Page 3
By M. K. McKinney
Asst. Instructor of English
JEPHTA AND HIS DAUGHTER, by Lion Feuchtwanger, Signet Book. 50c.
Jephta's story is told in Judges 10:6-18 through 12:7-47 verses. Feuchtwanger has amplified the story by bringing into sharper focus motives that are only hinted at in the Bible, by adding dialogue, and by bringing into use his store of knowledge of the ancient Hebrews. I think that the author has done an excellent job in retelling this story.
ON ONE LEVEL the story is about the bastard son of Gilead and how he comes to be anointed Judge. On another level it is about a man who makes a vow to his tribal god that he must keep, even though it means the sacrifice of his beloved daughter. And on still another level it is a part of the history of the Hebrew Yahweh on his way to becoming the idea of the God of Jesus. In this struggle we see the victory of the Hebrew god over the Ammonite god Milkom.
And even though the reader knows the story as told in the Bible very well, he will be fascinated by the presentation of this proud, arrogant man who sometime between 1300 and 1000 B.C. became the fifth Judge of Israel.
The language as translated from the German is powerful in its simplicity. For example, after Jephtha had placed his daughter on the altar for sacrifice, we are told, "Then he did with her according to his vow."
LOVE BETWEEN father and daughter runs through the whole story, and as far as I can tell, there are no Freudian hints about their relationship. Ja'ala, the name Feuchtwanger gives the daughter, is a willing sacrifice, for she sees the image of Yahweh in her father.
Of course the story as told in the Bible is spare. A few more words are used to tell of the sacrifice, but not many.
Human life was cheap in the Bronze Age, but I suppose it was little cheaper than it is today. Maybe the difference is that we are more efficient in our killing. At any rate, when Jephta's guards wanted to find out who were the enemy and who weren't, the suspects were made to pronounce "Shibboleth."
I WOULD URGE anyone who likes a good story told by a good story-teller to get this. Then I would suggest that he reread the Biblical narrative to see just what the modern writer has done to the old story.
If they made the initial sound sibilant (the Ephraimites could not sound "sh"), they were killed on the spot. We are told that Jephta laughed long and loud.
I am sure that he will find that both Feuchtwanger and the original chronicler are pretty good narrators.
THE WORLD'S LOVE POETRY, edited by Michael Rheta Matrin, Bantam Books, 75 cents.
There isn't a great deal to say about this anthology. I suppose that it is as good an anthology of love poems that one can find for 75 cents. The volume contains more than 500 poems, and we are assured that almost all of them have been newly translated by specialists.
The range is from the Chinese of about 1000 B.C. to the present day. Twenty-six groups are represented, and the subject matter ranges from the purest idealism of Petrarch and Spenser to the most prudent lust of Anonymous.
This book is worth the price, and the lover of poetry will find that a good deal of pleasure can be had in leafing through here to see what various people at various times have written about love.
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Letters... The Swimming Pool Editor:
$1485
YOU'VE GOT TO DRIVE IT TO BELIEVE IT!
As a member of the picket line demonstrating for the integration of the Jayhawk Plunge, I would like to inform the UDK of the two principles to which we are committed. First, it is our purpose to continue our demonstration until the first Negro is admitted into the pool. Second, that this demonstration must continue legally and non-vio-lently.
We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the existence of the large number of Faculty members, students, and members of the community at large who have purchased memberships at the pool and who would not, for the momentary pleasure it brings, compromise their principles for the amount of money they have invested.
Their support has been invaluable to the imminent attainment of our goal.
Sincerely yours,
R. Carrington and the members of the picket line.
Sincerely yours.
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
NEWS DEPARTMENT
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           Clarke Kays
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Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, July 12, 1960
This piece of misinformation hardly compared to the massive amount the rumor mills churned up in towns around Los Alamos, N.M., during the wartime years the bomb war being built there.
SOCORRO, N.M. — (UPI) — By a quirk of geography, and perhaps fate, a New Mexico wasteland barely aware of 20th Century America became the maternity ward of the Atomic Age 15 years ago.
New Mexico Sands Spawned First A-Bomb 15 Years Ago
The pre-dawn flash of light at Trinity Site—"brighter than daylight"—was seen scores of miles away. To soothe alarmed ranchers, the military reported there had been an ammunition depot explosion in the area that night.
The first atomic bomb was triggered with uncertainty at Trinity Site (inexplicably named) before the startled eyes of its makers. July 16, 1945.
One report, prevalent in Santa Fe, insisted windshield wipers were being made for submarines.
The blast, far greater than any ever dreamed, vaporized the steel tower that held the bomb and glazed the desert sand.
Its power became known to the outside world in a short time. Twenty-one days later Hiroshima was hit, three days after that Nagasaki, and then on Aug. 12—less than a month after the New Mexico test—Japan surrendered and World War II came to an end.
The collection of world renown scientists — including Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer—were really racing against a phantom.
It was, of course, the unfounded fear that Nazi Germany too was developing the same weapon. Some of the very scientists at the former Los Alamos Boys Ranch School, on a remote mountain plateau, were exiles from Hitler's Europe.
Danger — Handle Gently
CAIRO — (UPI) — A zoo guard found an abandoned new-born baby outside a lion's cage. To the baby's wrappers was pinned a message from the mother, saying, "Animals are kinder than men."
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