4 ARTS Page 8 The Michigan Daily Wednesday, January 6, 1988 'Timebends': Miller reflects on a lifetime Timebends: A Life By Arthur Miller Grove Press $24.95/hardcover In Arthur Miller's autobiography, Timebends: A Life, Miller writes, "Memory keeps folding in upon itself like geologic layers of rock, the deeper strata sometimes appearing on top before they slope downward into the depths again." This defines both the title and organization of this autobiography. Miller's life story bends and folds through time, with no chronological synchronization, one event of his life reminding him of another from years past. All these events merely add to the real depth of the work - Miller's rendering of the social history and psychology of the society of his lifetime. For example, he reminisces about returning to Ann Arbor in the '60s to participate in a teach-in about Vietnam and remembers his own days at the University when he protested, to no avail, the Spanish Civil War. These remembrances, at times, seem to sadden Miller. Near the end ,of the novel, Miller meets with Mikhail Gorbachev as part of the 2 lasnost attempt to bring Western writers to the Soviet Union: "I had traveled a long and twisting road to this moment at the very apex of Soviet power, and the changes in direction had left me not so much disillusioned as smiling, painfully sometimes. For the political world, I have come to believe, is fundamentally beyond anyone's control, yet we all go on as though it were a kind of vehicle that only needs a change of drivers in order to steer it away from its frequent hair- raising visits to the edge of the cliff. The immediate circumstances behind the meeting with Gorbachev were especially curious yet somehow logical in terms of my life." It is this analytical approach to life that led Miller to become a playwright. He remembers, "From the beginning, the idea of writing a play was entwined with my very conception of myself. Playwriting was an act of self-discovery from the start and would always be; it was a kind of license to say the unspeakable, and I would never write anything good that did not somehow make me blush." Miller admits that Death of a Salesman is his most autobiographical, self-analytical work. Miller cites a line from that play: "'I still feel - kind of temporary about myself,' Willy Loman says to his brother Ben. I smiled as I wrote the line in the spring.of 1948, when it had not yet occurred to me that it summed up my own condition then and throughout my life. The here and now was always Alumnus Arthur Miller's autobiography, 'Tinebends: A Life,' is a tremendous study of a man's life and the society of his time. melting before the head of a dream coming toward me or its tail going away. I would be 20 before I learned how to be 15, 30 before I knew what it meant to be 20, and now, at 72 I have to stop myself from thinking like a man of 50 who has plenty of time ahead." Miller's insistence on self-discovery lasts throughout both his life and the book, even to the last pages where he talks of his grandchildren. "I have heard the word 'Grandpa!' There was no denying the resistance to that word - my God, I had hardly begun! What are these small persons doing on my lap lovingly repeating that terrible accusation with all its finality? How confidently they imagine I am Grandpa. And this makes me wonder who I imagine I am." The major criticism of Timebends is its inaccessibility. This a lengthy, dense book, requiring much concentration and knowledge of the history and social movements of the 20th century, not just in America, but throughout the world. He also gives little credit to the public's intelligence. At one point, he remarks of his relationship with Marilyn Monroe, "We had come together at a time when America was in yet another of her reactionary phases and social consciousness was a dying memory, and that was an important element in her disillusionment with the country and herself and all she dealt with. The public knew little or nothing about what forces were manipulating their lives, and movies and plays and books were doing nothing to educate them." This flaw seems ironic as Miller prides himself on being an accessible playwright for the masses. Despite this attitude and Miller's somewhat difficult style, Timebends is a tremendous study of a man's life and the society of his time, and it is well worth your effort to pick it up. -Lisa Magnino Building For The Future Security Pacific Merchant Bank, one of the industry leaders, offers second year MBA candidates exciting career options in the development of financial prgducts and services in the areas of debt, equity and foreign currency markets. Sign up for our OPEN BID Interview schedule to be conducted on Thursday, January 28. /""SECURITY PACIFIC MERCHANT BANK R . Security Pacific Corporation is an Equal Opportunity Employer Records m They Might Be Giants Don't Let's Stop Bar/None Records A band like this I have never experienced. But who has. I just gobble these guys up. Who would ever expect an "underground" band to be using an accordian? Not me. -the Giants' new EP is divided to a serious side and funny side. 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