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Thursday, March 1, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Updated Fairy Tale Full of Surprises
By ROGER OELSCHAEGER Kansen Reviewer
Kansan Reviewer
Join Barth's latest book, "Chimera," is as the title suggests, a book of bifurcated conceptions. On the surface, it is the epicenter of mythological characters, but the "fractured fairy-tale." Mythological characters are cast as real people, who have real problems and who do not always have the solutions to them. Most important is that Barth uses vivid and with surprising results.
The book is divided into three novellettes. The first tells the story of Scheherazade (of "1001 Arabian Nights" fame) through her younger sister, Dunyasea.
With a perception that belies her youth, "Doony" (Barth is fond of nich-names) gives us the inside story of her sister and mother. She is a graduate university and aravishing virgin beauty, and Sherry's efforts to stop the ruthless King Shiahryr from deflowering and killing a virgin every night, as has been his custom, has discovered of his wife's unfaithfulness.
With the help of a time-traveling genewriter who gives her the most wonderful stories to tell the king (otherwise known as King Arthur) and his knights winning his love and restoring his belief in women. As with all good fairy tales, there is a moral to the story: the key to the treasure is the treasure. In this case, love is the treasure, and love is likewise the key to
Fairy-tale No. 2 concerns itself with the continuing adventures of that famous Gorgon-killer, Persus. As the story begins, our hero is fat, 40, and lost in the desert.
He is soon rescued and transported to the health spa of the immortal heroes, Elisium. While there, he spends most of his time in the fields, but rather on a couch with a little nymph named Calyxa, who idolizes him and bombs his spirits in one way or another. He learns an identity crisis, besides problems with his wife, he needs a need to re-establish his former greatness. Conveniently, Athene revives Medusa, and Perseus is once again
A young troupe of enthusiastic comedians from Stillwater, Oklahoma, is currently entertaining in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union. Collectively they are called "The Insure Liberation Theater." Their material is based on their material is banal. Their intent, apparently, is to offer shocking humor and lively comedy.
Insane Theatre All Jumbled
By JERRY MARR
Kansan Reviewer
"Insane Liberation Theater!" promises more funny stuff tonight for persons who can try to appreciate it. If one is patient and perceptive enough, he may pick this out from the rest of the jumble. But, audiences should be honest and not polite. They should laugh only when something funny happens. Good luck.
off on a quest for her. Medusa II is also off and Perseus finds in the key to the treasure. Through some exceptionally clever plotting, this truly as clairty-eyed art constellation.
The final novelette, which is not only the longest but most important, is an in-depth study of the life and death of Balepherol. He, the killer of the fabled beast Chimera, is also the killer of his brother. To complicate matters all the more, he is baked by douts of his legitimacy.
Nothing is funnier than a shred line or funny gesture delivered well. Even if the line isn't funny, a good performer can still maintain a lively pace. But, if the material is weak and the delivery weaker, nothing happens. You're not playing music that a member of the group provided.
Pigeons Here Not a Problem Official Says
Lawrence bird watchers may consider the pigeon population here a problem but, because of its size, it is difficult to see.
Although he is a king, is married to the perfect wife and even has a winged horse, Pegasus, at his disposal, he insists that he is not happy and never will be. After a series of misadventures and discarded lovers, he makes his last, bold attempt to achieve the greatness he wants so badly. He does not die yet. He is saved by him. He like Satan in Milton's "Paradise Lost," is rewarded for his efforts by being flung from the gates of heaven.
they are not saying anything to about Don Jones, Douglas County Health Department sanitarian, said Monday that he had received only one complaint about pigeons in the past two years. He said that the birds were everywhere, but that con-
According to Jones, health department sanitarians are not permitted to shoot or poison piglets. He said that when pigeons became a mansiac, persons who were bothered by them were advised to hawk them out after the birds had defecated on them.
As the book ends, he and his accomplish in the scheme, a shape-changer named Polypeiyed, are falling toward the Tidewater region of Maryland. Bellerophon (who, after all, is really his brother Deliaces) makes a last wish, the result being Polypeiyed' changing himself into (irony of ironies) this very book.
Jones said that pigeons became a health hazard only if they continued to roost in one area, and their accumulated droppings harbored diseases. He said that changing weather and migration usually prevented prolonged roosting in one place.
Bizarre as the ending may seem, there is a point to it. All Barth has really succeeded in forming a strong argument for the preservation of human experience through literature; in fact, he is suggesting that the writer himself is actually the mythic hero of the transformation of Polytheus, a book is truths. what happens to all mythic heroes.
Wayne Bly, director of the Lawrence parks and recreation department, said that he had not received any reports that picnickers or park-gardens had been bothered by him. He said that the design of Lawrence parks discouraged pigeon roosting.
"Pigeons notoriously roost in houses and he said, he said. "They are no tree-foes."
Bly said that city parks had no status, which also were attractive to the birds.
They, through the heric efforts of the writer, are able to live on. By itself, this concept is just another clever idea, but Barth's treatment of it is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Given such a strong formal concept, the stories themselves are well-constructed, as are the characters. Coupled with generous amounts of wit and humor, these aspects combine to create a work of genuine excellence. But not a book that ends with the last page.
According to Bly, pigeons often become a problem in parks in which persons habitually feed birds, but this is not common practice here.
We, like Bellerophon (who doesn't quite have enough time to say it before he hits Maryland), discover the key to the treasure of this book. As Bellerophon says in his last five words, "It's no Bellerophoniad. It a.'s ... Exactly. A Chimera.
Theory Stranger than Fantasy
"Charities of the Gods" and "Gods from Outer Space" by Eric von Daniken
By JACK SCRIVENER
Kansan Reviewer
Now and then experts broach theories that are more intriguing than fantasy because they are thought to have a basis in fact. Recently, Erich von Danken, Swiss imkewker has come on the public scene with data which he hypothesizes prove that the universe is not a static development by the intervention of men, he believes to have come from another world.
On Friday evening Jan. 5 there was a very interesting program shown on NBC-TV. Interesting not only in content but in the reaction it caused. This program was called "The Book of Silence," narrated by Rod Serling. The reaction it cause was a rush on the bookstores across the nation and a resulting sellout of the two books on which the program was based. These books were von Danken's "Chariots of the Gods" and "Gods From the Past."
In "Charities of the Gods", Daniken advances the theory that various baffling phenomena found among prehistoric ruins around the earth can now be explained in light of newly acquired knowledge about such ancient phenomena, and in various phenomena are evidence of visits from ancient astronauts. Something that might lend credence to this idea was the discovery of the so called Piri Reis maps in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. These ancient maps show the outlines of the Americas, as well as the world's earliest attainable only in some sort of space craft, whether early or other world in origin, the fact remains that space travel is not a
The University of Kansas didn't send any official representatives to the Second Annual Lobby Conference of the National Student Lobby, according to David Dillon, Hutchinson senior and student body president.
Dillon said Monday that the KU Student Senate did not participate in the lobby because past experiences indicated that it was ineffective and not worth the expense.
The lobby plans to gather students from across the nation to hear speeches by national figures and to lobby in Congress on such issues as federal student aid, airline youth discount fares, newsmen's privilege legislation, minimum wage laws for students, campus child care centers and women's rights.
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"Gods from Outer Space" is a continuation of this same theme with the addition of more detail, and the addition of more lightning brought out in the first image. The arguments that Daniken puts forth are quite good for the most part although there are a few places where he is on shaky ground.
A case in point may be the statues on Easter Island. Dänken makes a valiant effort to show the island other than the people of the island. This idea is questionable, especially after Thor Heyder's expedition to the island and the fact that he did not venture from the island's native population.
Friday and Saturday, March 9 & 10
The natives claimed the big heads were
the ancestors and they demonstrated the techniques used to carve and erect the heads. This is not to say that Daniken is wrong. Many times the so-called scientific explanations of this type of phenomena seems just as unlikely if not more so. They point out that the evidence archaeologists may be looking at this evidence from very narrow viewpoints.
For the person interested in history or archaeology, and especially those who like a fresh view of things, these are very good books, if not for the arguments set forth, that give an inside look into the strange parts of our past. The TV program is also highly recommended if it is televiseable, which it should be sometime in the near future.
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WILLIAM L. LEMESANY Candidate for City Commission
Graduate KU School of Law Apartment Owner and Manager of Apartments in Lawrence
CONCERNED ABOUT:
Economy in City Government Greater Efficiency in City Government Greater Education and Growth Supported to All Citizens An Established Policy on Annexation Landlord-Tenants Ombudsman, Sponsored by the City
While attending law school I rooftop houses in Lawrence, I learned how to work hard. I was recognized as a working man in the eyes of other working men. I can talk their language, I am a highly competitive business-themarcher.
I am familiar with the savings of inflation, of competition, taxes and employee relations, and the hoped for margin of profit. I can understand and talk the businessman's language also. I deal with students in a teamman way, now working on cars and can also speak their language. I like to be a citizen. I communicate well and can take their guide if elected I will keep all channels of communication open to all citizens in all parts of the city.
Vote for as many as three but Vote for LEMESANY
Paid for by William L. Lemesany
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