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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Feb. 5, 1963
Bookstore Serves Itself
The wheels of bureaucracy have turned past another milestone in public service.
The directors of the Kansas Union Book Store, in their never-ending search for ways to serve their captive clientele, have closed the season on buying back used books.
Being the only source of text books for the University the bookstore has no trouble drumming up customers; you buy there or go without. That alone is repulsive enough. Now, they add insult to injury.
YOU EITHER SOLD your used books during final week or keep them until next May. The fact that you might need them during final week matters not, apparently. And, supposing you did not need them during final week, the fact that you are pinched for time doesn't make any difference either.
The bookstore directors absolved themselves of any possible moral obligation by advertising the fact that you have to sell your books during final week. It's that simple. Advertise that you run a monopoly, and it is all right.
It makes no difference to the bookstore directors that final week is an inconvenient, if not impossible, time for students to sell their books.
IT IS MORE convenient for the bookstore to buy only during final week. That settles it. Being of service to the students was of secondary importance.
Many students will find this inconvenience no hardship to bear. They are not acquainted
with a capitalistic system where free competition guarantees service to the customer.
All this makes you wonder for whom, exactly, is the bookstore run? Do not kid yourself and listen to the platitudes of "we strive to give ever increasingly better service to the students." Actions speak with more truth than words.
Certainly, it would be inconvenient to buy back the students' books while selling them new books. But it is interesting to note who would suffer that inconvenience.
You can bet that it will not be the people who operate a monopoly. And that is just what the Kansas Union Book Store is.
IF YOU EVER HAVE had the strange sensation of being able to get a little service along with your dollar, the operation of the bookstore runs against the grain.
While we are on the subject of organizations staffed by people devoted to nothing more than preserving their own positions with the minimum of effort to themselves, a note to the All Student Council: What do you think of this little situation in your own backyard?
The manager of the bookstore has said that other arrangements for buying books can be made-if the ASC can find time to worry about matters concerning students at KU.
HOW ABOUT IT, ASC? Now that you've taken a firm stand on Oxford, Miss., how about the Kansas Union Book Store?
Or is that a little too close to home?
—Terry Murphy
Modern Art
R. E. your article of Jan. 7 pertaining to modern art. The authoress of the article touches on a problem but doesn't penetrate the issue. Why not penetrate the major problem of the arts? Any number of monthly magazines answer the question, "What is modern art?" but how relevant is that compared to "How is modern art?" This is the question relevant to KU. What kind of atmosphere is conducive to the exploration of music and painting?
Not generalities. Not when about 25 per cent of the nominal $60 budget goes toward "Modern Art." Or the apathetic "don't rock the boat" attitude of the faculty in regard to experimentation. Music and painting are raw. Never before has the artist had the freedom to explore with depth his materials, be it paint or notes. But what provisions are made for the artist to explore? Minimal, the mere orthodox framework of the classroom. What facilities does our College of Fine Arts have for research? That is a penetrating question.
THE STRENGTH of a department is not in the numbers enrolled but rather the hardworking nucleus of students. Physically
... Letters ...
the "committed" painter is faced with the traditional problems of money to buy materials. Under departmental auspices component materials could be purchased, assimilated and made available to the student for a fraction of the cost he now pays.
Spiritually, perhaps the advanced music student is weary of the "stable" music library of historically proven masterpieces. Perhaps he wishes to experience the insecurity of probing pure sound, stripped bare of traditional connotation. I have never heard of a student in KU securing the recital hall to "audience-test" new ideas. This is faculty apathy.
Everyone accepts that a scientist must have a laboratory, but the artist must have one also. His language is new and difficult to learn. It is organic and therefore in constant evolution.
Lawrence sophomore Jon E. Gierlich
Editor:
ice skating
I have had the pleasure of meeting a few students on a more informal basis recently at Potter's Lake. It is always enjoyable to meet students outside the classroom. However I like to maintain my dignity. I find it difficult to do
so in certain positions on the ice.
It is true that we older faculty members are not the greatest athletes in the Midwest, but I feel sure that we should succeed to maintain our balance on the ice and our overall equilibrium better if the ice were smooth. Rough ice can be made smooth by scraping and other methods. We asked the Athletic Department if Potter's Lake could be made smooth and were informed that no provision has been made for this. If there is a good skate in the Athletic Department perhaps he will try to remedy this situation.
David A. Dinneen
Instructor of
Romance Languages
Party Pictures
Editor:
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Extension 711, news room
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Extension 711, news room
Information 554, TV
Telephone VIking 3-2700
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press,
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22,
N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates:
$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Fred Zimmerman ... Managing Editor
Ben Marshall, Bill Sheldon, Mike Miller,
Art Miller, Margaret Cathcart ... Assistant Managing Editors
Scott Payne ... City Editor
Steve Clark ... Sports Editor
Trudy Meserve and Jackie Stern ... Co-Society Editors
Murrel Bland ... Photograph Editor
Dennis Branstiter Editor
Terry Murphy Assistant Editorial Editor
NEWS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
I was disappointed to find that Mr. Renyer considers his question on "equality in representation" unanswered by my letter of Jan. 8th (see "Party Pictures," Jan. 17th). Mr. Renyer, I did not "erroneously assume" that you referred only to your own living group. You make it abundantly clear in your repeated use of "we" ("WE expect to be represented, otherwise WE would not bother to submit our pictures") that you speak for ALL living groups — the Voice of the Student Body Incarnate. I think it's very nice that all the living groups have confided in you and chosen you as their champion to lead the Crusade Against Unfair Party Picture Practices, but I do wonder why nobody came to talk to us about it first. Now, I admit that the Jayhawker staff has set itself up rather arbitrarily in the past as the judge of which pictures are good and which ain't, but if you can get the 'ol Student Bod together some afternoon, we'll go through each picture and take a vote on the best ones.
Jack Cannon, Business Manager; Jim Stevens, Assist. Business Mgr.; Mike Carson, Advertising Mgr.; Joanne Zabornik, Circulation Mgr.; Brooks Harrison, Classified Mgr.; Bob Brooks, National Adv. Mgr.; Charles Hayward, Promotion Mgr.; Bill Finley, Merchandising Mgr.
TO ANSWER your question: as ridiculous as it may sound to you, we take your money and try like hell to turn out a quality publication with it, one that is not cheapened by the inclusion of second-rate material. Or in simple language that even you can understand, no living group that turns in lousy pictures is going to get them printed in the Party Pictures section. Period.
By the way — we have made a concession to all non-represented groups in the Winter edition of the Jayhawker. Look for it — I'm sure you'll be very pleased.
Kansas City, Mo., Junior
BOOK REVIEWS
Other articles: "The Most Mysterious Manuscript," by Alfred Werner; "Boston Chooses the Future," describing competition to build a major civic building in Boston; "What Next in Art?," dealing with the future beyond abstract painting; "Revolt Against the West End," the story of new theatrical development in London; a story about the impact of gluttony upon art; a story about the comic writer John Barth, another about the actress Claudia Cardinale, a beautiful color section on Persia, and so on.
This quality hardback magazine features this month an article by Murray Kempton which offers the view that today's artist, who works in a society ready to sympathize with the unconventional, is in danger of forfeiting his soul. He says that critics, publishers, and art dealers tell us what is good art and what is a good investment, and that man is in danger of abdicating individual choice.
HORIZON. January, 1963. $4.50.
*   *
HERSELF SURPRISED, by Joyce Cary (Harper's Modern Classics,
$1.40); THE HORSE'S MOUTH, by Joyce Cary (Harper's Modern
Classics, $1.40).
Joyce Cary was among the greatest writers of the English language. In these two novels, which are two of a trilogy that also includes "To Be a Pilgrim," he reveals the brilliant insights and understandings of character that may rank him sometime with Fielding, Dickens and Thackeray.
Without setting out to write epics, he has achieved epics in these amazing novels. We obtain ex parte evidence in each of these novels, for "Herself Surprised" is told in the first person by Sara Monday, and "The Horse's Mouth" in the first person by the roguish painter Gulley Jimson, who once took Sara for a mistress.
Sara's story is similar in style and form to Defoe's "Moll Flanders," though Sara is a bit more on the moral side than Moll. A cook and serving woman, she marries well, but she remains a cook and somewhat of a heller, and her taking up with the extraordinary Gulley does not aid matters.
Gulley tells his story in a style that is loaded with artistic imagery (Sara sees things from the standpoint of the kitchen as Gulley sees them from the canvas). He reflects on the last months of his life as he lies dying, and we are treated to this amazing tale of his execution—or attempted execution—of three works, "The 'call' of Adam and Eve, the raising of Lazarus, and the Creation itself
There are brilliant and entertaining passages. "The Horse's Mouth" is as opaque as "Herself Surprised" is simple. Each reveals the versatility of Joyce Cary.-CMP
$$
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THE IDES OF MARCH, by Thornton Wilder (Harper Modern Classics, $1.40).
"The Ides of March" is the story of people and events just prior to the assassination of Caesar. Wilder tells the story through letters, poetry, memoranda, and documents that purportedly come from those ancient times.
It is difficult to find the proper word to sum up this book. Its form makes it almost unique. Like Thornton Wilder's plays, it shows the author's amazing perceptiveness in taking men and women of other eras and relating them and their foibles to our own time.
There is juicy gossip about Catullus the poet and the scheming Clodia. There are stories about Cleopatra and the "real reason" she came to Rome. There are discussions of the probability that Brutus was the son of Caesar. There are notes sent to the conspirators from spies planted right in Caesar's household.
Through it all, in his own (Wilder's, that is) writings and those of others walks the incredible Caesar, man of humor, temper, wisdom, dignity, self-doubt, passion, waiting for the event he feels is sure to come—death at the hands of a Roman conspiracy.—CMP
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"TELL ME DAWSON, WHAT KIND OF AN ASSIGNMENT WOULD I HAVE TO GIVE THAT WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO PROP THIS COURSE?"