Page Two
Y
THE MICHIGAN DALY SUNDAY
MAGAZINE
February 6, 1 977
Februeiry 6,. 1971
THE MQ-IGAN DAILY SUNDAY MAGAZINE
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAL'( SUNDAY MAGAZINE February 6, 1977 February 6, 1977
notes .
This issue of the Sunday Magazine (in case you haven't
noticed) represents a. radical departure from our format in the
past. As a full-fledged Sunday supplement to The Michigan Daily,
we hope to be bringing you more in-depth features, profiles and
book reviews. In addition, we will be providing you with such,
new-fangled extras as an acrostic puzzle, a comic strip, and the
week's "happenings." Thumb through it leisurely, keep it around
all week. Long after the rest of the newspaper has been to the
recycling plant and back-the magazine will still be intact-wait-
ing to be picked up and read, whenever you have the chance.
Elaine Fletcher, Susan Ades,
-The Editors
COVER PHOTO OF ERNIE VICK
By Pauline Lubens
contents:
sunday
magaz Ine
CO-EDITORS-
Susan Ades
Elaine Fletcher
BOOKS EDITOR-
Tom O'Connell
ADVERTISING-
Don Simpson
FEATURES
Ernie Vick .
.1
.3
. . .
War Exiles
. . . 5
. .s
JAMES DICKEY:
DOWNTOWN SERIES
An Overview
r-
.
The
fre
breathing
HAPPEN INGS
r 0
S
BOOK REVIEWS
, . .
a S
T
I
FK~AUTI ruL-
4 l IGHT J>Th'T IT...
, ' CiI{17
~ f,4 H
T -T'5 IGHTS LIKE
THIS THAT BRING
OUT THE uPOET IN YOUR
SOUL.tMAKEiS YOU WVA NT TO
SAY CRAZ Y -T-HINGS YOU'D .
ONLY SA1Y tUN DER A LOVED~
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Sunday mQgaZine
acrostic puzzle
THE ZODIAC
By James Dickey.
Doubleday & Co. 62 pp.. $6.
By TOM O'CONNELL
IF NOTHING ELSE, James Dickey's
existence has served to dispel many
of the ' stereotypical and naive beliefs
about poets that seem to be widely held
today. His early years as a writer and
teacher were undistinguished, to say
the least. After stints as a fighter pilot-
during both World War II and the Korean
conflict, Dickey taught Freshman Eng-
lish at Rice University in Texas and
later at the University of Florida. He
found it necess'ary to. leave the latter
position after a dispute arose over the
propriety of a poem he had read to a
group of women, and he subsequently
turned to writing advertising copy in
both New York and Atlanta. Dickey
published his first book of poems at 37
- rather "late in the day" as he him-
self reflects.
Things have improved considerably
since then. In 1961 a Guggenheim Fel-
lowship took him permanently out of the
advertising business, and later Dickey
spent two years (1966-1968)' as Poetry
Consultant to the Library of Congress.
A collection of verse entitled Buckdan-
cer's Choice won him the National Book
Award and his one novel, Deliverance,
was made into a successful motion pic-
ture in which Dickey himself played, a
minor role. Recently the poet has be-
come something of a minor celebrity,
reading at Jimmy Carter's inaugura-
tion a poem especially written for the
occasion after downing a few drinks
with Jack. Nicholson and John Wayne.
But howeverDickey ,may not live up
to the image of the. artistic poet, his
poetic artistry is still unquestionable,
and his latest work; a poem in twelve
-parts entitled The Zodiac, is no excep-
tion. It analyzes the existence of a fail-
ed, alchoholic Dutch poet, the son of an
amateur astronomer, who alternates be-
tween futile attempts at writing, periods
of the delerium tremens, and a cumpul-
sive fascination with the constellations.
According to the foreword, it is based
on another poem of the'-same title writ-
ten by Hendrick Marsman, a Dutch sea-
man killed by a torpedo in 1940. But
~~n4
, .
41 - ,#*
4 tN-1, 2
R~ickey states that his effort is no mere
tr anslation; that with the exception of
a few l.ines it is entirely his own work.
IT S EASY TO SEE how Marsman's
poem must have intrigued Dickey, for
it illustrates one of his fundamental pre-
mises about the nature of the idiom-the
idea that "all poetry is nothing more or
less than an attempt to discover or in-
vent conditions under which one can live
with oneself." The protagonist in The
Zodiac struggles to find a reason for
his existence by establishing some kind
of relationship between himself, his past,
and the stars. His inability to define the
relationship or incorporate it into his
poems leads him to drunkeness and des-
peration,rand final acknowledgement of
his failure:
This man has given up
On anything stronger than he is.
He's traveled everywhere
But no place has ever done any good.
What does his soul matter,
saved like a Caesar-headed goldpiece,
When the world's dying?-
Dickey believes we live in an era"
"weary of overrefined, university-pale
subtleties" and his verse is character-
ized by this belief. It seldom fails to re-
flect his open and forceful personality.
Although it sometimes shows a lack of
grace and an occasional need for a lit-
rle understatement, these faults are more
than compensated for by his stark and
powerful imagery. An example is the
following passage, in which the Dutch
poet's inability to write, as well as
his spiritual and creative emptiness is
reflected and amplified by the night
landscape he views through the window
of his bare, lonely flat:
The town square below, deserted as a
Siberian crater, lies in the middle
Of his white-writing darkness
stroboscoped red-stopped
by the stammering mess
Of the city's unbombed neon,
sent through rivers and many cities
By fourth-class mail from Hell.
And later Dickey creates the same feel-
ings of emptiness and insignificance
when the poet goes outside to view the
constellations in the sky:
He loafs around
The square. He might be a cock-sucker
Looking for trade. He's got a
platform - a springboard
For himself .' .
Nobody sees him;
nobody cares.
le thinks he's sending night-letters
To Mars, and yet he's looking straight
Into the Milky Way
T TIMES THE POET seems to al-
ternate between moments of lucidity
and madness. His need to understand
his role in the universe has become an
obsession; it is a need which we seem
to know from the start will never be
fulfilled. le finds moments of tempor-
IP
ary se
an ol
an ur
period
gressi
the re
ed by
hopele
But
nothin
to the
past t
also p
for
The
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an(
Only
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tagon:
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seems
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quest
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ergy
ages.
ed, ar
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work:
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By
TEV1EN
J,
POZSGAI
A. Talisman; fixation.
106
B. Reverts; moves
backward ............. _.
6
C. Measure of randomness
or disorder
in a system ..-----
14
1) Open; not kept back -_-
13
171
E. Self-destructive
desire (2 words) .......
82
F. Something for something
(3 words) (Latin) .... -
10 140 1 31 126
0. Odd; strange ........
194 100 112 178 42
P. Once popular brain
surgery ............. -
75
f
45 83 154
68 15 58 208 123
18 151 78 183
129 172. 3
Q. Enchroachment;
inroad .........
44 113 209 29 56 202
143 30 33 22 115 101 95 193
160
152 11 207 54 K5 35 28 70
R. Philistine; barbarian.
S. Total disregard of w
external reality.
T. The Graduate
director..........
U. Forgetful; oblivious.
205 99 170 195 63 9 149 72 51
182
24 135 89 48 127
177 146 104 26 61 34
174 131 188 23 145 80 136
12 148 86 186 122 38 162
203 168
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over their
numbered dashes. Then, trans-
fer each letter to the corres-
pondingly numbered square in
the pattern. The filled pattern
will contain a quotation reading
from left to right with the black,.
squares indicating word end-
ings. Meanwhile, the first let-
ters of the guessed words will
form an acrostic, giving the
author's name and title of the
work the quote is extracted
from.
Answer to This Week's Puzzle
Next week, and every week,
look for the answers to the
Sunday Magazine Acrostic in
this slot.
196
7 197 120 155 62 94 73
G. Without awareness or
sensation.........
The
shades off modern syirn
180 105 142
5 71 132 43 98 36
117 176
V. Dormant; not apparent
W. "She was just
seventeen/-" The
Beatles, I Saw Her
Standing There
(5 words).........
128 157 150 55 77
189
H1. Draw out; bring forth
1. Corroborate; supply .....
J. Treatment; tension
reliever ..............
K. Visionary; impractical
one....
L. All through; across .....
M. Insane asylum (slang) .r
84 134 17 27
141 166
TIE POET'S THIRD EYE: A
GUIDE TO SYMBOLISM IN
MODERN LITERATURE
by Gordon E. Bigelow
Philosophical Library, 146 pp.,
$7:50
By M ARNiE HEYN
(;ORDON BIG ELOW has writ-
ten what may be the defini-
tive textbook on symbolism in
all its :horny and elusive ava-
tors. Except for its price, it is
the perfect classroom compan-
ion for courses in literature,
psychology, linguistics, acnd phi-
losophy. Confusion about sym-
holism is surely a common oc-
currence: the lecturer raises a
hand close to the shoulder, flaps
it in an eccentric clockwise di-
rection and says, "You know-
symbolism-" students write a
big "S" in their notes, underline
it twice, and come away none
the wiser. This book is a pos-
sible means of changing that.
Bigelow's erudition is impress-
ive and his prose is nice and
straightforward (with three ex-
ceptions-to be covered later).
Hlis first chapter, "From Alle-
gory to Organicism," traces the
transition, in world view, from
the medieval cosmos to the En-
lightenment's mechanist uni-
verse to the post-Romantic evo-
1,utionary perspective. He ex-
plains the apparent conflict be-
tween allegory and symbolism,
the metaphysical role of ambi-
guity, perspectivism, and logical
posi ivism. Bigelow does an es-
pecially good job in tracing the
hermetic world view in Euro-
pean literature and thought.
Bigelow's greatest strength
lies in philosophy, ratherrthan in
criticism, as the chapter,
French Symbolism Movement"
demonstra'es. He has a firm
enough grasp on symboliste his-
tory and techniques, but attitude
(which is perhaps the most im-
portant aspect) escapes him.
Bigelow apparently thinks that
all poetry is wri'ten about un-
happy love affairs with beautiful
women. In addition, he has a
hard time with straight talk
about sex: "'equited love and
te consummation of healthy de-
sire are seldom to be found ."
He moreover mistakes mo-
tives of the symbolistes:
The decadent was typically a
man near middle age with a
dandy's narcissism and pre-
occupation with fancy clothing
and a contempt for bourgeois
proprieties which sometimes
led to behavior deliberately
intended to shock. In this res-
pect Nerval is often cited,
leading a lobster at the end of
a long ribbon on the Paris
streets. but Nerval had spells
of actual insanity and does not
provide so good an example
as Verlaine and Rimbaud, who
conducted a flagrant homo-
sexual affair across France
and the low countries, or Bau-
delaire's excesses with drugs
and alcohol, or Mallarne's
counsel and example of with-
drawal from active life into
the hermetic consolations of
art.
Meanwhile he has no idea
what to do with the decadents.
Nevertheless, Bigelow's dia-
gramatic nproach to interpret-
ing symboliste verse can be
very helpful in explaining the
idenifiable characteristics of
symbolism in literature-wi.h o
without the symbols.
' E DREAM SYMBOLISM
of Freud and Jung" chapte
is both helpful and unhelpful
"reud comes in handy for san
d revisionist lumps, for "me
chanical" interpretation anda
rigid format for understanding
dream symbols. Bigelow is ne'
er actually disparaging towar
Freud, but he does treat hi
work as an historical prelude t
Jung's. Bigelow does a muc
better job untangling Jung's ra
ther involuted and fluid concep
tions of dreams, symbols, th
unconscious, and especially a
chetypes-which have, because
of linguistic confusions, been th
ostensible topic of more roste
monographs than penis envy:
So the archetype is not the
actual symbol; it is the mode
of energy and the formative
principle underlying and send-
ing up the symbol from the
collective uncooscious.
"Myth as Literary Symbol"
isnamed; this chapter will t
of more interest to linguist
semanticists, and anthropoli
53 109 118 153 4 184 175
37 93 173 206 185 156 144
187 92 165 133 87 190 64 67
108 199 60 139
X. Of minor importance.
Y. Elephant hunters
(2 words)..........
Z. Experience;
know-how.........
107 97 103 49 21 119 52 79
74 16 8 163 198 121 41
59 164 125 90 50 179 40 201
20 110 1K1 158 124 147 200 19
32
39
192 114 96
47 66 204 137 81
25 111 88 2 76
116 169 130 159
65 57 46 91
N., Goal; purpose ... ....__ __ __ - - -
181 102 167 138 69 161
~I