Page 2-Sunday, November 13, 1977-The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily-Sunday, Nove
RAIRLINGSimar garet
A H YES, life at the big 'U'. When I
first arrived at this University, I
was anxious to get on with the'
business of searching for Truth,
quenching that proverbial thirst for
Knowledge, and, best of all, prepar-
ing for Life. Yeah, all that stuff.
My first day of classes brought
such expectations into living color
when my witty, vibrant Great Books
professor fulfilled my dreams of lofty
intellectualism. That night a sopho-
more friend, Ann, bade me to come
and tour the campus. We tramped all
over, that warm September night,
but I best remember trekking past
the Law Quad, glimpsing the (ohh)
stained glassed serenity of the Law
School Library, and then strolling
past the (ahh) grandiose Graduate
Library. Even though part of the
latter was under construction, I was
not disappointed. I was inspired.
Then, Anne took me a tad east of
the Grad, and with a flourish of her
hand (she-always was dramatic), she
announced, "And that is the UGLI."
"Ugly?" It sure is. But what's it
for?" came my naive reaction. Ann-
explained that UGLI was short for
Undergraduate Library as she took
me into the depths of this homely
hulk of plastic and cement. Four
floors of basement beautiful, I
thought.
Anne and the UGLI got the ball
rolling; it was downhill from there.
My Great Books professor worked
out alright, but my chemistry profes-
sor proved to be disorganized and
incoherent - traits, I was soon to
discover, enjoyed by many a Univer-
sity instructor. I liked my Japanese
calculus professor, but I desperately
wished he could speak English.
Thank God for numbers.
But after my first term, though I
forgot these folks, the UGLI stayed
with me. In fact, that aptly named
structure has since distinguished
itself as one of the landmarks of my
undergraduate career.
S O MUCH about the place is
second rate. The heating is
abominable. Last winter, I remem-
ber seeing the studious write papers
with their mittens on. This year,
everyone has been sweating it out, in
spite of the energy crisis. The dollar
changer takes 10 cents as a service
charge. The coffee machine fails to
give you cream when it feels like it,
or better yet; it fails to give you a
cup. Even the john graffiti is boring.
Yet, this God-forsaken place is
what we can call our very own. We
may study elsewhere from time to
time, but when the sign says, "Please
use your own libraries," you know
where they are telling you to go. So,
when I force myself to "push gently"
through the entranceway, I join the
coffee-buzzed bodies within who are
questing Truth, thirsting Knowledge
and preparing for Life. We crowd
together behind formica tables -
smoking, eating, socializing, sleep-
ing (most of the time), and studying
(some of the time).
The UGLI and its bland institution-
al flavor reveals most vividly (and
depressingly), the University's bar-
gain basement priority for under-
graduates. I arrive at the age-old
conclusion reached by many before
me: I am just one of 22,000 hopeful
college graduates on the Ann Arbor
assembly line. Buzz, whirr, clickety-
clack, there I'll be at the end of the
production line - No. 170-46-9468-8,
B.A. Economics.
yao
W HAT'S MORE, there's nothing
so personal as sitting among 200
or 300 students in a lecture hall or
among 100 students in a 400-level
economics class. And let's face it,
there's nothing quite as personal as
getting five-minute appointments
with your counselor, nice as she may
be.
This school is for Rackham stu-
dents, dental students, medical stu-
dents and law students. Not for un-
dergrads. That doesn't do us second-
class citizens a bit of good for stimu-
lation, motivation, inspiration, crea-
tivity and the rest. Rather than
nurturing it, I have found myself
fighting to sustain that enthusiasm of
earlier days - mustering up the
energy to get off the assembly line
and become a college graduate in my
own way. I don't often succeed.
Instead, I crawl back on and hang on.
So, I have decided there is no Truth
to be sought. Itake sips of Knowledge
during the term and big gulps before
mid-terms and finals. I prepare for
Life best by leaving my school books
at home.
Ah yes, life at the big 'U'.
WoOKS
At the shrine of Wils4
By Stephen Selbs
Sunday magdazine ACEISTiC PUZZLE
BY
STEPHEN J.
POZSGA I
Copyright 1977
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should read as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name any the title of
the work from which the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.
Answer to Last Week's Puzzle
Scandals exploded like time
bombs as throughout the
delirious decade, screen-ca-
Wilson
'THE WOMEN'S ROOM
Dense, emotion:
THE WOMEN'S ROOM
By Marilyn French
New York: Summit Books, $10.95
F A STORY IS defined as an author's attempt to
express the intense emotion he or she feels as an
individual just occupying space, Marilyn French's
first novel could very well be her last.
French seems to have exhausted every human experi-
ence she was able to muster as she takes us through four
decades in the life of Mira, a white, middle class subur-
banite, who is her main character. But Mira's problems
A. Pertaining to the theory that there.
is no absoute knowledge but
there may be grounds of
beilef sufficient for8
practical life0.
8. Act of becoming conscious;
revival of interest
C. In a state of great pressure;
with front men advanced in
your opponent's inner_
board against 3 or more 3
builders (Backgammon) (3 words)
0. Traditional suicide spot; moving
11 pips on the opening_
roll (Backgammon) (2 words) 1
E. Harmess reptile often_
associated with cows (2 words)
F. Relay race section (2 words) _
G* Scowling; staring with
sullen annoyance
K. Taikative: verbose
53 9 33 44139 140178 88 182 197
87 99 s05 136 142173 11 18 35
2 26 47 -I 65 83 92 113 143
so
61
57
TT
c
01 l7
34 48205 74 106164 58 120 114 147 10
43 67 141 78 36 89 103 110 159 119
7 28 64149106135 13177206
6 97 133 117 126 200 68157 22
5 190 18 202 151 66 90 171 21
L. As if seasoned with a
pungent table spice
(2 words)
M. Fit of intense feeling;
on increase by addition
N. "To make--."-pile ol
your checkers on a
few established point*
(Backgammon)
0. Simple outdoor children's
game(4 words)
P. Subject of 1BJ's flmed
surgery (2 words)
39 54 79 95 4 125 1371
1S 3 45 37127 168
153 184 1994204
116
29 96 132 145
By Sheri Hille
179 201 12 72 81 986
150
124
46 52 62 86 93 181 129
141 156 170
14 107121 140 198 180 186 49 75 104 166
H. Collfor one's dog ogoi-- -
31 152 194 73 56 123 175 191 165
1. Unbeliever, skeptic-
19163 71 76207122183
J. Founding;proving-
25 38 41 59 102 115 128 138 30 162 82
Q inspiring reverent-reer after career was de-
wonder tinged with fear 23 188144 154131 101 109 stroyed. Each star wondered
R. Title of 1932 Boris Karloff if it was his turn to be the
thriller (with The) 16 174 8 11)196 next scapegoat. For Holly-
S. Loftiness of spirit;- -- - -- ------- - - - - wood; the fabled Golden
generosity of mind 24 192 63 85 203 94 112 160 189 169 187 fable
T. Persistent background - -Age was more like a lavish
motifs (Music) 40 1 17 69 84 172 195 91 130 picnic on a shaky precipice.
U. Australian state--Sydney.--- Kenneth Anger Hollywood,
the capital 20 32 55 60 70 100 155 42 80134 146 Babylon
(3 words)
167;176
are too real to become tedious. And overshadowing her
experience as a housewife who flees her family-takes on
a career and lover-then finally returns, is the growing
sensation that she frequently is acting in a scenario that
was written before her birth.
Throughout the course of the novel Mira progressively
becomes aware that the obstacles she encounters to her
own growth, her conflicts with family and friends, must
have existed in some predetermined pattern before she
did. This idea is even more disconcerting as we see Mira
first in her childhood years where she flourished, feeling
both her femaleness and her indpendence, unaware of the
restrictions a male world would later impose on her.
But after her first sexual encounter where she is almost
raped, these youthful feelings of power and freedom give
way to a passive acceptance of.her future-and it is
downhill from there.
Although the story is focused on Mira, the countless
number of women who float in and out of her adult life also
play an important role in the tale. There are housewives in
hair curlers, faceless suburbanites who drink coffee all
day and liqueur at n
author also gives us N
becomes so tied up it
sense of feeling, even
ultimately is trapped'
French spares no c
characters are conde
or simplemindedness
bloody fate. She is gur
an escaped female co
own teenage daughter
But because French
to positively change
again and again in a
story does not end in d
Neither is the endit
have been solved an
'happily ever after'. A
partly due to pressure
the sense that the deci
home has helped her;
dividual conerns and
husband and children
But we retain a sens
to patch a worn-out m
in mind, the story con
last page is digested.
Why after nearly 5
more? Perhaps becai
ours. As the novel swit
narrator to Mira and3
we are faced wit
distinguishing one v
Mira, author-and fin
the novel's sheer l
pace and each para
thought that it must k
See F
EDMUND WILSON
LETTERS ON LITERATURE AND POLI
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 4
H ERO WORSHIP DOESN'T go over well these days. (
it's preferable to speak of role models suitable for e
speare used to say, "a rose by any other name ..."
Edmund Wilson. Perhaps that doesn't make me alone in tt
digress and explain how I cam to worship at the shrine of
century American letters.
It began in my senior year of undergraduate school w
was a thinly-disguised two hundred page eulogy to Wilsc
work, much of the book was gobbledygook to me. I figured a
with Wilson would help me appreciate the novel.
And that was the start of a beautiful relationship.
I began to devour Wilson's writings, and I've yet to be
the finest critic of the century, he is indisputably amazing;:
range of writing forms and intellectual disciplines. Consid
he's written on: fiction, Memoirs of Hecate County, drama,
ing, Europe Without Baedeker, history, To the Finland St
Castle, politics, The Cold War and The Income Tax, and jot
Earthquake. He was also, at various times, on the staff a
New Republic, and Vanity Fair.
Those credentials suggest a man of reasonable lit
What's more, he was acquainted with virtually all of th
intellectual life. Consider a brief list of some of the people
who are also included in this book: F. Scott Fitzgerald, J
William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Isaac Singer, VI
Frankfurter, and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The list goes on anc
Wilson decide
to be a writer,
brutal fact c
America: it's a
port yourself wi
packedfor journalism
packed and still write
interested him.
was to convinci
ight. And (not to be one-sided) the what he already
Val, the outspoken liberationist who But journ
n her movements that she loses all discovered, p
for her own daughter. Each woman limited space,
within her respective lifestyle. tinuity. A numi
riticism of her own sex here. These Soule, an edito
mned for their laziness, insensitivity which are inc]
s. Meanwhile Val meets the most illustrative of]1
nned down by police while harboring writing projeci
nvict, after having refused to let her 1934, Wilson ou
live with her. fort the maga
invests at least Mira with the power development of
her circumstances-not once but Europe. This s
seemingly endless progression-the throughout the
espair. of To the Finla
ng a fairy tale, where all problems finally publishe
d life can progress from now into Wilson was a
ks Mira finally returns to her family, and the collecti
from her divorced husband, one has to his diary,
ision is positive. Her time away from appreared rece
solve some of her more pressing in- accurate obset
she feel capable now of coping with scene are pr
1. author's reliab
se of doubt over whether her attempt the gossip-mine
arriage will work. With this question raft of items r
ntinues for the reader even after -he sonal life; a
Schlesinger, Jr
500 pages should one wish to know being a radica
use Mira's life seems so tied up with letter to New
ches in perspectives, from that of the Perkins annour
then to the other female characters, of a then-unkn
h the increasing difficulty of West, and his le
woman from the other-narrator, the poet to c
ally ourselves from any of them. Republic. =Ever
ength demands a leisurely reading our own Uni
igraph is so densely packed with stationed briefl
be individually digested. But what's See W
158
RENCH, Page 8
Stephen Sel
student, will a
literacy