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