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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, December 4, 1968
'Playboy' editor predicts
'Permissive society' is going to change
By FRED PARRIS
Kansan Staff Writer
Today's "permissive society" may not be so permissive in the future, and it won't be because of pressure from the puritan bluenoses.
As recently as ten years ago, Macauley says, most name writers wouldn't appear in a magazine featuring a "Playmate of the Month." Now, however, resistance has broken down.
Instead, predicts "Playboy" fiction editor Robie Macauley, people will begin to examine its practical effects and make the necessary changes.
"Many of the writers in the Kenyan Review also publish in Playboy," he said.
Macauley, here at KU for the week, has been with "Playboy" for 2½ years. He had previously edited the Kenyan Review, a scholarly literary quarterly.
Playboy is greatly changed from what it was in the fifties, Macauley said.
"It started out as a simple 'girlle' magazine," he stated, "and grew up to be a mature, sophisticated publication."
He quickly added it still retains many "girlie magazine" features, however.
Playboy's appeal, its fiction editor feels, lies not so much with its "Playmates" alone as
with its general aura of sophisticated hedonism. Aimed primarily at the young middleclass male, it feeds his desires to be virile and cultured in style.
"In the fashionable world of worldly young men, Playboy has status," he said with only a trace of irony. "It is a magazine for an aspiring class."
For a Playboy fiction editor, Macauley takes a surprisingly cool view towards the rash of
Robie Macauley
"I hope the trend towards dirty books stops," he says, "or at least slows down a great deal."
"uninhibited" novels now flooding the best seller lists.
Many of today's racy best sellers, he feels, are parodies of old "underground" pornographic novels. "Candy" and "Myra Breckenridge" belong in this group of satirical take offs.
to stop," the Playboy editor declared. "At least I hope so."
Macaulay concedes that his somewhat old-fashioned views on permissiveness, and "dirty books" may not fit the widespread image of a swinging Playboy staffer.
"My temperament is more conservative than that considered to be Playboy's," he admits.
"I think it's a fad and is going
lic appearances during his stay at KU this week. At 4 p.m. today, he will read from his short stories in the Kansas Union Forum Room. Tomorrow, he will speak at 3:30 p.m. in the Pine Room about the art of writing.
And he doesn't feel he's alone in this regard, either.
Hillteacher applications due
The Sound In
Applications are now being accepted for Hillteacher awards for the 1969 Jayhawker Magazine Yearbook, said Linda McCrerey, Honolulu junior and Jayhawker editor.
"The people at Playboy are experienced professional editors," he says. "They don't fit into the stereotype of what you ordinarily think of as a playboy."
Macaulay declines to predict what the fiction of the 1970's will be like.
Macauley will make two pub-
Every year the Jayhawker honors outstanding KU faculty members by selecting several as Hillteachers. Any KU undergraduate or graduate student may nominate one of his instructors for the honor.
Nomination forms may be obtained at the main lobby information desk in the Kansas Union. They must be returned by Dec. 15 to be considered for the Winter Issue.
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Letters of application for Hilltopper, an honor recognizing outstanding seniors, are also being accepted. Each application must be accompanied by two letters of recommendation by KU faculty or administration members.
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