*ednesday, March 24, 1971

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

*edriesday, March 24, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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Warhol:A

surface

John Coplans, ANDY WAR-
HOL, New York Graphic So-
ciety, $12.50.
By LAURIE HARRIS
j ANDY WARHOL . .. you've
heard of him and unfortunately
for this book you've probably
read something about him or his
art. "The book sets out to pro-
vide the reader through the ac-
companying illustrations a view-
ing of: a broad 'spectrum of War-
4 lol's painting and sculpture, es-
pecially from 1960 to 1964, by
which time the artist had al-
ready begun to shift his interest
to movies." The book itself is
divided into three parts, "the
man, the art, and the movies,"
which, by definition excludes
'verlapping, and, by the nature
of art and its relation to its crea-
tor cannot be avoided.
A monograph on any artist
supposedly delves deeply into the
reasons behind his art as estab-
lished by the time and life of the
,- rtist. It is supposed to bring all
is works together in a natural
and well blended synthesis show-
a depth and understanding of the
artist that could not be attained
easily from any other source.
Unfortunately, this book is
superficial and naive in its ex-
lanation of Warhol as a person
and the depth of his art. Every-
thing John Coplans says about
Warhol's art I have read before
in the simplest of pop art digests.
He goes through the development
-from an almost abstract ex-
pressionist period of sketchy
4cans and cartoons, on to news-
paper images and 9o-it-yourself
techniques and finally to the silk
screen processed images of Coca-'
Cola and C mpbell's soup. But
Coplans never really gets be-

neath the surface, there is al-
ways the feeling of mere expla-
nation of a painted ,anvas sur-
face and little mental depth.
Warhol is known to revel i- our
machine age and the sepai tion
between workers and product.
His techniques in the Factory
exudes this ideal. Coolai.s pre-
sents it . . . he goes no further.
The section on his life, entitled
"Raggedy Andy", is perhaps cne
of the most distant histoi ies I
have ever read. Interspersed
with Warhol Quotes, the piece is
supposed to show the Warhol
drive . . from ignominy to fame
Hollywood style. In an attempt
to show the elusiveness of the
Warhol figure, Calvin Tomikins
quotes interesting sequences:

hol sixties and beyon
couldn't they show jast
these shoe drawings .
sound intriguing and in
basic to Warhol's later c
commercial art exploitat
early work of this artist
totally past the general c
ity and this would be;
time, to show the full
ment of the artist.
There is one interest
tion of the book: "Not
Reseeing ,the Movies

portrait
id; why iug criticism, but in this case it
one of is simply put together too poor-
. . they ly. What Mekas does expose
acredibiy through past quotes from his own
eat'eer t, film criticism is that ne used to
ion. The be a better more acute critic,
has gone and, if it weren't for 'the other
commun- critics whose quotes run through-
an ideal out, the piece would also be hard-
develop- ly worth reading.
The final section of the book is
ing see- a filmography of Andy Warhol
es after with stills and short explanations.
of Andy It is revealing to note the faces

Chrysallis '71

Q.
A.
Q.
A.
Q.
A.

Do you think pop art is-?
No.
What?
No.
Do you think pop art i.+--?
No. No, I don't.

Maybe this is supposed to show
that he just doesn't ant to be
interviewed, that, as he has
stated, he wants to become re-
moved from his art . . . My ques-
tion is, 'Why?' and this book
simply never answers it.
Great detail is given uertaining
to the beginnings of Warhol's ca-
reer as a commercial artist
drawing shoe cartoons for I Mil-
ler, in New York. Nobody had
ever drawn shoes the way Andy
did. He somehow gave each shoe
a temperament of its own, Rsort
of sly, Toulouse-Lautrec kind of
sophistication, but the shape and
style came through accurately
and the buckle was always in the
right place.
Now I wonder, for a book that
is "concentrating" on the War-

An Ancestral

Alicia Bay Laurel, LIVING ON
THE EARTH, Random House,
$3,95, paper.
By ROBERT W. CONROW
Many books are made of other
men's books, but only a handful
grow directly from experience.
Alicia Bay Laurel's Living on the
Earth is a rare example of the
latter variety and, as such, pro-
vides a statement which is at
once as richly poetic as it is prag-
matic. In Miss Laurel's words:
this book is for people who
would rather chop wood than
work behind a desk so they can
,pay P.G. & E. It has no chap-
ters; it just grew as I learned
.. When we depend less on in-
dustrially produced consumer
goods, we can live i quiet
daces. Our bodies hecome
vigorous; we discover the
serenity of living with the
#rhythnms of the earth. We cease
oppressing one another.
It is tempting; of course, to
dismiss this type of writing as
just another product of the cur-
rent back-to-nature-and-let's-get-
published fad. But this is too
easy, for. Miss Laurel offers a
*great deal more. She is well
aware that even the maost will-
ing of bodies who have spent
their vigor on the nomforrs of the
"industrially produced consum
er goods," will find life in the
woods a difficult chore without
adequate preparation. And, i
supplying this necessary infor-
mation, her book may just be
the most remarkable handbook
for the young since Robert
Baden - Powell's ' Scoqting for
Boys was first issued in 1916.
Take, for example, tne sever-
*1 pages devoted - to making
shelters for housing. Designs
vary from a hogun-like dwelling,
to a tree-house, to a concrete
structure based on a plan by
Paolo Soleri. Or else, in a sim-
pler vein, the suggestion for a
tooth brush. "Cut a piece of al-
falfa root six inches long. Strip
off the outer skin, allow it to
sun-dry thoroughly, and strike
one end with a hammer to fan
out the fibers." Granted, this
may not meet Dr. West's hygiene
standards but it will, in any case,
suffice in the wilderness.
4 Other health suggestions run
the gamut from organic recipes
for shampoos and dandruff cures
to curing a common cold,
Throughout, one is struck by the
author's unyielding veneration
not only for the man who lives on
the earth, but also for the earth
Atself. In the instances of the tree
house; Miss Laurel warns not to
put nails in living trees: "many
times it kills them." Her answer:
use only the stumps of trees in an
area that has already been log-
ged. And then, the little pipe
which is the sink drain "can go'
Wight into the garden if you use
biodegradable soap."
Points on man's harmony with
nature are then counterbalanced
by Miss Laurel's unembellished

ers. "How will you educate your
children? How will you deal with
the government, with transient
people, runaways, etc? HoW will
each person have time for him-
self ias well as time to help the
commune? "and, "How will you
divide the expenditures?"
Perhaps, however, if Miss
aurel is obviously acute in her
questions about communal living,
she may seem most short-sighted
when approaching the vital ques-
tions of life and death. Although
there are four pages devoted to
canning, and three pages given
over to making soap, there are
only two pages describing "child-
birth at home" or, in other

Warhol", by. Jonas Mekas. Per-
haps it is not so marvelous in its
insights into Warhol's develop-
ment in film, but it is, at the
least, the most concocted blena-
ing of writing styles I have yet
read. The piece is laced together
with a touch of Fielding, and a
bit of Mailer and I suppose,
somewhere, a touch of the famil-
iar. It is refreshing when read-
Path,
to make Jessica Mitford, by com-
parison, appear pitifully out-
dated.
to die in the forest
cremate on a hot fire
so the smoke
goes straight to heaven
& the ashes
to the four winds
then a wake
the joy of liberation.
For some, such oversimplifi-
cation may seem to indicate a
flagrant violation of all civil and,
no doubt even, divine ordinance.
But ultimately, we must see ;Miss
Laurel as more poet than car-
penter. Her poetic vision, in fact,

and close-ups Warhol' use. to
make common events more than
just the event . . . but it can
only be fully realized is an ac-
tual Warhol movie.
Physically, the book is lovely
if all you want to do is took at
pictures of Warhol's mnast re-re-
produced art. I think you could
do better, if this is what you
want, for a little less than $12.50.

b
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The Residential College,
CHRYSALLIS, Spring, 1971, 50c
By HERB EAGLE
A dynamic collection of poetry,
prose, graphics and photography!
The present-day sons and daugh-
ters of Middle America confront
the sons and daughters1 of the
American, Revolution at a How-
ard Johnson's Restaurant in Kan-
sas and find: "The Great Rather
Torpid Nothingbeast."
This, of course, should surprise
no one. But the artistry, nder-
standing and pathos, with which
this oollision is rendered may.
Words intermingle with intro-
spective pen and ink drawings,
and whimsical portraits of chil-
dren black and white contrast
with the scowls of hardhats and
freckle-faced brats at a Victory
in Vietnam 'parade.
The young authors in this vol-
ume laugh at the tragic absurdi-
ties of their heritage, but Lt the
same time they search that heri-
tage and themselves for more
meaningful keys: keys that will
break them out of the constrain-
ing circles of egotism and false-
ness forged by their collective
p a s t s. Visions of absurdity
abound, metaphors tor their ani-
logic of our times: the hermit
renounces asceticism by eating
the flesh of an ascetic bird, rub-
bing himself in dung an pto:
nouncing himself clean; a lonely
librarian undresses, caresses her-
self before an unshaded window,
while an equally lonely janitor
watches from a room above:
their moment of self-recognition
seals their separateness; at the
Home .. ./ a hoary octogenarian
sits/ on a concrete bench in/ a
garden. He pulls the! plastic
strip and hole! from the red plas-
tic bottle,/ blows a stream aif
bubbles, and/ for an encore
blows another stream;/ eight
bottles a day.
Familiar issues are here: the
war, violence, racism, alienation,
automation-but there ire no
polemics. The surrounding ab-
surdity is viewed more often
with humor than with bitterness:
call me any time/ or not at all
but without telephones/ that a g
bell has made/ to laugh at us
with tuesday nights in mind -. -
don't wait for spring do it now/
why 'put off til tomorrow what
you can blow today/ whether did
mark twain or samuel clemens
say that/ makes no difference/
what's important is that there is
never any/ trouble with a g bell
and the fellas/ at the powerplant
until tuesday night/ when they all
get together and plug into My
line/ all the calls without zip-
codes . . . call me anytime/ or
not at all but without telephones/
.or if you do then screw up a g
bell et al/ by dialing numbers
and numbers and numbers/ until
you find pi or until the dial wears
out/ Just don't call me on tues-
day jesus christ not tuesday/
that's when I've got my hands
full with the avon lady.
Issues are subordinated to the
artist's p e r s o n a 1 perspective.
Whether in poetry, prose or in

the haunting graphics, the path
leads from outside experience
into the inner transformatins of
the mind: I am stalking iny;tlf
like a shadow/ sniffing intuitive-
ly at thought prints/ where is
memory in the past; a lot hap-
pens to a sailor/ when he leaves
port behind;/ home,/ once a bed
and steaming soup,/ becomes a
dream/ at the night-waten. The
search for meaning is not a lone-
ly one, however. There is a sense
of community here-a wanting to
crawl inside one another for un-
derstanding and protection, to
obliterate differences of origin
and race: whether in the lovers'
embrace, black and white, jew
and non-jew, or in ,the relish of
s h a r i n g another's bitterness:
filthy farmers!/ dirty, cruel! you
have white skin/ very plain are
your pulsing veins! lirs.,/all
stinking liars ,.' I shall take
your daughters to the city/ to the'
city without mercy/ to the elecc
tric eye/ all your tender fresh
(laughters/ like ripe tomtoes/
perfect just right/ and I, stik-
ing/ foul creeping son of a har-
lot! unclean grease - monkey
shall wean them with fuel oil/
slimy slimy fresh from africa/
(chuckle)
Sex is not Love or Happiness
or Mystical Experience. It is
communication without preen-
sions or defenses; it is a happy
eipathy: when suns/ are up/ and
moons/ are in/ (their bathrobes
being/ like as more or less the
same)/ or less the same/ as
clouds/ might have a choice/ in
fate/ if & when i need you/ baby
then/ threre will be/ like as
more or less the same/ new
deals/ brand new flowers/ games
and happy/ ness/ like as less
/or more of much the same.
In its forms, the writing in
Chrysallis represents an impres-
sive range of free verse and
prose. Many of the poets create
their free verse rhythms by
combining intonational and ac-
centual principles. Thus, "i&
when" uses an iambic tendency
in the odd stanzas, trochaic in
the even, along with a parallel-
ism of syntactic units, many of
them rarely foregrounded "fil-
ler" words and phrases. .3ome
rhythms are created by altenat-
ing enjambed lines, with their
high continuant intonation, and
unenjambed phrase-ending ca-
dences of falling pitch. Others
are based on the elegant sim-
plicity of syntagmatic balance-
with an unexpected enjambment
charging the concluding line:
Woke up this morning
my mouth wide like a cistern,
eating my pillow-
putting on my pants, I felt
the night deep in my stomach
There is also free verse which
is structured so as to emphasize
the connotations of individual
y words, and images or to exploit
the multiple associations of
words. The poem "'Bread and
Circuses Vision" uses two sets of
words and roots-one carrying
religious connotations, the other
related to the blodshed of the

So Good It's'

Frid Chicken
Lunch 89
3035 Washtenaw across from LieOldsmobile

1

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I


III

+ .

words, the same number of
pages it takes to tell how to
make a Mexican peasant blouse.
Many will be astonished to dis-
cover that the only supplies need-
ed to deliver a child are: " a
clean absorbant mat to lie on,
lots of cleanhrags, a receiving
blanket for the baby, castor oil,
antiseptic, and a sterile blade
& sterile heavy thread for cutting
the cord." And, "When the baby
comes out he will be blue until
he talpes his first breath. If he
has trouble doing so, hold him
upside down, clear his mouth,
and tap his back." All said and
done.,
As for death, Miss Laurel's sug-
gestion is so straightforward as

cuts through the complexities of
our daily lives in a manner so
incisive as to be absolutely dis-
maying. With her childish scrawl
and her delightfully carefree
drawings, she has provided us
not only with a prescription for
healthy bodies, but more than
this, an elixir for regaining a
purer society.
. . . if you have a feeling for
the flow of things, you will
discover a path: from traveling
the wilds to the first fence,
simple housing, furnishing
houses, crafts, agriculture, food
preparation, medicine - not
unlike the development of our
ancient ancestors.

I your contribution to mankind
being swept up on the 7:30 run?

Ii
A!
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Is your only mark on the world the
amount of garbage you put into it? Or are

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