Seaver Discusses Poet Lucretius
Page 5
The poet died about 55 B.C. and some of the scientific principles which he included in his major work, "De Rerum Natura," were very advanced for his time and for centuries to come, Prof. Seaver continued.
Lucretius, Roman philosopher and poet, performed a rare feat when he wrote a long scientific theory in poetic terms, James E. Seaver, associate professor of history, said yesterday.
PROF. SEAVER was speaking to the Poetry Hour in the Music and Browsing Room of the Union.
"The work was written in si
Folk Music Blossoming
"There is a new, late flowering of folk-music. By this I don't mean the kind of smooth folksy cabaret dispensed at the smart 'Gate of Horn' night-club by such professionals as Josh White and the Kingston Trio, but authentic rough rural stuff well below the line of potential commercialisation. This has two distinct forms. In the hillbilly clubs and saloons west of Broadway near Belmont Street, where Confederate flags are hung over the bar, the entertainment is a local brand of country-and-western imported from the Kentucky highlands. These are mountain ballads, still strongly flavoured with the English-Scottish border songs taken over to Virginia and North Carolina by early Scottish and Irish settlers, and nasally sung to a guitar, fiddle, jew's harp, or jug. In the Negro bars in the area of Cottage Grove Avenue and Halsted Street the blues are being sung and played with a volume and variety to be found nowhere else in the United States, not even in the Mississippi Valley where the blues were born. There are some subtle and complicated qualifications here. In the flasher bars, where the customers are sharply dressed and arrive in cars with tail-fins as gleamingly spear-like as any around Lincoln Park, the blues are given modern injections of tough, swinging rhythm-and-blues vaudEUville style of the forties from which rock-and-roll derived, and in their worst guise have ironically soaked back a lot of the inflexions of the most moronic kind of white rock-and-roll — the over-amplified guitars and the honking saxophones.
"BUT THERE are scores of places — saw-dust dives into which a white man won't get admission unless escorted by a Negro known there — where blues in the old manner, crude, funky and sad, are to be heard any time after midnight...
"THE BLUES are a plaint, a protest music that grew out of suffering, indignity, and rotten living conditions. There is still good cause for the blues to be sung in modern Chicago. When the blues die and are heard no more it will probably be a melancholy day for such folk-song-hunters as I, but then Chicago will be a healthier city."
(Excerpted from "Black. White, and
Fall." by Robert Alison in the
April 1960 Encounter.)
Radio, TV Clinic Here Jan. 20, 21
About 25 radio and television newscasters from at least three states are expected to attend the Radio and Television News Clinic Jan, 20 and 21 at KU.
Lectures will be given and discussion groups will be led by personnel from the participating radio stations and from the KU faculty.
The clinic is sponsored by the Kansas Association of Radio Broadcasters, the KU Radio and Television Committee, the School of Journalism and the University Extension.
A medical student should marry a girl who can support him. It's abnormal; but it works.-Lamar Soutter
books," he said. "Almost all of the manuscripts are preserved with only fragments lost. He was the first poet to advance the Epicurean philosophy."
Epicurean philosophy includes the materialistic withdrawal from the world, Prof. Seaver explained. According to the theories, everything is made out of atoms and space. The soul, upon death, merely dissolves into its respective atoms and disappears. Therefore there is no need to fear an after-life because there is none.
"Lucietius began this poem with an attack on religion," Prof. Seaver said. "He believed that the traditional religions inspired superstitions and evil. This was proved by a story of a girl given in sacrifice to appease the gods of the good winds so that the war ships could make a speedy trip and a successful raid on another city."
THE ATOMS which make up the various substances are of different shapes, Prof. Seaver said. According to Lucretius the different shapes result in our senses. The foods which taste sweet are composed of round atoms and they slip down easily, the bitter foods are composed of atoms with sharp edges Prof. Seaver said.
As Prof. Seaver explained portions of the poem he read the sections first in English so that the audience knew the content of the selection, then he read them in the original Latin so that the listeners could grasp the musical quality of the lines.
"INCLUDED IN the latter part o the poem is a remarkable account of biological evolution," Prof. Seaver said.
"Lucietius states that life came from the sea to land. Nature experimented with all sorts and shapes of bodies. The lack of food and competition caused certain animals to die out."
The poet had no source but his own powers of reason to arrive at such a fact, Prof. Seaver said, and it was quite a while before the scientific world caught up with his thinking.
"As you can imagine, this poet had a large influence on poets and philosophers until today," Prof. Seaver concluded.
John L. Holcombe, a commissioner in the United States Labor Department, will speak to future barristers at a Law School convoction at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Green Hall.
Barristers to Hear Labor Official
Labor economists and interested students are welcome to attend the lecture, which will be followed by a question and answer period.
Mr. Holcombe was appointed the head of the Eureau of Labor Management Reports by James P. Mitchell, secretary of labor, in Dec. 1950. The Bureau was created to implement the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act known as the Landrum-Griffin Bill.
Seniors who haven't had their pictures taken for the Jayhawker should make appointments with Estes Studios by the end of final week. If they don't their pictures probably will not appear in the yearbook, according to Frank Naylor, Kansas City senior and class president.
Seniors Urged To Get Pictures
The seniors are getting organized on other graduation items.
NAYLOR SAID senior ring committee representatives will call on each organized house beginning next week to take orders for the senior class rings. The rings can be seen at the Kansas Union Book Store. The cost of the rings will be approximately $32.
"These are the only officially recognized rings." Navor said.
Senior class gift suggestions from anyone interested will be taken by Ken Brown, Herington senior, at VI 3-5366. The gift fund presently is $2,500. The final amount for the gift will depend on the sale of the senior calendars.
THESE CALENDARS can be obtained at the Alumni Assn. office, 127 Strong. Seniors must present senior cards to receive the calendars free.
Plans for a class migration to the KU-K-State game, Feb. 22, and the spring party still remain tentative.
Friday, Jan. 13. 1961 University Daily Kansan
'Angel' Cast Named
The members for the cast of the University Theatre production of Thoma. Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel" have been selected.
The play, a Ketti Frings adaptation, will be presented Eeb. 7, 9, 10 and 11.
The members of the cast are:
Sharon W. Barlow, Olathe senior;
John C. Welz, Webster Groves, Mo.
junior; James William Hawes, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student;
Kenneth L. Hill, Olathe sophomore;
Barbara Ann Runge, Higginsville, Mo., senior.
Reuben R. McCornack, Abilene freshman; Leura L. Earnshaw, Shawnee graduate student; Ronald A. Loch, Oklahoma City, Okla. graduate student; Michael A. Jackson, Prairie Village junior; Becky M. Davis, Cheyenne, Wyo., freshman.
Ardith E. Webber, Bartlesville Okla., senior; Charlsia Schall, Lawrence senior; Daniel J. Kocher, Topeka sophomore; Marilyn R. Miller;
Clathe sophomore; Mary, Ann Harris,
Independence, Mo., junior
Husband at Fault This Time
MEMPHS, Tenn. — (UPI) — Adam May was getting gas for his automobile when a woman motorist drove up to find out why her car was everheating. The attendant raised the hood. The radiator was missing. May said the woman telephoned her husband and learned that he had the radiator removed for repairs and had neglected to tell her.
Students!
Grease Job $1
Brake Adj. 98c
Mufflers and Tailpipes Installed Free
Open 24 hrs, with Mechanic on Duty
Brakes Relined
Page's SINCLAIR SERVICE
6th & Vermont
Darryl Patten, Hitchcock, S. D.
graduate student; Keith K. Jochin,
Lawrence sophomore; Vicki L.
Loebsack, Topeka freshman, and
Glenn E. Cochran, Raytown, Mo,
freshman
Jack Brooking, assistant professor of speech, is the director of the production.
Johnson Appointed Highway Director
FAST MOVIE AND 35 MM COLOR SERVICE (By Eastman Kodak)
721 Mass.
HIXON STUDIO
DRASTIC REDUCTION
VI 3-0330
NOW $3.00 to $20.00
on all winter & holiday merchandise - PRE-INVENTORY SALE
TOPEKA —(UPI)— The State Highway Commission has approved the appointment of Walter Johnson, State Highway Engineer, as acting Highway Director.
SLEEPWEAR — CHALLIS & FLANNEL P.Js. & GOWNS
Sizes Small, Medium, Large
Values $3.98 to $7.00 NOW $1.00
Gov. John Anderson made the appointment Wednesday, Johnson, who has been with the Highway Department for the past 31 years and has served as Highway Engineer since 1955, will temporarily replace Maurice Martin, Highway Director during the last three years of the administration of former Gov. George Docking.
MOTOR COATS
Values $10.98 - $35.00 ------NOW $5.00 - $10.00
All sales final — no exchange — refunds — or lay-aways on sale mdse. Please
SPORTSWEAR INCLUDES SWEATERS SKIRTS JACKETS BLOUSES
DRESSES, sizes 5 thru 15
Values $9.98 to $49.98
Values $3.98 to $17.98 NOW 2.00 - $7.00
GLOVES — ALL WINTER GLOVES
Were $1.00 to $2.98 NOW 50c to $1.00
OBER'S Junior Miss
6-Hour in by 10 a.m. out by 4 p.m.
Photo-Finishing
Elevator From Men's Store
SPACE TECHNOLOGY LABORATORIES INVITES
Mathematicians & Physical Scientists
TO DISCUSS CAREERS IN
Scientific Computer Programming WITH STL REPRESENTATIVES, ON-CAMPUS
Challenging new problems in the areas of aerodynamics, celestial mechanics, tracking and trajectory analysis, systems simulation, and test evaluation require individuals with more than the usual inclination toward, and qualifications in, computer-oriented mathematics.
Space Technology Laboratories' Computation and Data Reduction Center, located in Southern California, is one of the nation's largest and most advanced computational facilities. Its staff members daily utilize two IBM 7090's and sophisticated data reduction systems to solve problems arising in the Air Force ballistic missile program and in space flight studies.
STL offers opportunity for: association with a superior technical staff headed by progressive management; participation in unusually challenging computation and data reduction problems; professional growth; and for advancement within a stimulating and creative environment.
Arrange for an on-campus interview by contacting your placement office, or, address your resume to: College Relations, Space Technology Laboratories, Inc., PO. Box 95004, Los Angeles 45, California.
SPACE TECHNOLOGY LABORATORIES, INC. a subsidiary of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc.