Page 8-Sunday, October 30, 1977-The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily Sunday,
rapoport
S
(Continued from Page 6)
insurgency research, Vietnam, CIA-
type money at the University that
wasn't made public, the whole student
involvement issue, the Daily crisis it-
self--all those were very clear cut.
Sometimes I think it was easier to
write; in a sense it was a small town
atmosphere. Everybody was tuned in to
the same issue . . . now, you don't get
the direct impact."
His books since Daily days have
covered the country's war effort; the
medical profession, Las Vegas gam-
bling, and California's offerings to con-
sumers and tourists. As for the stuff
that roused campuses to rebellion, "the
gut issues seem to have dwindled a lit-
tle bit; they're in shorter supply,"
Roger reflects.
"It's always easy to get disillusioned.
A lot of the things you're interested in,
you write about hoping that maybe it will
make some kind of difference. Nothing
happens. When you write for the Mich-
igan Daily and you come up with some
kind of information, things can change
very quickly. When, you're just writing
generally, for a national magazine or in
a book, a lot of times things just disap-
pear without a trace. I mean,
sometimes there's interest in what you
do, but it just doesn't have the impact."
But, for now, Roger says he enjoys
what he's doing. Writing has been his
orientation since high school, he says.
One day, he might like to return to
academe and teach college students. In
the meantime, though, he's intent on
finishing a biography of California's
governor, Jerry Brown, a hot political
commodity whom the country may just
elect president someday.
"It's kind of fun to write this book,
because a lot of the people who are my
age, who came out of the same era, are
now getting a chance to put their prin-
ciples into practice in government," he
obsertes.
Far away from the time when "you
would publish a story one day and the
next day somebody would react,
somebody in the legislature, somebody
in the University, somebody in a public.
relations office, something would hap-
buckiolts-
(Continued from Page 7)
Her Hopwood prize, Claudia recalls,
"gave me faith in my talents and
especially encouraged my desire to ex-
periment in new forms of fiction." She
says he enjoyed her years at the
University as a history major, and
remembers the "intellectual ex-
citement of my classes and the books I
discovered."
And like many of her contem-
poraries, Claudia shared in the outrage
expressed against the Vietnam War,
doing her "share of travelling to
Washington to protest."
Now living alone in her Cambridge
apartment, she is writing a long novel
by the same name as her winning Hop-
wood entry, a work inspired by her visit
to India and Edwin Muir's poem, "The
Absent." The novel, which she hopes to
complete early next year, relates a
"story of love and renunciation" set in
pen," muses Roger about his anti-
university, anti-conformist, hell-bent-
on-change generation.
"There's been a lot of disillusion-
ment, but a lot of good things are hap-
pening, too," he says. "It's tough, you
know. It's one thing to preach and do
things, it's another thing to really sell
them into the political structure.
"Talking, to these people (Rapoport,
the seasoned reporter, talks to many)
you can really see that the idealism is
very tough to translate into reality."
I think
n o w,
'Daniel Martin'
"
A
looking back, it was
a lot easier then.'
Roger
leisurely look back
By Jeffrey Selbst
DANIEL MARTIN
By John Fowles
Little, Brown and Co., Boston
629 pp., $12.95
the Indian holy city of Benares, where
Claudia lived.
When away from pen and paper,
Claudia works part-time as a medical
assistant. The doctor's office experien-
ce, she says, provides her with the op-
portunity "to learn about the quirks of
human nature, which is helpful for a
writer." More important, the job leaves
her with -ample time to follow her
"natural inclination"-simply put,
writing.
vidmer
(Continued from Page 6)
In 1966 Richard completed 117
passes-a record for a Michigan quar-
terback. He also holds the record for
most yardsin one game. That came in
the 1966 season opener-a 41-0
thrashing of Oregon State-when
Richard tossed the ball 258 yards and
the Wolverines were on their way to a 6-
4 year.
Richard sat out half the games in
1967, and Michigan racked up only four
victories that season.
Despite the lean years, Richard says
he has fond memories of his gridiron
coach, Bump Elliott.
"I thought the world of him, both as a
man and as a coach," says Richard,
who Elliott recruited out of Green-
sburg, Pa.
'We lost a lot
more than we should
have. '-Richard
Richard, a bachelor, says "there
wasn't really a plan to do something" in
his life. The mijitary draft which
collared so many male University
graduates in the '60s overlooked
Richard, who suffered from asthma.
"People had the feeling important
things were going on around them," he
recalls. In the days of student unrest,
the action on the Diag often drew more
attention than the action on the football
field.
OCCASIONALLY, a novel comes
along that makes you re-think
your standards. Plot, characterization,
theme, concept - all are important to a
successful piece of work. But what one
accepts as enough plot, enough charac-
terization- well, I suppose that varies
from novel to novel.
Once in a while, though, there is- a
piece of work so far-ranging in its
coverage of the human emotions - one
which delves deeply into the psyche and
presents a vivid and terribly detailed
picture of the inner workingsof its
story- that you have to sit back and
say, why? Why have I not demanded
this much from other writers? Why can
they not deliver?
Such a book is Daniel Martin, by John
Fowles. the story is complex; after that
peroration it almost had to be, didn't it?
It concerns the life of one Daniel Mar-
tin, a displaced Briton.
Martin is a dissatisfied Hollywood
screenwriter who longs to write
seriously; who is divorced from his wife
Nell; who is carrying on an affair with a
starlet named Jenny McNeil (hmmm-
mm); who longs for his native Britain
(but very secretly).
Martin's ex-wife Nell calls from
England; Anthony, one of Martin's
closest friends before the divorce, is
dying. He had a last wish, that Dan
come back to England to see him once
more, that they can talk, and Anthony
might apologize for having broken up
Dan's marriage to Nell.
This takes Daniel on a whirlwind
journey through the past. ie sees his
days at Oxford, cavorting with An-
thony, Nell, and her sister Jane (later
Anthony's wife); the dusty halls of
academe; other images engraved
forever on his mind. The day he and
Jane rowed lazily down the river, only
to find a corpse floating in the weeds.
The day, when he was very young, that
he saw a rabbit caught in the blades of a
reaper, rent limb from limb.
N ONE OF THAT-is unique to Fowles.
What is superb here is a rich
variety both in language and overall
texture of the story, and a sense of in-
terrelated images and memories con-
trolling the action of the present. This
becomes almost a fatalistic view,
though- not quite. When Daniel, for
example, is asked by his ex-wife's
sister to return to England, he can only
relate her request, mentally, to the
time they boated on the river. "Do you
remember what you said?" he asks
her. "That it 'felt right'?" Jane cannot
answer, because she is not so encum-
bered by the idea of what-precedes-de-
termines-what-follows.
The reason many moderns do not in-
clude the complexity of character and
detail that Daniel Martin includes is
that the long narrative (629 pp), highly
descriptive and leisurely; went out of
style shortly after Thackeray. Discar-
See FOWLES, Page 12
Jeffrey Selbst is a former Daily
Arts Editor.
Fowles
Arts Editor.
Can technology
'create'
ai
A new substance,
'Palparium',
THE ARTS AND BEYOND
VISIONS OF MAN'S AESTHETIC FUTURE
Edited By Thomas F. Monteleone
Doubleday, $7.95, 205pp.
RT IS MAN'S GREATEST vehicle for his per-
ceptions, fears, desires, and personal statements.
Artists play an extremely important role in our
society, as their imagination and creative talents often
expand our visions and add insight into our deepest
thoughts and emotions. With this premise in mind
noted science fiction writer Thomas Monteleone has
edited a fine anthology of short stories entitled The Ar-
ts And Beyond; Visions Of Man's Aesthetic Future,
which features some of the brightest writers in science
fiction today.
The concerns of the authors in this book are multi-
faceted, but deal with several major themes: Will
technology alter or expand man's artistic freedom?
How will man's artistic visions develop? Will political
control over the arts increase in the future? The stories
are all of strong quality, yet several stand out, most,
notably Ronald Cain's 'Telapathos'.
'Telapathos' is a tale of an artist of the future named
Kunst, working with a new substance, palparium.
Palparium allows the artist to create in pure spheres of
human emotion, the quality of work varying with how
well the artist understands and is able to transmit his
feelings. With the advent of this substance many ar-
tists immediately commence in prostituting its
possibilities for economic gains. Kunst is offended by
this trend, and becomes deeply involved in the art form
allows the artist to create in pure
spheres of human emotion., the
quality of work varying with how
well the artist understands and is
able to transmit his feelings.
By Paul Shapiro
to the point of obsession. His work is highly original,
delving deeply into the human psyche, as he has an un-
canny knack for perceiving moods and emotions and
reducing them to their essence. He is a withdrawn
man, his art misunderstood in a society where the
audience, not being in touch with their emotions, are
unable to grasp his work.
Thus he becomes irreversably changed by his art,
and at the same time alienated from it.
Cain is deeply concerned with art and its qualities of
expression, and the story clearly is meant to apply to
conflicts today's artists are experiencing. He writes
with a deep feeling for the artist's plight, and his vision
of a substance dealing strictly with spheres of human
emotion is quite intriguing.
In 'Camera Obscura', editor Monteleone turns
author to explore the artist's world as a separate
reality and the, terrifying effect that technological ad-
vancement might pres(
photographer, Lieberma
cident and his eyes are r
stitutes. Through these e,
visions,but only through
and he is mysteriously i
film. He becomes overwi
ts all his previous work,
metaphors relating to th~
become quite clear, an
others) the artist's life en
C.M. Kornbluth's 'Wi
great fear for the futur
around a sculptor in a
superceded art. His wa
however, to a society wl
slowly being replaced by
The anthology also inc
pair of science fiction's
Clarke and Roger Zelazi
the phenomenon of the c
his usual satiric best, p
critics.
'The Arts And Beyond'
tion and includes twelvee
accompany each of the sto
for the science fiction not
die-hard followers.
Paul Shapiro is a fi
Sunday Magazine.