Page Four

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Sunday, October 27, 197-1



JOEL MILLER and PAUL LEVI
SCULPTURE and DRAWINGS
OCT. 27-NOV. 16
AT THE
UNION GALLERY
FIRST FLOOR, MICHIGAN UNION
Opening Reception Oct. 27, 4-6 p.m.
Gollerv Hours: T., Th. 1-8 p.m.; Wed., F., Sat. 10-5 p.m.;
Sun. 12-5

will, III

BOOKS

SPEAKING STRICTLY
Attacking the way
speech is corrupted

VOYEURISTIC
Sensationalism sells:
Patty Hearst's saga

Eastern Michigan University
Office of Student Life
PRESENTS

MICHAEL
LORIMER
Classical Guitarist
Pease Auditorium
8 P.M.
November 7
General Admission
$1.50

TICKETS ON SALE AT McKENNY UNION
This event is made possible with the support of the Mich-
ioan Council for the Arts, National Endowment for the
Arts, and Michigan Orchestra Association ,

STRICTLY SPEAKING:
WILL AMERICA BE THE
DEATH OF ENGLISH? by
Edwin Newman. New York:
Bobbs-Merrill, 193 pp., $7.95.
By CHARLES STORCH
jWill America be the death of
English? A man like Ron
Ziegler, former White House
press secretary, might hesitate
to reply and ask for time to
evaluate and make a judgment
in terms of a response." But
Edwin Newman, television
newsman, critic and author of
Strictly Speaking, answers with
a clear and direct "yes."
Strictly Speaking, Newman's
first book, illustrates the de-
cline of correct and exact lan-
guage in America. For New-
man, not only has eloquence
departed the scene, but simple
clear English as well. What
remains is pomposity and ba
nality. "Much written and
spoken expression these days,'
$2.50 &3Q
FRI.-SAT.-SUN.
UNITED ARTIST'S
BIFF ROSE

f.
1
a

he writes, "is equivalent to the
background m u s i c that en-
croaches on us, in banks, res-
taurants, department stores ..
It thumps and tinkles away,
mechanical, without color, in-
flection, vigor, charm, or dis-
tinction. People who work in
the presence of background
music often tell you, and some-
times with pride, that they don't
hear it anymore. The parallel

I

EXCLUSIVE! by Marilyn
Baker. New York: MacMillan
Publishing Co., 278 pp., $8.95.
By VIRGINIA CALVIN
"Berkeley is a city of 10.6
square miles and 120,000 not-
so-square people. It's mother-
land of the University of Cali-
fornia. World center of radical
politics. Womb of campus riots
of the sixties.

UAC RAVEL IC
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with language is alarming." jOWEVER, N E W M A N' S Capital of gay militants,
 TIFFNESSAND B L O A T observation that language bisexual militants, and plain
, t plague the language. Poli- sets the tone for society leads garden-variety militants. Vor-
f ticians, soar to the heights of him, unfortunately, to abandon tex of black power, brown
formal, dignified speech only so his study of American language power, red power, gay power
they can hide behind a cloud for a broader and less effective and power to the people.
of fuzzy and unexamined no-' study of American society. He At eight o-clock on the night
Stions. Social scientists feed wanders into discussions of po- of February 4, 1974 . . . in
clear ideas into their computers litical polling, ethniity, col- the million-dollar mansions in
- only to have them readout lege presidents, British hyphe- Berkeley's foothills, maids an-
opaque. Advertisers make sim- nated names, travel, Broadway nounced that dinners were
ple concepts milky, then pour plays and convention gavels, of- served; In Berkeley's flatland
,I them in a bowl to see if the cat ten as a convenient excuse for bungalows, television sets
t laps them up. relating any moderately inter- warmed up for the nightly
Just as threatening to the esting story he might have three hours of escapism. And
3 language is the disdain for heard. The book thus seems to in the hundreds of Berkeley
rules of grammar and spelling. be a stringing together of es- communes, revolutionary rhe-
 Language is not so much used says rather than a coherent, toric grew hot while stale cof-
{as abused in advertisements, logical argument. There is the fee got cold."
broadcasts, magazines a n didistinct impression that New- *
newspapers. Even the New man is just filling space, much ITHT H E S E newsworthy
York Times is found wanting, he might fill television time comments, Marilyn Baker's
and numerous examples of its during uneven moments o EXCLUS E! oens the latest
carelessness are listed. The a convention or space shot co rS-off of the Patricia Hearst
rules of language have been so erage. kidnapping. Ms. Baker, TV
unrepentingly violated, that Newman's remarks on Ian- idnewswoman for KQED, San
some correct expressions, says guage are concentrated in the Francisco's public broadcasting
Newman, are now considered1 book's dnrduto ;tee sn station, informs us that she
by many a badge of dishonor. conclusion to summarize and to r ,te the book because the
The well-being of the lan- reinforce his ideas. Essentially, story of the Symbionese Libera-
guage reflects the well-being of he argues that when words lose tion Army and the kidnapping
society, says Newman. If so their meaning, ideas lose their of Patricia Hearst are too com-
American society must be in value. Politics might be im- plex for the television screer
serious trouble if it can toler- proved, he says, if English was and too monstrous to be printed
ate: improved, for people who are in our daily newspapers.
® Secretary of the Treasury more careful about what they' Not coincidentally, there is al-
William Simon advising Con- say and how they say it, might so a great deal of money to be
gress, "One cannot ad hoc tax be more critical and less gul- made and notoriety to be gained
reform." lible. from nine dollar books thai
® Hugh Carey of New York If this is Newman's rallying shock the American Sense of
saying, "I am considering of- cry in defense of the English Decency-that sense that is botl
fering my capacity for state- language, it leaves much to be disgusted and titillated by inti-
wide leadership," when asked desired. To remark that Amer- mations of premarital sex, co-
if he will run for governor in icans "would be better off if habitation, r a c i al ly mixed
1974. we spoke and wrote with exact- c o u p 1 e s, lesbianism, cock.
-- .--- ness and grace," does nothing roaches, and, horrors-stringy,
to inspire the purist or to con- haired men and women whc
vert the heathen. wear tennis shoes when they're
Strictly Speaking, while writ- not playing tennis. And the
ten with great charm and wit closer it can be tied to Amer-
(particularly the section devot- ica's fabled rich-as the Patty
ed to puns), is perhaps too self- Hearst story is-the better.
assured for its own good. New-
man may answer that America 1TCONCEDE that sections of
will be the death of English, 1 EXCLUSIVE! are interest-
but his arguments in defense of ing, especially if the reader
clears expression are neither had lost interest in the stories
forceful nor dynamic, and his of the SLA last spring and didn't
book suffers because of this. catch the newspaper or tele-
MON.- Perhaps he might have done vision releases every time there
Philo Record's better to borrow the firm con- was a new break in the case.
viction - while discarding the In Baker's book one can follow
logic - of the Arkansas school the leads that she (and the
McC rASL N superintendent, who refused to FBI) followed to determine who
allow the teaching of foreign the members of the SLA were,
and languages. "If English was and can learn a bit more about
JIM good enough for Jesus," he the personal backgrounds of the
said. "it is good enough for various members. For what it's
RINGER you." worth, one can follow Baker's
Chre trhi rrtt dissection of Steven Weed's can-
Charles Storch is a graduate jugal capabilities to the conclu-
student in the Journalism De- sion that Patty's conversion to
partment. 'the SLA was due to her falling
transcendental meditation
H41 Hill TREET as taught by
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TELL THEM how it is noth-
ing more than a means to \
get public approval for a mas-
sive program to build nuclear
power plants all over this na-
don . . . to totally automate
the entire industrial state to the
point that in the next five years
all that will be needed will be
a small class of button-pushers.
Tell them how the law-and-
order programs are just a shared it for more than two
means to remove so-called years. Not a word that her
violent (meaning aware) indi- bathrobe had been ripped from
viduals from the community in her body, and that, except f o r
order to facilitate the controlled the nylon panties, she was nude
removal of unneeded labor as she struggled against her
forces from this country . . ."' fate. Not even any long sum-
One could discuss the ideals mations about who Randolph
of the SLA, or the SLA's par- Hearst really is, or about the
ticular approach to ending op- father who had sired him and
pression, but these aren't sub- become a legend."
jects of interest to Baker. She So if you are interested in
says her book is the "story of learning what fascinates some
what I discovered while stalking middle-aged Americans, read
Patty Hearst and the Sym- the book. Just how many Ameri-
bionese Liberation Army," but cans are fascinated by cheap
a more accurate description is sensationalism like this will be
(in the words of TV guide) that apparent soon-I predict EX-
it's "the amazing story of a CLUSIVE! will be on the best
44-year-old TV newswoman who seller list within two weeks.
stayed two weeks ahead of the

in love with member Willie
Wolfe.
Also, the contents of most of
the taped communiques which
the SLA delivered to various
news media are included, and it
is interesting to be able to read
them all together. They are re-
vealing about the SLA's ideol-
ogy, which had most of us some-
what confused last spring. One
of Patty's first communique's
after converting to the SLA
reads:
"Dad, you said you would see
about getting more job oppor-
tunities for the people, but why
haven't you warned the people
what is to happen to them? ...
Warn black and poor people that
they are about to be murdered
down to the last man, woman
and child. . . Why don't you
cell them what the energy crisis
is really about?

I

comedian-sinqer-
sonqwrite r
"brilliant-better than.
ever."-Denver Post
1421 Hill STREET

m


police in her revelations about, !WHAT IRRITATES me most
the Hearst kidnapping case." are Ms. Baker's inconsisten-
Icies: it would not, of course, be
THE BOOK is actually Marilyn considered "objective" journa-
Baker on Marilyn Baker as I lism or reporting to include any-
Nancy Drew, with all the thrills thing in her book like specula-
for both the detective and the I tions on whether or not some
reader that one gets in the A m e r i c a n s are oppressed,
average murder mystery-for whether or not the energy crisis
$1.95 in paperback: "They saw i swas contrived, whether or
Patty struggling, her robe not all the working class is go-
ripped from her breasts, her ing to be thrown out of jobs if
body being hauled away like a the U.S. gets nuclear power
sack of coal . " ." plants, or whether or not there
The reader is plied with end-! actually were some people who
less quantities of unimportant,! were poor enough to welcome
ridiculous details about how the food from Hearst's ransom
Baker's loving sons Chris and wagons last March.
Jeff would sit up all night with And yet, she sees nothing
rifles across their knees to pro- wrong with equLting filthy kit-
tect their mother, about how chens and cockroaches with
"from February to mid-May, moral bankruptcy, or condemn-
there was no day off, no time ing Steven Weed for not being
to water the plants. . . . Not "man enough" to stop Patty's
even time to do such mundane kidnapping ("whatever happen-
things as rinsing out panty hose. ed to the real men in this world,
By summer I owned 123 pairs." men like Clark Gable!")
And nearly as tiresome is her Baker ends her introduction
continuously "loaded" commen- almost in the tones of a Nabokov
tary, such as her criticism of parody, "As I write this, a new
the way the kidnapping original- threat, a death poster has ap-
ly was reported: "No mention peared during the night on
of why Patty Hearst had been buildings in the Bay Area, de-
at her fiance's apartment. No manding my immediate execu-
word that she and Weed had tion . . ." Perhaps someone
_ ---I-should kidnap Marilvn Baker

t

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m

0


'fie a' v.. "Provides deep rest so she can qur
3 as a preparation for BOOK SALE Virginia Calvin
~ii ~ . IA sLI student in 'the L
dynami u~factdUivity >: ,'or our amnt
Centkcore Bookshops i*
TUES., OCT. 29
rP.M.h Tuesday's Daily L
336 MAYNARD STREET e Michiaon Union
Q K uentzel R oom U N V R S ITYfr a d t o l n rm t o o 7 1 8 5A RPiN gb-
KI o additonaloom cal -8 255 CELLA R
We are having a reception for u°_______________c{_______a______________________
SCELEVELAND AMORY
EtEELAr o f AMORYAVEL MICH. UNION 763-214 RAVEL MICH. UNION 763
MAN KIND?
Our Incredible Farn ildlife SKI UTAH'London at Christm
SPECIAL. WINTER SKI WEEK
LThursday, Oct. 31, 1974 DEC 24-31 1974 Dec. 24, 1974-Jan. 6, 1
1:15 p..to 2:00 p.m. MD$282, 00 Only $378.61
20 MR. AMORY ASKS WHY PEOPLE KILL ANIMALS. In explor-
ing the answers-for fun, for money, for revenge-he names t2ple o O
names and cites direct quotes. Even government agencies and 1 .Flight On Schedulec
Cone to Centicore to meet Mr. Atory a number of self-proclaimed conservationists and conservation
societies are taken to task, as are those organizations that are
who will be glad to autograph copies of his dedicated to killing for fun, such as the Southern California double occupancy Airline Jets
Archery Association, the Notional Rifle Association and the
book National Beaale Club. ' NCLUDES:

slgetting her
isly.
ais a graduate
,in guistics De-
WILL CT
A'?
,.
!-1 rg ouLTrZ
--Pd. Pol. Adv.
as
975