Tuesday, March 4, 1986
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
7
Writer answers Southern calling
By Tom Farmer
Staff writer
The best resources for improving fiction writing are the classics, Eastern thought and one's own experiences, a KU writer in residence said last night.
John William Corrington, the writer, read excerpts from his Southern fiction and then discussed writing with about 50 people in Alderdon Auditorium of the Kansas Union
I. Writers in residence at the University of Kansas are financed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kansas University Endowment Association.
Corrington, who will be on campus all week and available for class visits, said he preferred to read the works of philosophers such as Plato and Thucydides instead of fiction novels.
"I haven't read more than 10 novels in the past 10 years," he said. "I was never a good fiction reader. I'm a writer."
short stories began with simple quotes, titles and images.
Corrington said his novels and
"A lot of my really good stuff has started with a title," he said. "Perhaps the easiest ones are the ones that start with an image or picture."
John William Corrington
Corrington, a native of Shreveport, La., said he didn't choose to write about the South, but instead was answering his calling.
"I got selected by birth to do what I do." Corrington said. "You're meant to do things. It's not really what you choose."
Even though he is a lawyer, Corrrington said, he makes most of his money by writing. But, he said, aspiring writers should think seriously about what they do and not expect a lot in return for their efforts.
Richard Hardin, professor of English, said Corrington's writing
was different from other recent writers in residence, who have written mostly from a Midwestern viewpoint.
"I think he's very interesting,"
Hardin said. "He's an intellectual writer, but he has a wonderful sense of telling a story."
Some of his works of fiction are "The Bombadier,"" The Lonesome Traveller,''' "The Southern Reporter" and "The Actes and Monuments," which are all associated with his Southern background.
He also has written several movies and television scripts with his wife, Joyce Corrington, including "The Killer Bees" and "Arena." The Corringtons are working on the movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov's, "Nightfall."
The couple helped write the script for the soap opera, "Search for Tomorrow," in 1978.
Although he said soap operas were a valid and important medium, Corrington left "Search for Tomorrow" because he didn't like the interference from the show's producers, who did not agree with his style of writing.
A real estate company reported Friday the theft of $1,140 in rent checks for an apartment complex in the 1400 block of Massachusetts Street between April 5 and August 19, police said.
On Campus
■ Two free films, "Paul Taylor and Company: An artist and his work" and Jose Limon's "Emperor Jones," will be shown at p.4.m today in Room 523 Robinson Center. The films are part of the dance history film series.
On the Record
Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday from a house in the 1300 block of Ohio Street, police said.
The seminar, "Is the Homosexual My Neighbor," will be presented at 4:30 p.m. today at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building, 1204 Oread Ave.
Color, environs key to Olympic designs
meet at 5:30 p.m. today in Room 130 Robinson Center.
The KU Ki-Aikido Club will
Expressions, the KU Dance Club, will meet at 7 p.m. today in Room 242 Robinson Center.
A backpack containing a portable cassette player, sunglasses, seven cassette tapes and clothing, valued together at $418, was stolen between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday.
■ Lt. Governor Tom Docking will speak about "Planning a Stable Kansas Future," during the University Forum at 11:40 a.m. tomorrow at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building. Call 843-4933 by noon today for luncheon reservations.
By Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
A digital clock, 35 cassettes and their carrying case, valued together at $310, were stolen between 11 p.m.
Before they ended up as colorful displays working to tie the world athletic community together, all of the designs for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles had to make it through Deborah Sussman.
Staff writer
Sussman, a graphic designer from the Sussman-Preiza and Co. design firm in Santa Monica, Calif., spoke last night on "Designing the Olympic Environment" as part of the Hallmark Lecture Series. About 200 people attended the speech at the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. The speech was sponsored by the department of design.
Being in charge of the $12 million Olympic environmental designs was a job that included overseeing the style, design and color of every aspect of the games from the smallest banner to the giant murals that wrapped around stadiums, she said.
A radio and 10 cassette tapes, valued together at $220, were stolen Saturday or Sunday from a car in the 2500 block of West Sixth Street, police said.
■ Fifty assorted socket wrenches, valued together at $200, were stolen between 6 p.m. Saturday and 4:55 p.m. Sunday from an auto repair shop in the 1200 block of East 23rd Street, Lawrence police said yesterday.
While ultimate responsibility for each design came down to Sussman, she did not work on them alone.
"A lot of people worked on it. At one time there were 150 designers and architects working on the games," she said.
The designs were easy to develop, Sussman said, because they evolved out of her memories of the colors and designs she had seen in other places. The ideas fell into place as she recalled the colors she had seen used in gravestones on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and in banners she had worked on for several shopping developments.
The groups could vary somewhat from the style requirements to adjust to the conditions of each site, but the variations had to be kept under control, she said. Each site design needed to coordinate with all the other
Small groups of designers would work on each individual games site, she said, where they would apply the stylistic elements that were the core of all Olympic designs.
designs to create a coherent feel to the games.
The colors and styles she used in designs for neon signs and wrapping paper early in her career were reflected in the environment of the games.
"All of these were the influences that shaped the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics," she said. "What I've come to realize over the years is my passion for the combination of graphics and the environment. This was used in the Olympics."
The design firm considered how all of the environmental designs would look on television, she said. Many people would see the designs at the game sites, but millions more would see them on television.
Because of this, a lot of blue was used in the designs because it looks better on television, she said.
However, many of the best designs the firm worked on were never seen, she said. These designs were for the Olympic Villages, which were off-limits to the public.
The cost for the games' designs seems large, she said, but the figures are misleading.
"It cost $12 million, but that's not very much when you consider that it covered half of Southern California," Sussman said.
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