Sunday, March 27, 1955
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Sunday, March 27, 1955T H E MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS:
Traveler Must Build Strong HE
International Relationships ON
By ROY AKERS not a "literary" travel journal at getting the toy men of Lilliput and
IT IS, so the words of the lyric all; that, rather, they were really the giants of Brobdingnag in pro- ver
go, "A Big Wide Wonderful a literary vehicle for a fascinat- portionate scale with men of nor-
World." But, fringed with an Iron ing flight of fancy into the irony mal stature it was this: that what-
and Bamboo curtain, our world is of social satire. ever their physical size or culturalfo /
not as wide as it once was. And, background might be the vanity, l 1
as anybody's decrepit, bachelor LThLIPUT, Brobdingnag, Laputa selfishness and eccentricities of
uncle would gladly tell you, with- and the country of the Houy- men remain at a relatively con-
out being asked, it ain't as won- hnhnms emerged into something stant level, with their hopes and
derful as it ised to be be back in more than just mythical countries dreams always rather counter-
the good old days when he was a to be re-visited. Actually, they poised between the opposing poles
boy afflicted with an overt interest were sideshows exhibiting man, of rationality and animality. Man
in the finer things of life, such as who has the dubious distinction is, so to speak, merely what he
wine, women and song, of being the only creature whose is, but always living in the hope
All of which brings us up to our foibles can possibly exceed the an- of attaining the something more
Uncle Sidney. tics of the ape, that he would like to be.
Uncle Sidney-this was our Jonathan Swift never quite for-
bright uncle, the one that could gave his fellow man for being 'a THOSE who board the boats and
read and write-used to sit out on creature who, while gifted with planes this summer will not
the woodblock about halfway be- the power of reasoning, seldom meet the Laputians and the Houy-
tween the mule shed and the whis- took the time or the effort to en- hnhnms. And it is hardly possible
key still, atop one of the highest joy a rational existence. that they will come across the
peaks of the Appalachians reading Certainly, for the present trav- King of Brobdingnag who would
"Gulliver's Travels," Shakespeare eler, a passport and a visa are not rather have lost half his kingdom
and the Bible to us kids. enough. There are the Iron and than to become a partner to the
Shortly after leaving the hills I Bamboo curtains, the McCarran secret of gunpowder. But in every
bought a pencil, won tuition mon- veil, and the separate worlds of port the traveler will find the
ey in a poker game, and enrolled East and West. These, together imagery and the ilk of their
in a university. It was a rather with the conflicting ideologies and counterparts.
typical Midwestern university con- philosophies, and the differing For, from the farmer hopefully
sisting of sprawling lawns filled hopes and dreams of weary peo- nursing a grain of corn sprouting
with gleaming new buildings-no ples of a future world, would make through the mother earth to the
money-and a deep concern with Captain Gulliver a confused and atomic scientist plotting his own
high ethical concepts that ran tired traveler, indeed, destruction; from the little peo-
the gamut from the propriety of But, exhausted though he might pe to the big people of the world
Bermuda shorts to the omnipo- be, Gulliver could not avoid the who hold within their hands and
tence of bourgeoisie mores. realization that the, problems con- their hearts the hopes and fears
This was where I met Profes- fronting his mythical pygmies and of pygmies in a universe too im-
sor Perkins who taught beginning giants are removed only in time mense for their comprehension-
English. And here I was again con- from the problems confronting a here lies the only reason for faith
fronted with "Gulliver's Travels." world of people today, in human destiny.
I soon came to realize that the For if Mr. Swift proved anything And if there Is to be a human
voyages of Captain Gulliver were with his mathematical precision in destiny for people living in One
World it can come about only
ANNUAL FESTIVALS: when those people do not exist
as strangers. Beyond the atolls
I of the future there is danger lurk-
ing in the sea winds of time,is
Summer International ospreselnsedigite
trust and malice spring to growth
cultivation. That "Good fences
make good neighbors," this saying
may be true. But do they make
good friends?
By HARRY STRAUSS The traveler, when he disem- All will be w
peare Festival will hold forth at barks, can build his fences or let
ALL THE WORLD'S a stage and Stratford - on - Avon from April his barriers down. Either, way, he
all the world will see stage pro- through November. will rub shoulders with the Peo-
ductions d u r i ng the summer Canada's Shakespeare Festival ple. For they are there to be met
months. at Stratford, Ontario, will offer the and talked with by the man with Th
Nearly all the countries in the Bard's "Merchant of Venice" and the suitcase in the wide, light
world will offer their version of a "Julius Caesar." The group will plains between the shadows of the
Passion play and most will give also present "Oedipus Rex." The dark curtains. 9-5231 . Librty S
nationalistic plays or folk dramas. three plays will be shown during Captain Gulliver didn't meet
The American National Theatre July and August. them all.
and Academy will present its "Sa- ..-i.: .;:.ix,.>:":r.a5 . ...... it.: p ,, 2 .,.. -
lute to France." In addition to
the musical part of the program,
Helen Hayes and Mary Martin will SOUthsummer
appear in Thornton Wilder's "The
Skin of Our Teeth." Judith Ander-
son will star in her famous "Me- noit
dea' by Robinson Jeffers, and
Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Ok-
lahoma!" will be presented.
An annual event taking place in
the middle of June is Shakes- ,t e',
peare's "Hamlet" which will be
performed in the courtyard of
Kronborg Castle, Elsinore, Den-
mark.
Denmark will mark the 150th '< suit of a wonder fa
birthday of Hans Christian An-
derson Friday and Saturday with longer line ja
a nation-wide celebration. Copen-
hagen will have a concert and white mandarin colla
drama while a play and broadcastnd s
will be held in Odense, the author's g
birthplace, style, too, among o
NORWAY'S Bergen Festival be- Lady Renl
ginning at the end of May will i
produce Ibsen's "Th Wild Duck'" brght spring sh
in addition to other events.
Beginning June 15, the Hol-
land Festival will offer a varied
program. Among items to be in-
cluded in the month long event
will be the Shakespeare Memorial
Company with "King Lear" and
"Much Ado About Nothing." These
plays will star England's Peggy
Ashcroft and Sir John Gielgud.
Celebrating its tenth anniver-
sary, the Gregenz, Austria, Festi-
va is to show Schiller's "Kabale
und Liebe" and Grillparzer's "Ko-..
nig Ottokar's Gluck and Ende" MAIN AT LIBERT
(King Ottokar's Luck and End).
London will see its theatre sea- Only the Finest Qua
son in full swing since it has most
of its attractions during the sum-
mer months. As usual, the Shakes-
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