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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 19. 1959
Ulysses in Play Form Is Reviewed
By Michael McCanles
Assistant Instructor of English
"Ulysses in Nighttown" by James Joyce, dramatized and transposed by Marjorie Barkentin, under the supervision of Padric Colum (Modern Library Paperback, 1958)
"Ulysses in Nighttown" is a partial dramatization of James Joyce's "Ulysses." The one question one might ask, however, is: Has anything been gained, and what has been lost? What tempted Miss Barkentin and Mr. Colum was no doubt the long brothel episode which climaxes the book and which is written in the form of a play, complete with elaborate (and quite hilarious and unproductive) stage directions.
A good chunk of this episode forms the main portion of the dramatization, and short snips from the opening section of the novel "(Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stair head.") and the funnier section form a kind of prologue.
One Theme
The arrangers have of necessity concerned themselves with only the main theme of the book: the search of the son (Stephen Dedalus) for the father (Leoopid Bloom). By means of dramatically effective interpolations they have managed to bring in Molly Bloom and the enraged chauvinistic Citizen from other parts of the novel.
Altogether, it represents an interesting and almost successful attempt to reduce the teeming life and vision of Joyce's novel to meet the exigencies of the stage and two-an-one-half hours' playing time.
The brothel episode of Ulysses is probably the most memorable scene in the novel, and certainly the funniest. In the nightmare atmosphere of 1 a.m. Joyce gathers together all the threads of the novel in a series of hallucinations: Stephen he refuses his dead mother for whom he refused to pray, and Bloom's masochistic soul projects visions of himself as alternately the president of the "New Bloomusalem" in Ireland, and the hermaphroditic slave of Bella Cohen, the madame.
Like the Novel
Anyone who is familiar with this episode can look forward to finding it (substantially pared down in "Ulysses in Nighttown". Those who haven't read the novel. I would advise to read the novel first.
And this brings up the essential weakness of the dramatization. The brothel episode stands near the end of "Ulysses" and brings to a fantastic focus all the characters and actions which have occurred before.
In the novel the episode makes sense, outside of the novel much of it appears a meaningless succession of faces and voices. How, for instance, is the uninitiated playgoer to understand Stephen's reference to the "black panther" if he is not familiar with the first episode of the novel and Hines' nightmare involving a black panther? Examples of this sort abound in the dramatization.
Questionable Production
Readers of "Ulysses" must often have wondered how this episode, written in dramatic form as it is, would look on the stage. Not having seen the dramatization when it was performed in New York last summer and winter, this reader is still wondering.
As a spectacle I have no doubt it is extremely effective; as a self-contained play I have my serious doubts. "Ulysses in Nighttown" taken as a whole is neither the novel, nor is it an organic and autonomous entity in itself.
Nevertholess, the wonderful lunacy of Joyce's characters and dialogue should well reward the playgoer, even if he is not quite sure what it is all about.
K-State's Commencement
For years graduates have had to suffer through tedious commencement exercises. The annual Baccalaureate address, senior meetings, caps and gowns, and all other pomp and circumstance seem to be integral parts of the meaning and atmosphere of college.
Notwithstanding the long and often humid hours which accompany these ceremonies, graduates look forward to them as moments of honor.
Now, Kansas State University has done away with some of this. No longer will graduates file across the K-State stage to receive their degrees. Under the new system, they will gather around five separate tables and receive their degrees and diplomas en masse. According to the Kansas State Collegian, this move will shorten the ceremony by 1/4 hours.
Our friend and colleague, Sharon Totten, editor of that radical newspaper, supports this innovation. In her May 14 editorial, Miss Totten lists three "reasons" for favoring "shortening and the simplification" of commencement:
"3. We see no worthwhile purpose in the commencement ritual. We do not believe it makes the degree any more or any less important."
"1. Caps and gowns are a foolish waste of money; it is difficult to escape the (graduation) exercises and thus escape the expense.
"2. The whole process is merely clinging to useless ritual.
Now, there certainly must be some use for commencement exercises. How could hordes of speakers ever bequeath their knowledge and advice to the world without Baccalaureate employ?
Wherewith could misty alums press tassels close to their hearts without first having worn time-honored caps and gowns?
Why remove the faculty's rare semblance of dignity by doing away with their flora-like ensembles?
Whatfor tear down the stately tradition begun by centuries-old graduating classes and recently commercialized by this century's businessmen?
Miss Totten, have you no heart, have you no care for that which is sacred and sentimental? Or has your education caused you to assume the vicious attitude of practicality?
Beware, Sharon, for in your desire to do away with social white elephants, your modern mind may lead you to destroy those worldly raiments which may even be only slightly useless. And then there will be little left. —John Husar
The Public Relations Smile
The "muscular reflex of popularity" is worn by so many people on the campus that it is hard to tell the real thing anymore.
This muscular reflex (smile in English) is directed at all and therefore at no one, a magazine article says. This is so because to be serious is not to be loved. And that is unbearable. There sure must be a lot of people hurting for love.
A quick tour of the campus will reveal the truth of this statement. Almost everywhere one turns there is someone flashing a row of teeth. This should make you smile back, but little be it known that the same person who "blessed" you has been smiling at the buildings for the past two blocks. All at once it strikes you that this smile
isn't meant just for you—but for anything that happens to get in the way.
There is also the person who gives the big grin as he walks into class and sweetly asks for the homework you labored on half the night so that he can quickly copy it. Two hours later he doesn't recognize you as you flash one at him in the Hawk's Nest.
The smile that is an expression of joy has faded with this false friendliness, of which the ever present smile is a characteristic. Along with the genuine smile has gone some of the friendliness that makes people feel good.
If we could just get the real smile and real friendliness back for the last gruelling week or two maybe the black cloud of finals hovering over us will be lifted somewhat. —Martha Fitch
What Is Knowledge?
Boy, do we think we're smart!
Sitting behind our typewriters, standing on podiums and before classes, writing on every examination and acting out our general ways of living, we try hard to display that which we think we know.
But fact and supposition are diverse phenomena. The extent of man's knowledge can be counted on three fingers:
1. Man knows his name. He has seen it on many documents, and answers to none other.
2. He knows he is living because he is alive.
2. He knows he is living because he is alive.
3. He knows there is a God because only a God could give life.
All other so-called knowledge has been imparted second hand. All can be challenged for lack of a factual basis.
If this is true, then what is knowledge?
—John Husar
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
'YOUR RIGHT WORTHAL — BINOCULAR MAKE IT'
'LOOK LIKE YA CAUOLED REACH RIGHT OUT AN' TOUCH EM'
Dailu Hansan
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
tridayweek 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
University of Kansas student newspaper
Telephone VIkling 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated College Repress. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
Prepared in international. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays. Subscription fees for second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Douglas Parker ... Managing Editor
Al Jones, John Hasar, Jack Harrison,
Jim Cable, Assistant Managing Editors
Jack Morton and Carole
Coughlin, Bord and
Yoom Co-Sports Editors;
Saundra Hayn, Society Editor.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Feitz... Business Manager
Robert Lida, Advertising Manager;
Howard Young, Classified Advertising Manager; William F. Kane, Promotion Manager; Paul Nielsen, Circulation Manager.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Pat Swanson and Martha Crosier, Co-
Editorial Editors; Robert Harvi, Asso-
 associate Editorial Editor.
Of Dogs And Men
By George DeBord
The problem of providing room on the campus for the University's dogs is becoming increasingly serious.
The canines were not much of a problem during the winter, for like most dogs they are inherently lazy and adverse to snow and cold weather. They remained indoors.
However, with the advent of spring, these comfort-hounds again appear on the lawns, streets and sidewalks. Most of them congregate in front of Strong Hall. The problem is that they are competing for room with the men who like to sit on the grass and watch the girls go by.
Most of the dogs hit the lawn soon after the coffee and doughnuts hours end in the basement of Strong. This is about the same time the art-form lovers arrive. With numbers in both groups increasing daily, something will have to give.
However, the girl-watchers claim squatters rights to the Strong lawn since they and those before them have held the ground every spring for many years.
The two groups will have to share the land. They must crowd together and love each other. Each small gathering of girl-watchers must contain a dog, sitting proudly in its center.
The dogs will not fight because, by their very nature, they love people. So, neither side wants war, for what man would bear arms against a Basset hound. It then appears that the only solution to the overcrowded situation will have to come through mutual understanding.
Usually in cases such as this, the land goes to that group which was there first. The dogs seem to have the edge here because their ancestors were roaming over Mt. Oread long before the University was built.
Either the girl-watchers or the nature-loving dogs will have to go. The problem is to decide which group has the right to the land.
Each individual will profit. There is no greater satisfaction for man than to know that he has solved a major problem without conflict. There is pleasure in knowing, too, that he has lived up to his title of dog's best friend.
Letters
Editor:
We do not blame the dean. We blame the writer, Harry Ritter, who cannot plead ignorance because he is the one who formulates the editorial of the UDK. He is the one responsible for the ill-mannered and bitter editorial which appeared in the May 14 issue.
Not only was an undeserving and unwarranted attack made on a dean of the University but also students who are blameless were subjected to the criticism from the pen of one neither as witty-nor as well-educated in the use of tact as one should be who is so "experienced" in journalism.
Would the writer subject the 114 law students to sit in the rooms between classes while other students enjoy the freedom of this beautiful campus? Or would he have the dean guard the steps of Green Hall to make sure that no passersby are caught in the steel trap of legal knowledge or stung by the barbs of witty students? Certainly such things are impossible.
The editorial says some law students have fallen victim to tradition as well as the ways of spring. Perhaps this is so. Still—we have learned the way to correct a wrong. We take the proper channels to make sure that the wrong-doer is punished and the underserving are not subjected to undue criticism and ridicule in an improper manner.
Wayne Williams
LaGrange, Ill...
second-year law
Tim Malone
Wichita, first-year law
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