gy or prestige and are given ex-
otic illustrations from Rome to
Qaraqorum. But these categor-
ies are never well clarified and
often seem to be merely dif-

to slum amelioration are our
answers. Extending democracy
by adopting smaller units of ur-
ban government with the pride-
ful togetherness of city states is
the only proposal based on the
historical inquiry.. We also need
world government to subdue the
greedy nationalism of nation
states, and here- we do not wish
to emulate Rome.
The book ends on the rather
strange note that if our distant
ancestors had the innovative-

Gobbling Megalopoli

bbook oo ks

Billy McCune

ferent names for political ex-
pedience with the same illustra-
tions bobbing up again. History
is presented piecemeal in a ra-
ther bland style and any aroused
interest is frustrated by the lack
of references or suggestions for
further reading,
Present day conditions are
covered in a more developmental
fashion as an outgrowth of the
industrial revolution. The treat-
ment is adequate but offers little
in the way of originality. The
future is dominated by the vis-
ions of Ecumenopolis, projected
as a certainty due to an increas-
ingly integrated world trade and
agricultural consolidation. Ecu-
menopolis is expected to be ori-
ented toward fresh water supply
and should be most concentrated
around the American and Afri-
can Great Lakes.
Housing and transportation
are our most severe problems.
Bring back the railroad and di-
vert military and suburb money

Young los

ingly humane. Beneath the surg-
ing pulse of this book-caught
on film, in prison records, and
in personal letters and testimo-
nies-lies a singular force. This
force, transmitted through the
photographic lens of Danny
Lyon. records his f o u r t e e n
months' stay inside the walls of
six Texas penitentiaries.
As he moved among the pris-

daneness of prison life than the
obvious manifestations of its
horror.
It comes, I think, as some-
what of a surprise to realize in
this time of San Quentin shoot-
outs and Attica uprisings that
the most brutalizing aspect of
prison life may not be the threat
of violence at all, but, to the
contrary, the complete dehum-

Streams of Confusion

Joel Kurtzman, CROWN OF
FLOWERS, Dutton, $5.50.
By HOWARD RONTAL
Crown of Flowers, by Joel
Kurtzman, is not a novel that
"every American should read."
In fact, it is a novel that few
people could understand let alone
appreciate. In 1969 a few of
those who could understand it,
awarded Kurtzman the Univer-
sity of California's Eisner prize,
their "highest award for cre-
ative achievement." In general,
however, even the more sophis-
ticated reader will have, to put
the book down before the book
puts him to sleep.
The novel unfolds through the
eyes of five late adolescents:
Deke, Letty, Jess, Ossy, and
Tuss. But no matter what their
chronological . a g e (which is
n e v e r mentioned) they are
cursed and blessed with the
emotional sensitivity of children.
From a psychiatric standpoint
they are insane. Each lives in
his own world, responding to his
dreams and nightmares as he
does to the warmth of his friends
and the inflictions of the adult
world.
They became emotional chil-
dren because they could not
steal their sensitivities to face
the callous world. The book
opens with the death of a friend's
mother, burned alive in the fam-
ily home. Ironically she could
have saved herself had she
abandoned her child. Instead,
they both died. The women's
features are not described, she
has no personality save that of
a mother trying to protect her
child. She is the mother of a
friend and represents the mother
of us all. With the womb ripped
untimely from the child, the
protagonists and we are left to
the cruel world of men.
The five children must search
for another mother. They find
her in themselves. Each gives
to the others what he longs to
receive, the little tendernesses
and security that the world of
men won't give. They hold each
other, comfort each other, sing
together, and sometimes sleep
together. When these "children"
make love they become one with
each other and the whole uni-
verse. Letty, for instance, as she
makes love with Deke, "feels the
melting of her flesh into pud-
dles of soul and caring." No one
ever fucks. that is for adults.

world of men and the periodic
battles with their own and each
other's nightmares are too much
for them. As Jess says before he
commits suicide, "I am so tired
in my living, so weary with all
the smiling and all the pleasing
I have to do . . ." They need a
stronger yet softer mother and
they find her in earth and death.
In earth, because they can ident-
ify with her and share their pain
with her. Jeff says, "If you put
your ear to the earth you'll hear

the characters. Many writers
use stream of consciousness to
accomplish this. Kurtzman uses
several streams of conscious-
ness. We see through the eyes
of all his characters. Unfortun-
nately we can't always tell who
we are intended to be experi-
encing at the moment.
Chapter titles, for instance,
merely name the characters.
But does this mean that
the character is talking, or be-
ing talked about, and if the lat-

ed penniless to Fort Worth.
There, one night in a parking
lot across from the Liberty The-1
ater, he raped a woman. This
was his first and only serious
crime. But, in spite of consider-+
able confusion regarding who did;
what to whom, McCune was;
found guilty and sentenced to
die in the electric chair. While
awaiting execution in the coun-
ty death house and while the
newspapers continued their lur-
id descriptions of the brutal
rape-beating of a Fort Worth;
housewife, Billy McCune one
evening cut off his penis to the
root, placed it in a cup, and
passed it between the bars to a
guard. He was then hospitalized
and eventually returned to the
death house where his execution
was postponed five times before
being commuted to life in pris-
on.
Eighteen years later, Lyon met
McCune in his nine-by-five iso-
lation cell. They became friends
and the product of that friend-
ship, as recorded in their letters,
provides the keynote for this
book. Lyon explains that some- -
times McCune would send him
as many as three envelopes a
week, while other times only
two in a month. "But inside!
there was always something in-
credible, something beautiful,
something a man had painted
or written from a place where
nothing should grow."
McCune's colorful, a 1 m o s tf
playful, paintings and his pas-
sionate writings stand in dis-
tinct contrast to Lyon's stark
black and white photos. McCune,
as an "insider," offers no at-
tempt at photographic objectiv-
ity He writes and paints only
as he feels at the moment. After
being deprived of his art sup-
plies, he writes: "We can never
cope with my problems through
letters alone. The public will re-
quire more than letters before
they shed a tear for a bird that
don't fly. And it will take a lot
of tears to open the prison doors
of Texas."
McCune is, of course, undeni-
ably correct. But it is ultimately
Lyon, through his photographs,
who seems to focus on the pre-
cise ailment which supercedes
letters, tears, and even the pris-
on doors of Texas. Intransigent
prison doors are not particularly
unique to Texas. New York, in
fact, as Lyon points out, has
generally longer prison senten-
ces; and the United States, as a
whole, has the longest sentences
in the Western world. But tears,
unfortunately, can only serve to
blur our vision.
As a nation, we have shed
countless tears in avoidance of
honest confrontation with our
"other" selves. Our Jim Crow
laws, our immigration and In-
dian policies, and most obvious-
ly, our penal institutions, point
uniformally to our unwillingness
to accept that which does not jive
with our concept of national
character. We cry and close our
eyes. Most recently we have wit-
F
FRANCONIA COEGE
R Franconia, N.H. 03580
A

nessed at Attica a prison so
skillfully designed architectural-
ly as to effectively seal off from
the townspeople (whose very
livelihood depends on the pris-
on) any indication of the hu-
man lives inside. In America, if
an individual does not fit the
ascribed culture pattern-that
is, if we think he can not be
"civilized"-it has been our Am-
erican way to banish him from
view. If Aaron Evert Jones is.
indeed, an 'habitual criminal'
and if Billy McCune is, as he
very well may be "psychotic," a
forced prison isolation hardly
serves as cure. And the sickness
which keeps them there is ours,
not theirs.
Danny Lyon, through his pho-
tos, has provided us with a way
of regaining our vision. As such,
his book is a guidepost to prison
experiences which is as import-
ant as Eldridge Cleaver's Soul
on Ice, or George Jackson's Sol-
edad Brother. Above all, it is a
book which should not be avoid-
ed.

Aff II

ness and, fortitude to begin city
living and endure its hardships,
then we should have the courage
to continue the struggle. Some-
how this melodramatic finale re-
minds me of one of those WPA
murals depicting the hardships
of intrepid pioneers and toils of
industrious workers which adorn
the lobbies of many public build-
ings. The rest of the buildings
are conspicious in their medioc-
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SCORPIO,
OCT. 24-NOV.

22


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her cry cause she's gone through
such a lot." Death, because it is
the final release from pain, is a
merging with all the universe
of things, people and time.
Kurtzman, however, makes clear
in the last chapter, with an al-
most verbatim repetition of the
opening scene of fire, that we
are all born to die and die to
live again. When he realizes that
pain is only part of this cycle
the pain no longer envelopes
him, it becomes only an accept-
able part of him. But for Kurtz-
man's two self-destroyed char-
acters, Deke and Jess, death is
a beautiful release from bond-
age.
Deke slowly takes the blade
and when the water is warm
enough so that he doesn't feel
it he puts his hands in the
water with all the lights off
and silently slices deep into
his wrist and so the blood
flows with the water and there
is no pain and all that happens
is the pressure that holds him
up leaks out and turns the
water red and he sinks into a
flow and loses all dimensions
as he exhales his soul.
Hnntfiill +y this noin+ d 'i

ter, who is doing the talking?
For example, one chapter begins
with Deke's description of his
suicide. The next paragraph
tells of a nameless couple in bed,
the fourth about Deke finger-
ing his unshaven face, and the
fifth and sixth about Jess and
Letty mourning Deke's death.
The chapter ends with Deke
continuing his monologue, pick-
ing up in this paragraph where
he left off in the first. In the
first one hundred pages this is
the most readily decipherable
chapter. And after the reader
has broken the code on this
chapter he will be faced with
several other chapters in which
Deke seems to be talking. Is
Deke dead or alive? Not even
Deke knows for sure.
Kurtzman's use of streams of
consciousness and confusion of
time are logically the most fit-
ting techniques for this novel.
But he wrongly estimated the
effect of his technique. The
reader will not follow the writer
wherever the writer goes, par-
ticularly on a pilgrimage to the
shrine of death, unless the read-
er knows where he is every step
of the way Ttned of heing

Become the
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C education.
0
N Conceive it,
N describe it,

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