____AyRTS
Monday, November 16, 1987
Page
The Michigan Doily
Piercy
speaks
on
feminism,
'
., 4
By Avra Kouffman
"This is the sort of scene you al-
ways fantasize about when you're
taking your first writing class," said
Marge Piercy, surveying the packed-
to-capacity crowd in Rackham
Ampitheatre last Thursday. The
feminist poet and University alumna
received a standing ovation after
reading from her poetry. She spoke
to the Daily at the ensuing reception
in her honor.
Daily:' What projects are you
currently working on?
Piercy: I have a book of poetry
- contemporary American women's
poetry that I edited, which has about
60 poets in it, many of them quite
young. The ideas came from a
British publisher so it's coming out
first in England. It's going to come
out here very soon, it's out in Eng-
land already. It should be published
here... probably... within, a month.
It's called Early Ripening. Then I
have a book of poetry coming out
from Knopf in February called
AvailableLight.
D: Who are some of your fa-
vorite poets?
P: I love to read Adrienne Rich
and Audre Lord, Joy Harjoe, Linda
Hogan, Phil Levine - they're all
poets I really like an enormous
amount.
D: Is any of your work autobio-
graphical?
P: A lot of my poetry -90% of
it is.
D: Are most of your characters
based on real people?
P: No, I write character-centered
fiction; if you want people to be
very real in fiction they can'tjbe
based mostly on one person, it just
doesn't work much that way.
D: What did you like most and
least about the University when you
were here?
P: What I liked most about it
was probably going to college at all.
I loved Ann Arbor and I made a lot
of friends here, and it was intellectu-
ally very stimulating - a lot was
going on in the arts - so'that I felt
like I was coming to life in a whole
lot of ways that hadn't (previously)
been available to me. Things I didn't
like were being made to feel that I
was the wrong sex or somehow the
wrong volume level; those were
things I didn't like. Also, I had fac-
ulty and a dean say to me - I was
working my way through college -
switchboard, I worked for the tele-
phone company, I worked in the
dorms. .
D: You're married. Some femi-
nists feel that marriage is a sexist
institution, because lesbians and
gays aren't allowed to marry their
same sex partners and because laws
are geared so that when a marriage
ends in divorce, the woman usually
'I loved Ann Arbor and I,.made a lot of friends
here, and it was intellectually very stimulating...
Things I didn't like were being made to feel that I
was the wrong sex somehow or the wrong
volume level.'
-Author Marge Piercy
because other people can't, I think
that one should change the laws so
they can; it's like saying you won't
eat because other people are starving.
Well, people should not be starving,
but you do -them no good by not
eating.
D: Dance the Eagle to Sleep
contained a paragraph which dis-
cussed how some girls felt that
sleeping with a rock star would
,change their lives. Do you think that
this attitude has changed in the last
few years, and do you think that fe-
male rock stars like Madonna, Tina
Turner, and Cyndi Lauper present
negatives or positive images to
young women?
P: I'm always glad when women
are successful in fields that are pri-
marily male dominated. I think
Madonna's a real shrewd operator.
As for her image, itdepends on what
people do with it. It depends on
whether somebody looks at her and
says 'here's a woman who manages
her image, who hasn't self destruc-
ted.' Then they get something posi-,
tive out of it. If people look at 'I-ar
a material girl... ' and think that
they should wiggle around in the
same way, then they get into trou-
ble.
D: The term "post-feminist" has
been bantered about a lot lately. Do
you think that we're in a post-femi--
nist period now?
P: Are we in a post-peace period;
a post-equality period? If we'reii
post-equality, we're in post-feminist.
To be feminist is to care about
women - if you care about women,
you're a feminist! If you believethat
women have a right to safety,
plenty, peace, and- fulfillment in
various aspects of their lives then-
you can't be past-feminist, because:
the millennia (period of great happi-
ness, peace, prosperity) hasn't 'ar-
rived as I've noticed.
D: In closing, what advice would;
you give aspiring authors at the
University?
P: Read and write, read and write,
read and write, read and write, and
read and write!
'well, if you can't afford to be here,
you shouldn't be here.' In sp te'of
the fact that I was getting all A's a
lot of the time.
D: Where did you work? "
P: I worked... Oh I don't
remember all the jobs I had! I
worked secretarial jobs, I worked the
suffers financially, while the man
gains. Could you comment on this?
P: Well, I think it's absolutely
true. But that has nothing to do with
whether a particular person marries,
unless you're a purist. In other
words, I'm not going to not marry
,,
'Carrier'
Good intentions
plagued by poor execution
By Marc Carrel
Most people would refer to The
Carrier, the new independent film
only showing in Ann Arbor, as a
horror film. It is not a slasher flick,
but it does show some people
melting and the like. Pro-
ducer/director/writer Nathan White
(an alumus of the University) said he
would prefer his movie to be called
"a supernatural thriller." What it is
most likely to be called is "a
disappointment."
White wrote the film (which was
shot in Manchester, Michigan) two
years ago. The project was a large
undertaking, as the production crew
had to trasnsform the town to look
like a small town in the 1950s.
The plot concerns Jake Spear
(played by University student
Gregory Fortescue),'who is attacked
early on in the movie by a large
shadowy creature (which the
characters in the film call the "black
thing"). Its existence is never
explained, nor is its demise; it sim-,
ply gets shot and melts to nothing.
But from then on Jake is "The
Carrier" and he transmits the disease
to anything he touches. Once,
someone touches something infected
by him, they melt on contact.
This disease outrages the
religious town of Sleepy Rock in
which Jake lives. People grow
suspicious and eventually violent as
the town breaks into two factions
which Jake pits against each other.
The film "shows the lack of
communication in our society and is
about unbridled fear and hate," said
White at its premiere last week. "It
shows how these neuroses can make
us the carriers of insanity."
This does not mean much but is
eloquently put; which is more than
can be said for most of the dialogue
in the film. Take, for example,
Raising Hell Daily Photo by SCOTT LTUCHY'
DMC (left), Jam Master Jay (middle), and Run (right) of Run DMC rocked the Hill Thursday night.
Jake's mixed metaphor when he is
depressed, "Life isn't worth the paper
it's printed on."
But White says his film is full of
social satire and humor. This may be
true, but it is on a pretty low level.:
When Jake touches any object it Js;
infected. We can later tell where Jake
has been, when a .man in an
outhouse is screaming for his wife
as he melts into the toilet seat; or
when a woman being raped by her
See MICHIGAN Page 8
.Now in its third year, the Peer
Information Counseling Program
(PIC) has continued to grow.
PIC is a minority student support
program based within the library,
Staffed by undergraduate students,
it provides research assistance by
appointment and on-demand when
staff is available. PIC staff cand
processing by appointment. But -
wait! There's more! You can
also arrange for a PIC staff mem-
ber to come to your dorm for a
library talk or word processing
instruction!
Don't get lost in the library!
Look for PLC staff at the Ref-
erence Desk and in the Academic.
Resource Center or call Darlene
Nichols, PIC Coordinator, at
764-4479, for more information.,
'Death
By Scott Lew
So these big-wig Hollywood
producers are sitting around this
table wondering what to do next, and
one guy says, "Hey, why don't we
make a movie abodt a real tough old
guy who runs around and shoots a
lot of people. Except- get this
fellas- instead of making him the
bad we make him the good
guy. *We could get Wayne. Or
Bronson."
"Well, it'll 'sell ticliets," one of
them will say; "but Wayne's dead."
"Oh, that's okay. We'll get
Bronson."
The only problem left was to find
a reason for Bronson to kill all these
people.
"He could be fighting crime," one
of the producers said.
"No, silly. He did that in Death
Wish 1, 2 and 3, " replied another.
"How 'bout saving the whales."
"Don't be stupid!"
"Fighting for a peaceful world?"
"Nobody cares." '
"L've got it," cried one voice in
the corner. "He'll be saving the
kids!"
And they called the movie Death
Wish 4: The Crackdown. In the first
ten minutes the theme is established:
Paul Kersey (Bronson),,.architect and
ex-gilante from the previous
movies, has been dating a beautiful
reporter for the past two years. She
has a teen-age daughter who dies of
a cocaine overdose. Bronson really
gets P.O'ed and with the help of a
mysterious Mr. Nathan White (John
P. Ryan), finds the names of some
drug dealing 'mafioso. Bronson goes
and kills them.
Then, we find out that Mr. White
is also a cocaine dealer and he has set
Bronson up and kidnapped his girl
friend. No problem. Bronson can kill
them too. That's the plot.
Sounds a bit simple? Hey, what
plot? Forget it! The movie really
doesn't have a plot, it has a
situation. Situation for Bronson to
kill this guy, then another. I stopped
counting after 30. Who needs plot
with all this great killing?
i
s
More bothersome than lack of
plot is Bronson's acting, which
really isn't acting at all. He says
lines and pulls triggers and that's
about it.
The second problem is a poorly
written script by Gail Morgan
Hickman (The Enforcer ). Kersey's
excuse to kill all these people is that
he's saving the kids from drugs. In
fact, he says the line "saving the
kids" almost as many times as he
shoots people. Then why in the
world would Hickman have Bronson
running around a teen-ager packed
roller rink with M-16 in hands,
shooting the bad guys (who also
have pretty big guns)? Doesn't
Bronson worry about shooting one
-of the kids he's trying to save?
Hickman, besides making Kersey
look dorky and one-dimensional,
also makes the character look
hypocritical. He valiantly declares,
"Anybody connected with drugs
deserves to die!" In the next scene,
he is drinking whisky with Mr.
White. Where's the continuity?
Death Wish 4. It's stale, it's
inconsistent, it's hypocritical, it's
not a good movie. If you re a real
Bronson fan, save a couple of bucks
and wait for the video. But if I were
you, I'd just forget it.
dead awful
-0
SOCIAL'WORK DAY
Tuesday, Nov. 17,1987 6-9 PM
Amphitheatre, 4th Floor, Rackham Bldg.
Alumni, professors, and administrators will
speak on career opportunities in social work and
University of Michigan programs
* Masters in Social Work " Ph.D. in Social Work
and Social Science
FOR MORE INFORMATION: 764-5330
5
n
I £155 £"RUMRE
___________ IMu EU'aP
11
ATTENTION BSN
CLASS OF 1988.
The Air Force has a special pro-
gram for 1988 BSNs. If selected,
you can enter active duty soon
after graduation-without waiting
for the results of your State Boards.
To qualify, you must have an
overall "B" average. After commis-
I
The English
Composition Board's
ACADEMIC WRITING
T .V VTT T'P QPTP Q
All apartments come with
running water. Ours come with
600,000 gallons of it.
At Village Green of Ann Arbor, the fieldstone walls, rolling landscape:
flowing streams ind waterfalls are just a pleasant introduction to a
whole new style of luxury living.. *7 acres of natural ponds and streams.
. 6,000 square toot, 24-hour Clubhouse with glass-enclosed whirlpool,
III
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