Page 2
Summer Session Kansan
Friday, July 15. 1960
Niki Scores Points In War Of Words
BY PHIL NEWSOM
UPI Foreign Editor
IT IS DIFFICULT to escape the uncomfortable conclusion that Nikita Khrushchev has scored some important points in the last week in his all-out propaganda campaign against the United States.
He has pressed forcefully his campaign to oust United States influence in Latin America, wherein he is being loudly aided and abetted by Fidel Castro of Cuba.
Then there also has been the incident of the U.S. Air Force RB-47 reconnaissance plane shot down by Russia over the Barents Sea.
KHRUSHCHEV WAS FIRST in announcing that the plane had been shot down, and gave validity to his charge that it violated Soviet air space by filing protests with the U.S., British and Norwegian governments.
With a 24-hour head start, it is doubtful that equal effect will be achieved by the White House rejoinder that he lied in his teeth and that actually the U.S. plane was shot down over open seas in an attempt to create an international incident.
The Latin American situation is more complex.
Fitting perfectly into the Soviet scheme are the Cuban charges of U.S. aggression soon to be heard by the United Nations Security Council.
No matter what the final disposition of the case, it is certain that the full facilities of Moscow radio will be used to beam to South America the Cuban side of the case.
AND ONCE AGAIN it may be feared that the truth never will overtake the Big Lie.
This week the United States announced a new program of economic aid for South America.
Too many Latin neighbors will say that the program springs not from good will but rather was forced by Castro and Russia's new attentions. Others will resent the clear implication that aid will be forthcoming only to those who avoid both Castro and communism.
Similar reservations attached to the so-called Eisenhower Doctrine in the Middle East ended in virtual total failure for the program.
Crossword Puzzle
ACROSS
1 Largest part.
5 Sunbeams.
9 Snares.
14 Where Salt Lake is.
15 British statesman.
16 Insurgent.
17 Short letter.
18 Sport.
19 Put on a dramatic act.
20 Greenlander.
22 Out of shape.
24 Kind.
26 Works of French artist, Toulouse-Lautrec.
27 Autocratic ruler.
31 Type of weather.
32 Brazilian macaw.
33 Where Baumont is.
35 Churchill's daughter.
39 Famous arctic explorer.
41 According to protocol.
43 Theatre box.
44 Joints.
46 Harvest goddess.
48 — Davis, red winter apple.
49 Mother.
51 Boredom.
53 Prospero's malevolent servant.
57 Sky color.
58 Alert.
60 Long cut, as in land.
64 Subscriber.
65 Well-known name in films.
67 Make bold.
68 Roman official.
69 Hat trimming.
70 One not to be trusted.
71 More rational.
72 Christmas season.
73 Island source of Italy's iron ore.
DOWN
1 Army mascot.
2 Inventor of the safe elevator.
3 Went down.
4 Christian, for example.
5 Member of the press.
6 Noisy activity.
7 Cheer.
8 Paul Pry.
9 Locks of hair.
10 Cancellation of a claim.
11 Dwelling.
12 __ Piper.
13 Coasters.
14 Castle ditch.
15 Sound of a blow.
16 Injurious to health.
17 Gloomy.
18 Metallic element.
19 Grip.
19 Ranted.
19 Azalea or acacia.
19 Wrap.
19 Lifetimes.
19 Fowl.
19 Indian of Florida.
19 R. R. danger signal.
19 Better-balanced.
19 Traduce.
19 Perhaps.
19 Crochet hook.
19 Secret messages.
19 Order of eola.
19 Bolshiest leader.
19 Bold; Colloq.
19 __ vous garde.
19 Captive; Slang.
19 Small apple.
19 Olympian goddess.
19 East Indian herb.
Record Review
NEW YORK—(UPI)—You can't feel musical expression in postwar Germany has yet been returned to its former pinnacle on the basis of a recording of Haydn's St. Cecelia Mass, which in its technical thickness and emotional weight is of the kind of musical substance that traditionally only German artists can get off the ground (Deutsche Grammophon-138028-29).
These German artists didn't succeed, although Maria Stader was the soprano soloist and Eugene Jochum conducted. You hear in the main the outer facade and buttresses; the inner filigrees and reliefs are missing. You wonder if orchestra and chorus were inadequate for the demands of this difficult score, or if there was insufficient preparation.
On the other hand, a German import of Dvorak's Requiem Mass is loaded with musical finesse and dedication, and it's a shame the composition shows its period and reflects obsolescent attitudes. The singers are Miss Stader, Sieglinde Wagner, Ernest Haefliger and Kim Borg; chorus and orchestra were Czech, Karel Ancerl conducting (Deutsche Grammophon-18547-48).
A wholly admirable fulfillment of a musical assignment by chorus and orchestra was that of the Chicago Symphony and Chorus of Prokofieff's monumental score of a motion picture, "Alexander Nevsky." With no visual help, it has the sweep and intensity of historical events and their people as recreated by the artistic imagination.
This is the way Prokofoieff intended it to come out, this way which conductor Fritz Reiner and his helpers made it come out. Whether so or not (and that you will never know) the performance convinces you it has to be so. Rosalind Elias, Metropolitan Opera mezzo, sang the touching songs (RCA Victor-LSC2395).
Many records have gimmicks attached to them, as you know, and the gimmick attached to a recording of three of the concertos grosso of Handel's famous opus six is this: Handel was born in the town of Halle 275 years ago. The three concertos were recorded by a festival orchestra organized in Halle to commemorate that event, although Handel left Halle at the first opportunity and died an Englishman.
That is not intended to disparage the playing of the concertos. Indeed, they're very well played, if with emphasis upon the style called "high baroque." Conductor Horst-Tanu Margraf should have relaxed just a little bit, Handel would be embarrassed by such kow-towing (Epic-BC1074).
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — (UPI) — "Mama," asked 3-year-old Mary Louise Colette, "why are you polishing brother?"
Short Ones
Mrs. John A. Coletta was applying skin lotion on Mary Louise's baby brother.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — (UPI) — Times have changed.
...
The kindergarten class at a Cheyenne elementary school grew vegetables as part of a classroom project. The most popular vegetable was spinach.
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
(Published Tuesdays and Fridays)
NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
News Room ... Phone 711
Editors ... Dick Crocker
Clarke Keys
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Office... Phone 376
Business Manager... Clydene Brown
By Calder M. Pickett Associate Professor of Journalism
ANNA KARENINA, by Leo Tolstoy. Bantam Classics, 95 cents.
Here is a translation of a classic that should do much to dispel the familiar notion that Russian novels are extremely difficult to read. Joel Carmichael has thrown out the complex forms of address, and from start to finish one is able to identify with no difficulty the characters either in action or under discussion.
Otherwise, it is almost platitudinous to write that "Anna Karenina" is a great novel. It has the magnificent sweep that has marked the Russians from Pushkin to Pasternak. It also has brilliant probing characterizations.
MOST OF US ARE fairly familiar with dramatic interpretations of "Anna Karenina," and we usually think of the novel in terms of Anna and her great love for Vronsky. But it is apparent that Tolstoy is doing more than writing about a woman who defied convention. He is giving a full-scale portrait of Russia in the 1860s and 1870s.
There was a ferment in ideas then, following on the freeing of the serfs, the rising of a new peasant class, and the publication of socialistic and nihilistic ideas. Dostoevsky and Turgenev also were aware of these currents and Tolstoy weaves them into this amazing novel.
His central character is not Anna, but Constantine Levin. One would gather that this countryman of the upper classes, who is toying with numerous philosophies in an attempt to find a satisfactory way of life, is Tolstoy himself. He sounds like the Tolstoy about to embark upon "The Kreutzer Sonata," the Tolstoy who would influence so profoundly the American realist, William Dean Howells.
LEVIN IS NOT unlike Pierre of "War and Peace." Both are wealthy young men, idealistic young men, awkward young men. Both are literally and figuratively stumbling through life, seeking for a formula of living, an answer to their questions. Levin groping through the philosophers of the 19th century reminds one of Pierre wandering about the battlefield of Borodino, trying to learn the meaning of war.
If Levin is the hero, perhaps Kitty, his wife, is the heroine. For, though he describes Anna in the most glowing of words, one gathers that Tolstoy does not like her. Vronsky he clearly does not like. The gambling, horse-riding, essentially shallow Vronsky is the antithesis of Levin.
AND IF THE lovers do not come off well, neither does the wronged husband. Karenin is not the villainous Basil Rathbone or Ralph Richardson that we recall from film versions of the novel, but he is far from being heroic. Anna leaves the Karenin home for her illicit relationship with Vronsky, but she does so in part because Karenin is a husband in name only, who cannot understand the terrific demands made upon life by his young wife.
Those who have not read "Anna Karenina" are advised that the Carmichael translation, a complete and unabridged one, is designed for today's readers. Those who have read "Anna" may find the new translation a refreshing change from the older ones. In any form the novel remains one of the four or five great novels of the 19th century.
JOSEPH ANDREWS, by Henry Fielding. Bantam Classics, 50 cents.
SOUTH WIND, by Norman Douglas. Bantam Classics, 50 cents.
It is perhaps just the coincidence of these books appearing in the same season that points to common characteristics, but a good argument can be made for their being compared as satires. Fielding's "Joseph Andrews," which antedated the author's "Tom Jones," is familiarly regarded as the ancestor of the modern novel. Douglas's "South Wind" is a biting commentary on manners and morals of the 20th century, as seen through the eyes of an Episcopal minister.
"JOSEPH ANDREWS" will recall to many readers the ingenuous "Candide" of Voltaire. Joseph is a youth in a Hogarthian society whose chief problem, one would gather, is to stay out of the beds of numerous amorous females. He stays out, though others in the novel are not so concerned with chastity. His adventures on highway and in friendly inn are in the picaresque tradition, and if his character never seems to be broadened, we must remember that this was, after all, an early novel.
"South Wind" is perhaps most like "Penguin Island." All the sins and caprices and minor vices of society are here revealed, and the good Bishop Heard, at the end of the book, finds that he is not quite so sure of heretofore dogmatic matters as he had believed himself to be. The description of the life and martyrdom of the good saint Dodekanus brings to mind St. Mael, the founding father of Penguin Island, as well as the biting travesties of religious relics in both Erasmus and Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad."—CMP
F V
Worth Repeating
"KU, in trying to squeeze in everyone, has the same problem as the woman who has put on weight over the years. Not only is the student body twice its 1939 size—it is distributed differently.
"But the buildings in which students must be taught how to live and work productively in a complex and changing world are either inadequate or actually not in being and cannot be made ready without extraordinary measures."
- James Gunn