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Page Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE

Sunday, April 8, 1973

Sunday, April 8, 1973-

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE



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(Continued from Page 5) lights dimmed and out came Ben- ban mother, the years in -France, people packed so tightly around;
HE LECTURE was at eight, but jamin Franklin and Anais Nin. how she came to America when her that I couldn't help thinking, I;
Anais Nin - by now she was Anais she was eleven. It was a charm- am part of an army that is crush-
when I arrived at a quarter to Nin to me just as Gertrude Stein ing accent, but an accent that ing a seventy-year-old woman to
seven there were hundreds of peo- was always Gertrude Stein to ev- didn't seems to fit any of those death. And so, in my shame, I
ple lined up in the lobby waiting erybody - Anais Nin was dressed places: it was hers alone. I tried turned my back on the mob scene
were women. For a week I had all in black: long, clinging blck to imagine her in the cafe with and, seeing a pitcher of water pro-
been hamindramsolagee odress and a black cape like Sabina Henry Miller in 1932, talking to vided for the speakers still sitting
been haing s of larehwoin her books: later somebody ask- him about Proust and Lawrence, on a table beside the lectern, I
men in stomping boots, marching ed her about it and she said she ordering wine, all in that accent. poured myself a cup of ice water,
very small, scurrying to the side always wore the cape because peo- She spoke for an hour, over an drank it down, and slipped the
e hds amlerin my kapaean ple expected it of her. It was a hour perhaps, without notes, and cup that Anais Nin had drunk out
to hide amorn te kgabae week after seventieth birthday. I had the same feeling I had when of surreptitiously into my pocket.
invitation to a reception for Anais She' was small, soft, graceful, her I read House of Incest and again * * *
Nn after her lecture. it was sign- hair still reddish-brown and swept when I read her Diaries: she is I arrived at the reception with
ed by the director of Women's up on her head. I couldn't believe saying this for me, this is exactly Anais Nin, stood next to her in the
Studies; Benjamin Franklin had she was there: Anais Nin. what I have been thinking. But
Benjamin Franklin stepped to where I have and sometimes lost elvtr nfct u i o
wrangled it for me. I the microphone to introducedher, chaotic arguments with friends speak to her, for when it comes
wearing his corduroy pants. I when we talk about technology and right down to it, what dIlyouosaye
thrown back and we surged inside, knew from talking to him that he the future of the world, Anais Nin o sai noti o
pushing, running down the aisles would make his favorite point that puts it clearly and reasonably And so I said nothing to her in
toward the front, throwing coats Anais Nin was, above all, a hu- when she talks about her reac- the elevator, and when we got out!
onwsats tho freser themwfr ans manist, a writer who spoke to all tion- to Future Shock: we must not I1lost her to a knot of admirers
on seats to reserve them for phan- people. And of course I agreed and cannot accept that technology and hung around the edges -of the.
tom friends. Could I save a seat with him and thought it was an will take over our lives and isolate crowd which was kept moving by+
for Skip? I dallied too long; I important thing to say about her and deaden us as human beings. a bodyguard from the Women's
tion for myself. r as a writer even though whenever After her talk there were ques- Center, feeling thwarted, listening;
When everyone was seated, the you said it it sounded like a tions: from a woman with a stri- to the questions asked her and
y w meaningless platitude. But when dent voice, about Henry, about the hearing her talk. Still, it was allI
Benjamin Franklin started to Diaries. Everyone had a question so pat, the people so passively
make this point he only got as far or a million questions bubbling oniwaited their turn to have a word+
as the first clause of the sentence: their lips: I could feel it, feel my- with her even though they were
Pots an Plants "Anais Nm is not a radical femi- self in a sea of questions. eager. They are like sheep, I
nist ." The crowd, mostly wo- That morning I had gotten a let- thought. Where is Henry Miller
men, booed long and loud, as if ter from Janet saying that she now, where is the person to make'
TROPICAL and EXOTIC he'd just struck out with the bases and her friend Kathy had stayed the wisecrack, to smash the chan-
loaded. Benjamin Franklin, frigh- up most of the night trying to fig- delier, to break the mold and make;
PLNTS and CACTI tened, did la greatt take into the ure out what they would say to the party? There are too manyI
videotape camera. The introduc- to Anais Nin if they were going to people and not enough heroes, I1
tion was considerably abbreviated. meet her. They had no sugges- thought gloomily.
226 S.M inThen Anais Nin ,got up to speak tions. People drifted off to talk about1
'S nand with her first words I rea- So the questions ended without the evening over coffee, to sleep!
761-0062lized: she has an accent! And me saying a word and Benjamin with husbands and wives and lov-
7 0thought of what I knew of her his- Franklin announced that Anais Nin ers, to study, to write in their
-tory, her Spanish father, her Cu- would pose for pictures in the diaries. And if there were a dozen ;
c <> <:><: :>: <> ;> >< <:< cfront aisle. The inevitable sorting people who walked out the front.
out process began: half the crowd, ! door of the building with Anais.
the merely curious, shuffled out Nin, four said goodbye on the front+
Slopping in the doors of the auditorium, sati- steps and three more said good-
ated. But the other half crowded bye on the sidewalk so that as we j
around Anais Nin as she stood walked the single block to the
A nVin the front, smiling, talking, sign- Michigan League where Anais Nin
ing book . Some people aggressive- was to spend the night there were1
slike stepping into a ly shouldered their way to the front only Professor Franklin, his wife,;
to have a word with her; others, his wife's sister and Duane Schnei-;
Mysterious Grand Bazaar of Instanbul like me, sheepishly stayed, hang- der, another Ni scholar: them
ing back, not wanting to leave yet and Anais Nin and me.
* Handwoven handembroidered blouses and pajamas ashamed to compete with the oth- When we got inside the League
Handwoven tapestry, mittens, socks ers for attention. I went around I displayed the cup I'd stolen and '
in back of the crowd and climbed said, If we don't have symbolism
- Handcrafted china, alabaster, copper and brasswork on the stage so I could see her, we don't have anything, and ev-
" Genuine Turkish towels, bathrobes trying to catch what she was say- erybody laughted, even Duane.
ing as she autographed books and Schneider as he berated me for
Silver handmade g eselrysmiled for photographs taken at being such an intense, young, Ste-,1
SPuzzle ringsdisturbingly close range. She phen Daedalus-type undergradu-!
looked calm and beautiful, dressed ate. Then Anais Nin kissed me
10 a.,n.-6 p.m. 215 E. Liberty 7615554 in black in the middle of that good-night and went in the eleva-1+
Swt ere so may tor with Benjamin Franklin, and:
o<-->o<><->o<->o<->o<->o>o<-><-y tcrowd, but there were so many when he came back down, alone,,

She stopped and looked at moo
smiling in recognition, but sur-
prised. "I was wondering .*.. was
I supposed to be ... somehow ...
waiting . .?
Again she smiled. "I just came
down to make a telephone call.
They will not let us call long dis-
tance from our rooms.",
She hurried to the phone booth
and dialed the operator. She call-
ed collect; I copied down the num-
ber. But I could not let myself lis-
ten to _ her conversation beyond
"Hello, darling." When she fin-
ished, I went to the phone booth
and looked up the area code in
the phone book: Los Angeles. I
fingered my stolen cup guiltily,
feeling like a spy.
* * *
At ten o'clock I went to class,
but the professor was talking about
Shakespeare's sonnets and Lon-
don in the time of Elizabeth was a
little . bit too far removed from
Montparnasse in the 1930's so I
left. I dragged myself to the En-
glish department to see if Benja-
min Franklin was in. He was. I
consoled him for the pasting he
had received the night before
when he introduced Anais Nin. He
tried to be philosophical, but he
was a little hurt.
What's the schedule for today? I
asked him.
Anais Nin was to lead a class
from one till two-thirty and then
go to a local bookstore to sign
books for a couple of hours. After
that she would eat dinner and
catch a plane to New York.
Is there anything I can do? I
asked.
Would you like to drive Miss Nm
to the airport? Benjamin Franklin
asked.
Would I like to drive Miss Nm
to the airport? I echoed. You
might as well ask if I'd like to
have God play shortstop on my
softball team.
Okay, then, Benjamin Franklin
said. Be at the bookstore at the
end of the autographing party; I'll
pick you up and we'll see how it
goes. I'm not promising anything.
But of course he was promising
something, and that something
that was promised kept me buoy-
ant as our conversation ranged
from Anais Nin and her works to
major league baseball and the
great players on our hometown
teams until finally he looked at the
clock and said, We ought to go
pick up Miss Nm and escort her
to that one o'clock class.
It was a sunny day and Anais
Nin wore a long beige dress cov-
ered again by her black Sabina
shawl. She took Benjamin Frank-
lin's arm as we walked. It was
beautiful the way she took his
arm, a graceful gesture straight
from the streets of Paris between
the wars when men wore top hats
and walked on the street side out
of courtesy so if a car sloshed by
in rainy weather or ran up on the
sidewalk the man would be hurt
before the woman. The old social
(Continued on Page 11)

Saying something ice about Friske
a talk with the ex-nwnber one
commie-hating John Bircher
in the State Legislature

Friske was obviously amused by
the last distinction. He grinned as
he said,
"I am not against equal pay for
equal work but I think that women
in the U.S. have more rights than
any other women in the world."
To Friske not only are birth
control and abortion immoral and
decadent but they are "a plot by
the insiders to eliminate the middle
class by a class conflict."
It was on the issue of class con-
flict that Friske seemed most well
versed and most vehement. He
knew the Birch interpretation by
heart and recited it like a first
grader recites the Star Spangled

i

by Martin,

Porter

f

Banner.
"The Rockefellers, K e n n e d y s
IT WAS AWKWARD talking to RICHARD FRISKE, State- Repre-. accident. If it happens you can and Fords are all enemies of the
Richard Friske after six months. sentative from the 106th legis- bet it was planned that way." middle class because it is the
He immediately began to rave lative district, looks the part of a Franklin Roosevelt middle class that is their last
about the conspiracy to silence him state politician. His thinning white "Our country is run and con- obstacle on their road to tworld
on the part of the press. hair and glittering green suit seem trolled by the Council on Foreign domination . . . it is by tools of
I had interviewed him early in to mark him as a man who has Relations which is an offshoot of birth control, abortion, guaranteed
September while he wars still in gone a long way from the penniless ! the Fabian Socialist Society in income, and integration that these
office and had promised t'hat his immigrant twenty years ago, to Britain and believes in an evolu- insiders are creating a class con-
interview would be fair, objective, the prosperous owner of fruit or- tionary program of bringing the flict."
and above all-printed. chards and "crusader against U.S. into a one-world communist "We are running into a problem
But six months later, the article Nazism, communism and big gov- t government under the umbrella of today where the educated are limit-
had still not been printed and I ernment" that he is today. the UN." ing their families and the popula-
was calling to update some in- His office was small, almost! Friske was satisfied with his de- (Continued on Page 8)
formation.-j makeshift, but was well stocked scription of the world conspiracy.
Friske seemed as eager to talk with John Birch Society literature He leaned back in his chair and <
now as before. Unfortunately he ranging from the biblical paper- noticed that he had not been totally
was still as equivocal as ever back Blue Book by founder Robert convincing. He started to move his
when he answered, "I was pretty Welch to the "post graduate fingers in intricate, well planned
sure that your article was not studies" of Gary Allen in None formations as he continued,
going to be printed, that is how Dare Call It Conspiracy. "The CFR is run by the intellec- jc
they work . . . they ignore us." Friske's "Horatio Alger story" tual, like that no good German dbI5 .
It was impossible to convince was momentarily interrupted when socialist Kissinger, the real Presi-.,
Friske that the article had been he was defeated on August 31 for dent of the United States. He is
harmlessly lost beneath a pile of the Republican nomination in the [collaborating with the Communists
molding copy.
"These things happen," I explain- . . e n
ed half heartedly. I i iken_ IaS a Repu ican a
Friske was unconvinced. I was.:heulta-liera
reminded that Friske was so set not, ihe s -a"n ultra-liberal socialist,
in his ways, so sure of himself
that debate was futile. I had learn- the type oftperson who owns and
ed this at our meeting six months tpepeso
earlier. runs the Democratic and Republ i-25E
* r n V xC.t O 25 E.
THE FILIBUSTER BAR is typical c an parties."
of most modern bars. Dim

Li

"The hae the th est th'g th"er
FAMOUS 10 SPEED BIKES
Schwinn Raleigh * Peugeot
Mercier * Motebecome
CAE FRI STE &Y
"THE FRIENDLY STUDENT STORE''

i
i,
,,
;
.
.

we all left. i
J left, and then I came back to
sit in the waiting room of the
League, by the elevator where
Anais Nin had disappeared, won-
dering if somehow she and I had
an understanding, an agreement 1
without words, that after the oth-
ers had gone we would talk, really I
talk. I had not been sitting in the
waiting room ten minutes when
she appeared again, still dressed ;
all in black.
"Miss Nin, Miss Nin!" I called.

lights, smoked mirrors and cozy
booths create a secluded environ- 103rd legislative district by an in- while Nixon is merely a figure
ment for the patrons. Mr. and Mrs. dustrial arts teacher and football head."
Howard Hayworth, a middle aged coach Ralph Ostling. Wasn't Richard Nixon the staunch
couple, had come to Lansing on Many critics feel that the con- anti-communist who had prosecut-
business. They sipped martinis as test was determined by a news re- ed Alger Hiss?
they talked to their newly found lease from Governor Milliken stat- Friske 'could sense the question
friend yer ing that "Mr. Friske has not been coming as he quickly explained,
"So you are here to interview supportive of me or my programs, "Nixon has never been an anti-
Richard Friske I have read including those of importance to communist he just worked against
quite a bit about him . . . he is northern Michigan." Alger Hiss to create an image that
no" tao w rth talkedthe tre i It was to this issue that Friske would appeal to the American
to removethe pimento from the first addressed himself regardless public . . . why do you think he
olive. of the fact that the first question went to Red China, but to de-
It is true Representati Richad was a slightly different tangent. : moralize and breakdown resistance
Friske from Charlevoix, a 1968 "If Millikenis a Republican I thi brutal co uni t dictator hip.
organizer for George Wallace, the: am not, he is an ultra-liberal so-thbralcmuitdttosp.
only card carrying John Bircher cialist, the type of person who
in the state legislature and ex-. owns and runs the Democratic and ,OST JOURNALISTS have a
Lufftewaffe techician, isn't well Republican parties." I field day with the fact that
liked. Friske was not one of those typi- Friske was a member of Hitler's
"I always try to find the good cal euphemism spouting politicos. Lufftewaffe during World War II.
qualities in people," Mrs. Hay-! His frankness was overwhelming. He knew that he had some ex-
worth had drained her martini and He had started the ball rolling and plaining to do as he stated,
had gathered enough strength to: the momentum built as he added in "d
blurt out some banality. a slightly deeper teutonic accent "At the time I didn't have deep
But the thought stuck in the re- "George Wallace offered the enough thinking to know that Hit-
porter's head as he crossed the country a choice but he was getting ler was wrong . . . Hitler was in
street, passed the patinaed statues, too close to exposing the rotten with the Communists . . . I believe
bouquets of flowers and entered apples in our society . . . he just in what I do today because I see
the highly laquered doors of the had to be eliminated, the assassina. the same thing happening in this

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CHANGE, COURAGE TO
CHANGE THINGS I CAN, AND
WISDOM TO KNOW THE
DIFFERENCE.
framed on the wall of
of Friske's office

tion attempt was a conspira..y by!
the leaders to bump him off."
The words "conspiracy" andj
"leaders" rang in the air like they.
had been expropriated from some
25c World War II spy novel. Friske

country as happened in Germany
under Hitler."
"There is a need for curbing the
growth of the drone population.
Friske quoted in the
New York Times

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Inroducing the lghtest rig
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OF SOFT VERSATIL
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had done alot of talking and stil A survey by the Michigan Wom-
had alot of explaining to do. en's Political Caucus found Friske
* * to have one of the four worst vot-
"In politics, nothing happens by I ing records on Women's rights.

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