The Cooper Point Journal, Volume 8, Issue 12 (February 14, 1980)

Item

Identifier

cpj0216

Title

The Cooper Point Journal, Volume 8, Issue 12 (February 14, 1980)

Date

14 February 1980

extracted text

12

Book Review

Dispatches-notes from hell
By T. J. Simpson

Michael Herr's Diopatd,H was published a little over 2 years ago, and since
that time has been acclaimed many times
over as being the best book yet on the
Vietnam War. Certainly, on the basis of
its writing alone, it would be bard to
imagine a better book on the subject
than Herr's. But the book is by no mea11s
an overall view of the war. It is simply a
record or Herr's own experiences in Vietnam when he was covering the war for
Esquire magatine lrom the !all ol '67 to
the !all ol "68.
By not having to deal with the daily
routines of meeting deadlines and filing
reports that his fellow correspondents
had to put up with, Herr was able to
take his time covering the war in some
of the worst outpost.a and battles of the
war. The book concentrates mostly on
the day-to-day realities and horror, u
well as Herr's experiences with the
"grunts,"
Lhe low-level enlisted or
drafted Marine soldiers who did most of
the ground lighting.
Herr wrote the narration for Francis
Fonf Coppola's A--1J11N Now, and
after reading his book, one can see that
ApocalypH Now is based on Diopetdle•
as much as it is on Heart of Dvtmeu.
The "grunts" in Apocalypoe Now are
very much like those in Herr's bookstoned-oul, apolitical hick kids from the
South or Midwest and young blacks from
Lhe cities who had no idea what they
were doing there. The kilJing and the

MUSIC
Friday I Saturday, Febfullry 8 I I
The Gnu Dell preaents a Gnu Music Benefit.
Guitar Fonam II- Two evenings of Instrumental music tor guitar by over ten varied
ao10,sts 9 p m. $2.00.
As part of their month-long
Bluegrass
Festival, Allen's Bay Goulash Review (1023
Capitol) presen11 the FINI Wond Strtng 9end.
9 pm., 12 10 required.
Soturdoy, ,_,.,
I
Applejam p,esents SouthfCMtl, one of the
moat respected bluegrass bands In 1he NOf1hweat Doors open at 8 p.m. $2.00
TUNday, Fttwuary 11
The CotteehOUH
(CAB 306) presents
Am•thysl
01ll•on
playlng orlglnal
music
genefOusty spiced wl1h medieval, celllc, and
eastern flavours 8 p m
Thurwday, FebNlry 14
Bleiedlng tMM1s. • band ol aentlrMntal
tools lad by a man wl1h a pigeon, appear al 7
in CAB 10,,&.

A.ATS
Thursday, FtlbNary 7
VkMIG lnstallaUons continues A collection
ol rec:en1 video wOfk uh1blled by s1uden11
and faculty In the Words. Sounds and Images
p,OQram Gallery ,. through February 1•
Howard Sewall, Nor1hwest ar1,at, E:a:hlbUIn
Ret~.
1ncludlng drawings. watercolors,
pnnts. olla and weav1noa At the WashlngtOl'I
Slate Gap,101 Museum. 211 W 21st Througt'i
March 3
Coetumn cralled 104' a varle1y ot produc•
11ons go on display ,n Gallery 2 The exhibit
leatures lhe work ol eight students. whON
costumes are !he proCIUCIol tall quarter pm1ec1s Complemenllng the s1uoen1 wOB. a~ a
number of costumes sewn by prc,leas1onals
tor Eve,green productions.
Including costumes from C~ov·s
"The Seagull .. and p\aytul ga,ments from ..Alice tn Wonderland"

drugs just beame a way of life and their
main concerns were just staying alive
and finding enough d<!Pf>.
The book is in six M'Ctions. each one a
little different from the other. The lint
part is called "Breathing In," which ia
sort of a non-linear monologue that reads
lilte it was written while the author wu
on speed. With uncanny pen:eption and
fantastic prose, Herr relates hia experiences during his fint few montha in

Exhibit remains on display through February 20.
Collectors· Gallery presents N•
CollagN
by Ray Ho, artist of regional reputation, and
New WalefcokKs by Jeffy ~-,
painter whO
divide& time between Wuhlngton
and AMz.~
na. Sunday the 2nd trom 1.5 p.m .. Ray Ho
will be at the gal~
to dlacuss the exhlbU.
On display through the 29th.
Childhood's End Glll«v
oresents Lorena
Sharpe, Clothlng t« a Mad Soul, and C.lharlne arlgden,
Paatel Orawlnga,
through
lhe 30th.
Howatd Sewall, NMhwest artist, Exhibit In
Rairoapect, \nch.ldlng drawings, watarcolora,
prlnla, Otis and weavinga al the Washington
Stale Capitol Mueeum, 211 W. 21st Ave.,
Otympla. Th,ougtl March 3.
Spirit ot "'" Tlgor: fotk Art ot Kth,ough March 28 at the Thomas Burke
Memorlal Wahington State Museum, Seattle
Thuraday. FebNary 14
The Fanta•Uclla,"America's best•loved off
Sroat,way mutta:I, ... wfll ~ p,nortned at tn:a
Evergreen
Playhouse,
226 W. Center,
Centralia The box ottlce opens at 7 p.m., the
curtain la at 8·15 p.m Tickets are $3.50
Through the 2◄ 1h,

EVENTS
Thurlday, FebNary J
How to be EttactM
In an Employment
lnteNlew Is the topic ot • wortl.ahop altered
by Career Planning and P1acemenl, from noon
to 1.JO pm In Lib 1213. Gall eee--6193 for
turthef Information
Friday, fobnlory I
Stop the Onf1! umbfetla group meeting,
7 p m .. lib 3!500lounge
Graduate
School
Information
..,,,111be
Pfe&enled at a Caree, Planning and Ptacemen1
worttshOp. From noon 10 1 ; 30 p m. In Lib
1213 For fur1hef lnlormauon, call ee&-8193
A eoop.,att,e LIYlng potluck wlll take place
to talk about plannlng • cooperatlW! near

Vietnam just before the Tel Offensive.
"HeU Sucb" ia a report on Hue during
Tet, and the next part, "Kbe Sanh," ia
like a cinematic novel about being holed
up for weeb at the Kho Sanh Marine
l5ue while it f;u under siege by the
North Vietnamese. Here the author
brilliantly capture■ the feeling (the
drudgery. the hopeleuneu, the fear) of
what that long battle wu like. Everything, from the ahiwmelling darkness of

Evergreen. It happena every Friday In CAB JOB
at 6 p.m.
Salurdrf, FllbNary I
At the next swim JMet, Evergreen'• t•m
will compel• aoalnst the teams lrom Waahlnglon State Unlver11lty a,nd Eastern Wuhlngton State University,
TESC pool, In the
Recreatlone Bldg. at 2 p.m. Free.

w_,,_,,

Caraer1 and Employffllflt Is the toplc In this
workahop ot the aeries tor atudent1 of Human
Oevelopmenl and Hellth Stud!N. From 1 10
◄ p.m. In Lib 3SOOlounge. Call careerPlan-nlng and Placement, &ee-e193, for further
Inform.al ion.
Tile Otympto Nk:oSotldllrtty Commit•
IN meets (~
W.tneeday) In the Olympia
Food Co-op, 921 N. Rogers, at 7: 30 p.m.
NOTE:
ANTI-DRAFT RALLY In Sylvester Park on
Salu."'day, February 9, noon to ◄ p.m. There
will be speakers and entertainment.

FILMS()fj CAIIP.11S
f-.•-·
F,lday NIie FIims presents Ralnef' Werner
Fasablnder'a
DHpalr
(Germany/ England,
1979. 119 min.) starring Oirlit Boga,de ar:<'
Andrea Ferreol. Based on Vtadlmlr Nabokov•
1936 novel and with a scrNnplay
by Tom
Sloppan:I ("RoaencranU and Glldenstem Are
Dead'), this Is a story about a Rusalan exll•
(Bogarde) llvlng In Germany In the .arty
1930'1 whose chocolate factory la on !he verge
of bankruptcy. He plots to kill and trede ldentlllea with a man who he MIi....lo be his
double. The problem la, no one else thinks
lhat the othef man looks Ilk• Bogerde st ell
Al1hough Fassbinder Is one Of the currttnt
German New WaW!'S "big three" (along wllh
Henog and Wendefs), hll lllms are Just beginning to catch on In wntem Washington
(His newett one, "The MarTlage ot Marla
Braun," IS a big hit up In Seetlle now.)
Oasplfr la not so much a Fassbinder film u
It la a cotlabofatlon
between Fassbinder,

the bunker to the incompetency ol the
hjgh command, is covered.
Best ol all. Herr recreates two memorable characters lrom real lif&-Mayhew,
a crazed hick kid from the South who
can't quite see the war as being real. and
Day Tripper, a black from Detroit "."ho
can't wait to get back home. In the midst
ol a battle, Mayhew extends hia tour of
duty and Day Tripper is thoroughly di&gu ■ ted with him. The dialogue ex·
changed between the two al thia point ia
both funny and very moving. It oxpcees
the love and friendship they share (even
though Day Tripper ia furious) while at
the same time showing bow these two
are worlds apart.
The part that follows is entitled
"Illumination Rounds. .. a series of short
(often one paragraph or page) anecdotes
and memories of seemingly minor things,
but they teU us more about the war than
anything we ever saw on the TV n~ws
or in the newspapers at that time.
..Colleagues," ii about Herr's experiences
with leUow journaliala and hio own feelings about his job.
.
"Breathing Out" ends the book, in
which Herr comes backto the stat.ea an<l
reali,.ea that he misaea the war. As much
as he hated the war, he loved it too, for
it gave him a purpooe in life in a
Hemingway sort ol way. He becomes
alienated with life back in the states,
unable to watth the new, of the war on
TV because be knows whats really
happeni_ng.

.

.

.,

He malr.ea thia convtnang, deap1te all
the atrocitiea described-things like an
officer threatening to court-martial a
Continued on page 11

Nabokov, and Stoppard. (NabokOY reportedly
approved of Stoppard's ICflpt before he d+ed.)
The !\Im Is tilled with some greet Stoppardlan
llnes Ilka, "Take ott your clolhest Have you no
sense of indecency?" and (In reference to
Nallonal Socialism), ''They're not Nallonallsta
or Soclallatsl" A difficult fnm, but one many
wlll hopefully find rewarding
(In English)
Plus! Shwt Mus5qua, from the Na11onal Fttm
Board of Canada. L.H I. 3, 7, and 9.30 °™Y
a dollar
Salurday, February I I Sunday, FabNary 10
The Counseling Center presents Phillippe
OeBroca·s King of HHrts
(France, 1987,
101 min In Cinemascope.) starring Alan Bates
and Genevieve Bujold
Isn't being crazy
wonderlut? Aren't menlal paUenta cule and
adorable? Aren't people eYer going to get alck
of this tum? L.H.I. Salurday at 7 and 9:30.
Sunday at 3 and 7. Only a dollar Proceeds 00
to the Counaellng CenlM
-·
feb<uary t1
EPIC presents
Attica,
a documentary
about NelY'h Rockefeller's brutal and senseless 1971 massac,e 01 New Yortit stale prison
Inmates and guards. Two speakers from The
Washington CoallUon Agalnsl Prisons will
answe, questions about llte In p,laon l H.I.
7·30 Freel
WednNday, FebNary 13
The Academic FIim Serles presents Pathef
Panchlll (The Song of the Road. First part of
the "Apu" trtlogy.) "Based on • popular
Bengali novel, Satyajil Ray's tlrs1 lllm Is stll!
one of his best. Slmply and beautifully told, It
touches broad emotional and paychologk:al
Ol8fnea as It focuses on the childhood di►
cover* of Apu. aon ol a poor village family.
LIie, death, nature, comedy, tragedy and R8'ti
Shankar'a music are lnter1wlned. Shot on
location of course, with an excellent, rnosUy
non-p,ofeulonal
cul,
this film Introduced
Third World cinema to lhe Wul. Both Pauline
Kael and Penelope Gllllant, former critics for
Mew YOfke, magazine, listed It among their
favorite lllms." -Erich Floe. 1 : 30 and 7: 30,
lecture Hall 11, tree.

THE

POINT

COOPER

JOURNAL

THE
Vol. 8 No. 12

The Evergreen State College

Olympia, Washington 98505 February 14 , 1980

Students stage draft protest downtown
By Larry StillweU
Olympia has joined the long list ol college towns that have been the site ol
antidraft demonstrations in the last few
weeks. Over 300 Evergreen students
gathered in Sylvester Park Saturday
afternoon to hear a series of speakers
denounce the draft, American foreign
policy, and war in general.
The rally was very subdued; many
participants declared it "boring" and left
long before the rally's permit expired.
Approximately 75 people were still in
the park as festivities ended with a
WOman on stage singing St.even Stills'
..t'or Whal It's Worth," a song popular in
the protest movement. of the 1960s.
The speeches ranged from strident
rhetoric to long-winded analysis. Most
criticized United States foreign policy u
"imperialistic" and the draft u "dangerous and immoral.~
Poetry and music were interspersed
with the speeches. Midway through the
raUy, three-fourtha of the crowd joined
hands, circling around the stage while
musiciana aang and played "Thia Land Ia
your Land" and other traditional pocket
songs.
Very few non-E\,ergreeners were in
attendance. Individual demonstntors
expressed regret that so few local highschool 1tudenll bad turned out and
attributed this to lut-mlnute orpnizatlon, which had limited publicity for the
rally.
Motorists on Capitol Way seemed
moaUy unaware of the rally's exiatence
There w~re no reported cases of haJ'&Mment of demonstrators.
A member ol the Vietnam Veteraru,
Against the Wu, brandishing a copy of
the Revolutionary Communiot Party's
newspaper "Revolutionary
Worker,"
delivered a speech rewritten from an
article in that newspaper. The article
\ledares:
" ... it is not really a quest.ion of are
we going to fight.or not.. are we going lo
shed blood or not. but a question ol !or
whom and for wt.at. are wfl going to shed
our blood, !or the imperialists or to get
rid ol them."
Some other speakers also spoke ol the
impossibility of a purely pacifist position
in a world where "there is no peace..
even in the abeeIEe of war, as one put it.
Oppresaive and exploitive "peaceful"
conditions demand militant resistance,
they said.
Most, however, attacked the evil of
war and violence itaelf, for whatever
cause. Rick Poweil gave a long history ol
war systems and "the psychological and

Photo by Doug Plummer

social myths that sustain them.' Unfortunately, his many words were mostly
loot on the crowd, which was calm but
not in a classroom mood.
Glen Andenon, ol the Olympia FeUowship of Reconciliation, joined other
speakers in poiflting to America's dependence on foreign oil u the root cause of
the current national proclivity toward
war. He made clear the connection between oil and war and war and the draft
and deacribed, in practical terms. how
going to war would be self-defeating in
terms ol the total loss ol foreign oil
~urces and the vast war-time consump,
lion, by the military, ol available energy
supplies.
"The largest single consumer of
energy in the U.S. ia the military," he
said. "The Department of Defense uses
more than all the energy consumed by
t.he rest of the U.S. government."
He also equated the draft with slavery
and with preparations for war. "We
could not have fought. the war in Vietnam without the pool of manpower the
draft provided," he aaid, quoting Massachusetts Congressman Robert Drinan.
But Ali Ramezani, an Evergreen
student from Iran, received the most
enthusiastic, heart-felt crowd response of
the day when, alter decrying the ..world
imperialism" of both the Soviets and the
Americans, and warning against Carter's
latest moves to loosen restrictions on the
CIA, he said:
"So ... I will go alter thio wonderful
rally, exchanging thoughts with my
friends here, an~ I will caU my friends in

Iran.
"I will tell them we are not alone after
all We have friends, millions of friends
in America ...
''Our friends in America are fighting
here in the United States. They are
fighting against further and future ex•
ploitation and intervention of their government in our country and ill neighbors. We are going lo live in peace after
all.
"I'll hang up and I'll be certain that
now my friends in Iran are calling their
friends in Pakistan, Omen. Lebanon, and
so on. They will be calling to deliver the
message of hope and peace from Americans and soon people of that part of our
globe will hear and will be convinced
that they have friends in the United
States. They have true friends and Lrue
friends, they know, do not take up arms
against each other."
Andy Carter spoke ol lhe specifics of
applying for status as a Conscientious
Objector with the Selective Service.
While the reinstatement of the draft
may bring changes in regulations regarding deferment.a and classifications. he
said, "the basic things the military looks
for in determining C.0. status will not
change.
"Unfortunately, determining if you are
a C.O. is not easy ... A C.O. is opposed
to all war on the basis ol deeply held
moral, ethical, or religious beliefs )OU
do not have to be opposed to all forms ol
force, violence, or even the taking of
human life. The law only requires that a
person conscientiously oppose participa-

tion in warfare."
Ir vou wanl Lo get a C.O. claim accepted. he told the crowd, "Seek and get
expert counseling. IL is of vital impor·
Lance you know your own soul."
One who could theoretically participate
in a defensive war in case of an unproLected aLtack on Lhe L1nited States is a
selective objeclor, Carter said, and not
eligible for C.0. status.
He stressed that those considering
applying for C.O. stalus should seek out
qualified draft counselors and immedia t ely begin pressing
their claim, as
SelecLive Service regulations severely
limit the Lime allowed for such processes.
Hundreds of written StalemenLS of
Belief useful in proving one's conscientious objection Lo war were distrib.tted
at the rally. Rally organizers also ur~
participants Lo express anlidraft senliment to Congressman Don Bonker and
paper and envelopes were available for
Lhat purpose. Many people took advantage ol the opportunity.
After all the speeches denouncing
reinstatement. of the draft as a means to
the ends of American imperialism and
the continuation of the nation's wealthy
standard of living at the expense or the
poorer countries of the world, Peter
Epperson captured the antiwar feeling of
the crowd when he read Mark Twain's
version of Tbe Battle Hymn of theRepabli< !Brought Down to Dato~ The
first and last versions of Twain's Hymn
went:
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of Lhe
launching or the sword:
He is searching out the hoardings
where the strangu·s
wealth is
stored:
He hath loosed hi.s fat.,ful lightnings.
and with woe and d1•dth has scored:
His lust is marching c,n.
ln a sordid slime harmonious, greed
was born in yooder ditch.
With a longing in his bosom-and for
others· goods an itchAs Chrisl died to make men holy, lei
men die to make us richOur god is marching on.
The next event planned by locaJ antidraft forces is a Draft Forum at Lhe
Olympia Community Center Thursday,
February 14, al 7 p.m. Stephanie Coontz,
a member or the TESC faculty and a
long-Lime anLiwar activisL. Dr. Ward
Miles, a C.O. in World War II and a
Quaker, and Adrianne Alex.ander. a draft
counselor with the American Friends
Service Committee, are among the
scheduled speakers.

Ajlologlo
JN' Uke to take this opportunity to again
apologize for lul WMk'a Friday Hite FHm,
TNCII Stop Women and the mlaleedlng publk:lty surrounding It, since I wu the one
respon1lbta. The dlatf'1but0,, that handle the
film handle moetly claaly for9lgn IW1 mma,
laft•wlng, femlnl•t.·and ..cult'· fllma. I ,.,_,..
ber re.ding the rave review "Rolling Stone ..
~ TNdl Stop Women back In 197• and had
always been curious ebout the mm. The di ►
trlbutors (both in lhetr catalog and when I
talked lo their ~~tall~
ewer t~
are promoting It u some IOt1 of arty, witty,
aoon-t~be-cull
clualc
with leminlat CNet•
tones I waa probably more appatled than anyone else when I aaw that It wu baslcally a
solt-cor•
Hxploltatlon
film mixed with
Western and gangster parodies. OtMoueJy,
!he tllm wu m.de tor trucker&. Bellew me, If
I had seen It betOf'ehand, I never would ha"9
ordered 11. It simply sucked. (It's the llrat mm
Iha! 1 have ever shown that I fNI that way
aboul ) The material on the poeters wN
practically straight from the catalog, u wu
most of lhe Into In the capsule review. Mott
of !he fllma I order r .... already aeen. As to,
lhoa,e that I haven't aJrMdy seen, I al INlt
know enough aboul them and their director.
(these are usually the ones that dOl'l't go O¥ef'
aa well wl1h the audlenoes. though). Anyway,
you'W! go1 to take a gamble sometimes,
because you never know when !here might be
a hidden mastarpNtee lying 10mewhere In Iha
trash heap. -T J SlmplOfl

Clabaugh's death shocks campus
By Mary Young
Dean Clabaugh, the man who chooe
the thousand acres of campus we live
and work on, died suddenly in hla home
last SaturJ!u <!Lau appau.n.t mu■iv•
heart attack.
Clabaugh, who held the diatinclive
tit.le of "the first Evergreener," acted u
Admjnistrative Vice-President.. and more
recently u Vice-President for Busineu.
He was the very first person to be hired
in 1967 by the Board ol Trustees. "As
the first Evergreener," aaid President
Evans, "Dean, more than anyone else,
breathed life into the physical structure
and the campua we now enjoy. He wu a
friend, a colleague, and a teacher
whose ... unswerving loyalty and detailed
knowledge of this college were of
immense value to me."

During those first days, when Evergreen did not even have a name,
Clabaugh oversaw the site selection and
purchasing of the campus, staff recruitllleiit, and the initiaT program and physical planning ol the college. Recalls
trustee Herb Hadley, "He was a controversial administrator who burned a loL
of midnight oil during the creation and
operation of Evergreen. He was of immense value to the college and made a
lasting contribution not only to Evergreen but to the state's educational
system."
Five hundred people attended Wednesday morning funeral services for Vice
President Clabaugh al the Gloria Dei
Lutheran Church in Olympia. "I mw
him very much," said TESC's fll'sl president Charles McCann, '"Evergreen will,
too."

I

I

CONFERENCE
CLARIFIED
ever, whether their fellow soldiers will
entirely approve (especially during combat) of these editors' studied ignorance
of what is going on or cute way with
words.
David Marr
Member of the Faculty

CLABAUGH
MEMORIAL
FUNDTO:
The Evergreen Community
FROM: Daniel J. Evans
As you are aware, we lost Dean
Clabaugh Saturday night to a heart
attack.
In lieu of flowers. the family suggests
contributions to Dean Clabaugh Memorial Fund. Evergreen Foundation for the
purchase or library books, or to the
Lacey Fire Department for the support
of Medic I.

(Editor's Note: None of the other
editors should be included in the public's
condemnation of last issue's Editor's
Note in reply to charges that a CPJ ad
was racist. I conceived of the ad and
wrote the reply. I am sorry both were so
offensive to so many members of the
Evergreen
community. There is no
excuse for racism. Claiming ignorance is
no excuse and that's not what I meant to
imply last week. I only meant to explain
how the ad had come about and to
assure everybody that nothing racist
was intended. I am doubly sorry if I was
snide or disrespectful in my reply and if
the sincerity of the apology was lost
among the self-justifications. LWS]

I encourage all of you who wish to do
to take part.

'>O

ASSUMED
MONO-CULTURAL
VIEW
Dear CPJAfter reading your apology to York
Wong there are a few things I want

The growing popularity of mysticism events in Afghanistan, we discovered,
shows a lack of inteUe<tual rigor and hidden on an obseure back page the folclear thinking. Science baa deposed tra- lowing brief article. Just thought your
ditional religions and many people,
readers should know who we're really
especially Evergreen studenta, are flee- up againsl
ing to mysticism and ideas such as
"The Bristol-Meyers
Corporation
Capra's to give their lives meaning. It is announced yesterday its plans to pur·
easy to blindly accept ideology which chase the entire country of Afghanistan,
gives soothing explanations, meaning and changing ita name to Afghandriatan. Thia
hope to perplexing and difficult ttiings in flagrant violation of national sovereignty
life: thinking, reasoning and accepting
is expected to cause an international
facts is much harder. Capra sees the rise
headache. Experts are speculating that a
of mysticism as the only hope for the
cold war mentality
could become
world's problems. Nazism came to power
contagious."
because the German people also lacked
Just don't say we didn't warn ya!
the ability to think and reason. Hitler
Paul Phinque
told the people not to reason, but to feel
Amy Levinsky
with their hearts that he was right.
Dougling Riddle
Capra has a double standard.
He
thinks the scientific method is fine for
science but not for testing mysticism,
and he thinks both subjects can and
should exist together in our civilization.
If our society regarded mysticism or ·in- Editor, CPJ:
tuitive thinking as valid, the fine line of
I much enjoyed T. J. Simpson's review

A GREAT
AMERICAN BOOK

to say.
I think that part of how racism is perpetuated is by the unthinkingness of
people in the oppressor group. EspeciaUy
at Evergreen

(where as you say, no one

would "deliberately" be racist) racism
seems to take the subtler form of lack of
interest in getting information. As white
people we can sit back on our laurels
assuming lhat we've finally accepted
people of other races because we know
deep in our hearls we would never
"deliberately" oppress. Because we are
in a privileged position very few whites
bother to find out how blacks, AsianA mericans,
Native Americans
and
Chicanos look at the world from the
background of their cultures and experiences in the United States. and how
white's words and actions might be
interpreted by other peoples. So not only
are oppressive stereotypes and unthinking comments laid on people, but also
the attitude itself-the assumed monocultural view of the world-is oppressive.
I feel it is our responsibility as economically privileged people to seek out information and clean up our act. (All of
this also applies to men and sexism.)
I was also saddened by the triteness
of your apology to York Wong; the
rambling protestations or innocence and
the jokes trying to make light of the
whole thing. Again-you are in a privileged position in this society so you can
afford to be light. Ask anyone who isn't
white how funny it is that you "just
weren·t aware!" All York deserved to
hear from you was; "you have my sincerest apologies. There is no excuse for
racism."
Thank you
Lisa C. Murphy

STUDIED IGNORANCE
To the Editors of the CPJ:
The current editors of the CPJ should
have bright futures in the U.S. Army, an
institution famous in recent years for
its efficient cultivation of rucist attitudes. Moreover, service in the army
should give these editors a broad field in
which to show off their flashy uniform of
American innocence. It is doubtful, how•

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/!J;
THE QUACK
OF PHYSICS
Dear Editor,
Last week hundreds of people flocked
to see Fritjof Capra give a lecture about
what he, thinks are the similarities between physics and mysticism. Capra does
not give • convincing argument for his
ideas. He makes no specific connections
between mysticism and physics, but
equates very general unclear ideas of
physics with ambiguous principles of
mysticism. The concepts Capra uses to
correlate physics and mysticism are
vague enough so that he can mold them
to hia purpose.
Capra's ideas are based on the premise
that mystical experiences are a valid
way of gaining knowledge. There is no
evidence that proves any mystical doctrine true. Mystics get around this by
saying that their mystical experiences
and revelations are beyond reason and
logic. Mystics evade any challenges to
their beliefs by their denial of reuon.
What mystics don't like about reuoning
is that ia destroys mystical ideology.

what to apply rational to, and what to
apply intutitive thought to, would disappear. As our society grew more mystical. freedom would diminish. Just as
Hitler did, demagogs would appeal to
people's emotions rather than their intellects. Freedom would cease to exist
when logic conflicted with intuitive
truths.
The inquisition of Galileo illustrates
this. The mystics of the Catholic church
had a revelation that the sun revolved
around the earth. Galileo came up with
good evidence that the earth revolved
around the sun and for his views was
almoat executed.
It ia ironic that Capra ia regarded by
many as a humanist. With the grave
problems that confront the world today,
rational thinking ia crucial for any 10lut.iona. It i.s easy and i.n.lidious to put your
head in the warm and comfot1ing sand of
mysticiam as Fritjof Capra doeo: it ia
hard and imperative to at.and up and face
the bitter winds of the world.
Brian Frie"dkin

RIDDLE OF
THE PHINQUES
To the Edito~:
A few eveningo ago, while I and a

couple of friends were reading a Wall
§.treet Jouroal orJina: oveLtbeJeCeDt..
EDITOR Larry St.Olw.U
ASSISTANT EDITOR David Joyner
NEWS EDITOR Carol l'Kker
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Mary Yoaq
P- Due.berry
Tim N._ier

MANAGING EDITOR BM "-less d,r
FEATURE EDITOR T.J. SiaART DIRECTOR Rudy Hudas
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
LIIMF.d<.........,

HELPERS, MUNCHKINS, GOPHERS, ETC.: Ella Blackwood, J. C. Armbru1ter,
John Foster, Charlene Goldstein, David Innes, Twilly Cannon, Doug Plummer.
Alan Frank, and the hot plate from Lab Stores.
The Cooper Point Jouma,l 11 publi1hed weekly
Q()\"9m0fl
01 The Evergreen State College. v1...

the atudente, flCulty, ttaff, rodWlta, and exar11 not neoeuartly thoN of TIMIe.,...
green Slate ~lege
Of of the Cooper Potnt Joumal'• ataff. A<hwtlelng matenal p,Nented herein
don not Imply endorMl'T'lef1tby th/1 new1paper. omon .,. located In the CoUege ActlvttlN Bulkl-lng (CAB) 104. Phone: ae&-e213. All letter, to the editor, announcement•, Ind lfta and ewnta
items mutt be receh«:t by noon Tueeday and all articfN by noon Monday fOf that WNk'• pubUc•
lion All contrlbullon1 muat be tlgned, typed, dou~epeced
and of a '9UOftllble ~h.
NafflN:
•Ill be •llhheld on requeel. The edltOfl f'9Nt'Ve the right lo edll ~tere and lftk:lea fOf length,
conten1, and ttyle.
fOf

expreeMd

of Michael Herr's Di■patchea, an amazing
book about day-to-day soldiering in Vietnam. I believe that Herr's report will
eventually come to be ranked among the
best books written by Americans in the
period 19-45-1980.It is already viewed by
many-and especially by writers themselves-as probably the best work to
come out of the New Journalism movement. I have been surprised by the
book's failure to ..catch on" at Evergreen,
and I gladly grab this opportunity to
recommend it to anyone who might be
looking for 10mething both contemporary
and excellent-a rather difficult aear-ch
these days in some of the art.a. I caution,
however, that it ia probably not a good
recommendation for readers who are
squeamish or easily shocked.
Leo Daugherty
Faculty (Literature
and Linguistics)

PLEASE WRITE
Feb. 8, '80
Letter to the Editor:
To all my friends at Evergreen: I am
being held at Western State Mental
Hoopital. Please write me if you care
about what I'm going through. I can't
promiae ru be able to write back.

To the Editor:
Th.is is to update and clarify my letter
last issue (CPJ Feb. 7, 1980) about the
March 1st White Houae Conference on
the Family.
First, MEN are urged to attend. Thia
is not a women's conference as the CPJ
headline may have led some to assume.
Child abuse, abortion righta, parental
power vs. social programs (the Right-toLife Coalition seeks to prohibit even con·
traceptive co1111eellnato minors without
parental consent) are men's issues u
well as women's.
Again you can pick up registration
forms in CAB 305 or leave your name,
address, and phone number in my
CAB 305 mailbox or call 866--6220with
the information. Feb. 15 ia the deadline-that's tomorrow at 5 p.m.
Second, Capitol High School ia now the
tentative conference site not TESC.
TESC facilities are not large enough for
the swelling numbers expected.
Finally, for those interested, I have
the Right-to-Lile platform, which makes
clear their objectives-a pretty sobering
document. Leave a note in my CAB 305
mailbox or call 866--6220 if you'd like
a copy.
Alexis Jetter
P.S. For more details on the conference, see Letter to the Editor, CPJ,
Feb. 7, 1980.

DUPLICATING
EFFORTS
To the Editor;
I should like to say a few words about
the efforts of the Friends and Alumni of
Evergreen to attract new students who
can benefit the school and can in turn be
benefited by what The Evergreen State
College h.. to offer. The enthusiasm and
the determination of theae people to act
to fill a perceived need should be praised.
The decision to act positively rather than
merely complain is impressive.
However, it appears that the Friends
and Alumni of Evergreen are not familiar wit!I the activities of the Admissions
Office here on campus.
There appears to be a moat unfortunate duplication of energy. The Friends
explain that rather than merely send a
catalog to proapective studenta, they will
send a form letter and individualized
hand-written memos. Prospective students presently receive, through the
Admissions Office, letters from Arnaldo
Rodriguez, Larry Etckstaedt, and Byron
Youtz in three separate mailings along
with a variety of brochures and other
information on TESC. In addition, individual responses are drafted by admissions counselors, staff, and student ataff
to specifit inquiries.
The goal of encouraging proopective
students to inve1tigate The Evergreen
State College ia one all here 1hould
,)tare. Might I suggest that thooe who
wish to make their independent efforta
cont.act the Admiuiona Office so we can
share our energy and supplies for the
greater
benefit of the Evergreen
community? .
Admiasiona Staff
Kathy Allen
Carol Gilbert
Colleen Allen
Sally Carlin

CRAZY
ro the Editor:
Aa Truckers, we are offended by T. J.
~-elitiat
barb at ow piufeasiun,
which be cleverly disguised u an apology. Im offhand diamisaal of truck en'
culture perpetuates
the myth that
truckers are ignorant, boorish fatheada.
By taking the pooltion that movies made
for truckeno are illegitimate, he ia advocating cultural austerity and deprivation
for truckers. Without cultural eventa
which relate to the strugglea, bopea, and
fears of truckers' lives, we would be
mere slaves of the white line. It is to
combat such cultural oppruaion that we
are forming the Wheels of Fortune Production Company, to bring truckers' cultural events to Evergreen. Again, we
would like to remind that pantywaist
Now England snob that truckers, not
foreign films, make America move.
In Struggle,
Truckers in Total Solidarity

•

--------- Teacher
:-1'0RU
responds:

a

.I..

collective bargaining benefits students
By Nancy Allen
President, AFT Local 3421
Ben Alexander's article, "'The Myth of
Collective Bargaining" (CPJ, January 31).
charges that members of Evergreen's
AFT chapter are pursuing collective
bargaining for college teachers out of a
concern for money rather than shared
governance, and that collective bargaining will work against the best interests
of students. It is very important to me
and to the other members of the Executive Committee of AFT Local 3421 to
challenge these assertions. Students and
faculty must not let themselves
be
divided: both groups must recognize that
collective bargaining helps ensure quality
education.
Certainly. salaries are an issue for
teachers on this or any campus. Inflation
means declining salaries; salaries of
Evergreen's faculty have declined probably 25 percent in the past five years.
But money is not the main goal of th08e
faculty members who seek colle<:tive
bargaining for Evergreen. At a recent
Executive Committee meeting, someone
mentioned that we should be educating
the rest of the faculty about the shocking
decline in our purchasing power, but that
comment was soon lost in the general
conversation about our conditions of employmenL We have no control over class
size, the evening program of modular
classes. correct procedures for faculty
hiring and ftring, and the increasingly
obtrusive
administrative
structures
through which we are governed. Those
conditions concern us more, and they
should concern students, too.
Higher salaries for faculty would not
work against students' interests. On the
contrary, the better the salaries offered
by Evergreen, the bigger the college's
pool of applicants for teaching jobs will
be. More money would not directly buy
better education, but it would allow us
more choices and more chances of hiring
and retaining superior teachers, which
ought to be of concern to Evergreen
students.
For although students must satisfy
requirements: set by teachers in order to
be granted academic credit, this difference in power does not mean that stu-

RED SQUARES?
To the Editor:
We of the Tropical Reef Ecology program. now residing on Maui. have h_eard
word of a Soviet takeover of 'f.E.S.C. An
urgent dispatch arrived vis seagull
(glacoua), apparently 1muggled out, indicating that Dan Evans had been ouated
in favor of one more sympathetic to the
cause of Soviet "adventurism."
Our l!Olltte, and ... knows who she la.
reports Evan's successor to be Comrad
Rainey. Further, it ia reported that campus anarehiats and young Republicans
were "offed" on the soceer fields, and
that the Ruaaiana are searching for oil
along the nature trail
I (Oedipa Mus) have contacted Elenor
at 'l'lle s,., where she reports that students are being replaced by stern-looking
men in long wool overcoats, toting
machine-guns. She's having even more
trouble than uaual getting tips. AU they
say ia "Dal" and "nyet" while frantically
searehing the menu for plroobki.
·To-.rth,f-thta-,.e of the atlll:-RT.affil
coral ask: Ia it true?? Should we stock
up on copies of Wliat b t. Be 0...7,
Du Kapital?, Grim Expressions? Where
were our fellow anarchists when needed?
Send any information you can smuggle
out to:
TESC Country Club West
Camp Pecusa R.R. 1
Olowalu, Lahaina
Mau~ Ill 96761

DUPLICATION
OF ENERGY
Editor:
The students who wanted to "reach a
broader audience than the new 1980-81
Catalog now reaches" are apparently not

dents and teachers are inevitably in conflict. At Evergreen, in fact, their interests conflict less than at any other institution I know. Here, with our small
classes, constant revision of curriculum,
and mutual evaluation system, students
and teachers look each other in the eye
and talk about matters of quality education every day at every level, from
specific book choices to that morning's
lecture to the general shape or the
curriculum. We are in basic agreement
about the precise form of quality education because our structure requires that
we work together to achieve quality.
When we succeed, we speak of a "good
seminar" that is equally satisfying to
students and their teacher.
Evergreen's
faculty members may
soon have a chance. if Senate Bill 2236 is
passed, to decide whether or not they
want collective bargaining, which would
give the faculty the legally constituted
right to negotiate with the administration and to have the results written
down in a binding contract. The Board of
Trustees would not have its present allencompassing legal control over this
college; if there was something the
trustees especially wanted, they might
have to yield something to teachers and
students in return.
Perhaps students do not realize just
how powerless the faculty (and the students) are at Evergreen. Thi?re is no
body of faculty representatives
with
decision-making authority, and we have
no substitute for the traditional departmental structure through which hiring
and firing are done at other colleges and
universities. Evergreen teachers have
considerable control over what and how
we teach from year to year, but we have
that control entirely through a system
that depends on personal influence and
administrative good will toward individual faculty members. We have no legally
constituted safeguards for our education•
al process and structure. Collective bargaining would strengthen the faculty in
protecting our educational modes and in
achieving the goals of educational quality
which we share with students.
Our present system of evening classes
provides a good example of the need for

familiar with the energetic and dedicated
group of people who work in TESC's
Admissions Offie. As the student intern
in Admissions since falJ quarter, I have
been increasingly impressed with the
creative and good-humored efforts of
Arnaldo Rodriguez and hia staff: counselors, classified staff and work-study
students.
As part of my internship, I coordinate
~e student visitor program, which p~
·ides campus visitors with overnight
1ccommod.ations in the dorms, i.dmissions
,;ounseling, claSSroom vi.sits. and other
.aspects: of campus activities. Campus
'..Ours for visitors are conducted twice
daily by work-study
and volunteer
student guides.
Another example of student involve-

the stronger faculty voice which collec•
tive bargaining
could provide. At
present, the modules are assembled by
the Academic Dean with responsibility
for part-time study, through informal
consultation with full-time faculty. Candidates for the evening teaching positions
are not screened by any hiring DTF.
Many of the adjunct faculty are not
regular Evergreen
faculty. and they
often teach in a very traditional way.
Few of the mcxlules are interdisciplinary
or team taught; they do not provide the
kind of education this college has tried to
develop and perfect and which is offered
to day-time students. Regular Evergreen
faculty need a voice in both the determination of what modules to offer and
the hiring of faculty to teach them.
Clearly defined and legally constituted
rules and procedures for hiring and
iring of full-time faculty are equally im1ortant to campus morale and to educa1onal quality. Evergreen faculty feel
nique pressures from their teaching
1tuations and the individualized mcxles
f instruction. We do not have tenure, as
1ost college professors do. Since we do
,ot have tenure, it is important for us to
•el certain that we cannot be fired
imply on the whim of an Academic
•ean, that there are clearly defined pro·edures which protect our rights of due
,rocess.
Ben Alexander began his article by
ppealing to fears of a teachers· strike.
,trikes are not a result of collective
>argaining; they happen when 'the bar~aining process breaks down. But students should realize that strikes by
teachers do not necessarily hurt them.
The effect of a strike would depend completely on whether the strike settled an
issue in favor of quality education. In
1976, for example, at Seattle Community
College, teachers struck for two weeks
because of an administrative attempt to
deny teachers the right to bargain over
educational issues such as curriculum
and class size. We have been told that
96 percent of the students refused to
cross the teachers' picket lines. Clearly.
they understood that the teachers were
striking for the students' interests as
well as their own.
ment for Evergreens v1s1bility is that
over winter vacation 39 students returned to their high schools to ~hare
their experiences at Evergreen. This
program, as well as all of the above
activities, has re<"eived a great deal of
praise from prospective students.
As a school we must remember that
we all-students. faculty and staff-have
to work together to boost Evergreen's
•nrollmenta and remain a close communy. Arnaldo and his hardworking staff
cserve a lot of credit for the terrific
Hort, their accomplishments. and coninuing struggles. I see little benefit in
•roups fragmenting
and duplicating
fforts-we are all working towards a
·ommon goal. Let"s see this through
ogetherl
Wendy Lebow

4

East meets West: so what?

Kaotic new wave·
and Foreigner, and all politicians), and
although some punks were understandably defensive and unforgiveably snobbish/ultra-cool, they were not stupid.
Visionaries may have blind spots, but
they have brains.
I like(d) the term "punk rock" and still
use it Lo describe a style (popular in less
cosmopolitan cities) characterized by lots
of noise played on bass, guitar, and
drums, and featuring screamed indecipherable lyrics that resemble a temper
tantrum. However, it's obvious now that
the music is way too diverse to fit com•
lortably into that category. I call the
whole genre "New Age Rock 'n Roll"
just because I like the song "New Age"
by the Velvet Underground and "Rock
'n Roll" is general enough, yet evokes
feelings of hi.story, spirit, and adventure-the three most important things in
the music aspect of the renaissaoce of
the late '70s.
In terms of the overall scene, the key
concept is independence, demonstrated
by the prolific output of homemade
records, the underground
clubs, and
almost total nonreliance on the established music industry. As "New Wave"
and current euphemism "Dance Oriented
Rock" now mean big money to the major
labels, I am sure we will see further
factionalism within that camp. Already, a
big split has developed between "power
poppers" (early Stones, Beatles, or Who
copyists with modern production tech-

by John Foster
New Wave Day, the first in a serie1 of
featured muaic handrailin& wee:kend■,
can be beard on KAOS 89.3 FM from
10 p.m. Friday, February 15, until

around 6 a.m. Sunday, February 17.
New Wave isn't

new. It's

not even

music. It's just a dumb name that stuckkinda like the dart my brother threw
that stuck in the back of my head. It
didn't mean very much and it got
old last.
See, in the old days (circa 1977) everything that sounded "weird" or loud and
fast or like early Stones or Who got
called punk rock. No matter what anyone
tells you, it did start in New York, and
Television, Talking Heads, and especially
da Ramones· were the groups that got
the Britskys interested in it. This was
before dumb kjds started saying how
they hated punk rock, how dumb the
Ramones were.

and way

before

they

heard Elvis Costello, Blondie, or Patti
Smith even and decided they had liked
New Wave all along.
Many groups disowned the t.ag "punk
rock'' when they realized only ten loyal
fans had heard them play, and the
masses were impenetrable as long as
mass media portrayed punks as neonazis or stupid savages. Consider the
feelings of the early punks: they thought
they were saving the world from neonazis (Eric Clapton's bigoted remarks,

LIFE DRAWING
CLASSES
Every Wednesday 6-9 p.m.
Spe<,ialRates for Studenta
Washington Academy of Art
Corner of Martin Way & Hensley

8 a.m. - 9 p.m. weekday,
IO a.m. - 7 p.m. Sundays

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponent.a and
making them see the light. but rather
because its opponents eventually die, and
a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
Max Planck
Selentlfk AotobiocnPhy

niques), quirky groups that seem to lack
conviction (B-62s, Fabulous Poodles,
XTC, Police), both who are making it
financially, and the groups that are too
strange (Throbbing Griltle, Pere Ubu) or
caustic (Pagans, Hates, Dish Rags) to
ever get airplay on any but the moot
radical stat.ions.
Among listener-supported and college
stations, our own K.AOS-FM is a very
unusual case, in that it programmed new
age rock 'n roll when no one else would
touch it, and that it gives more than a
couple of hours a week to homemadt:
records that are literally played on fewer
than 20 stations nationwide. Tru, was
despite (and maybe to spite) many who
could not accept anything "too" different.

KAOS 88 1/3 FM
NEW WAVE DAY SCHEDULE

10 p.m., Friday, February 15: BRITISH
Mklnlohl: INDEPENDENT ~NOLES
6 1.m., Saturday: NEW WAVE HISTORY THE '50s.
8 a.m., Satufday: NEW WAVE HISTORY -

THE 'eOs.
10 a.m.: BRIAN ENO SPECtAL
Noon: EXPERIMENTAL
ROCK 'N ROLL
3 p.m.: POP
5 p.m.: REGGAE
7 p.m.: WOMEN IN ROCK
9 p.m.: POUTICAL A&R
10 p.m.: BRITISH IMPORTS
Midnight: LOCAL NEW WAVE
2 1.m., Sunday: HARD CORE PUNK

John
from
edits
loves

Foster hosta "Torture," Tuesdays
10 p.m. to midnight. on KAOS,
the occaaional OP Magazine, and
swinging jazz.

Student arrested for vandalism

open every day

456-0783

By Ella Blackwood
Evergreen student Ben Evans was
arrested early Wednesday morning lut
week after a Security Officer diaeovered
him in a ransacked section of the library
building. A custodian had called the
Security Office after hearing a disturbance in the Deans' area on the second
floor of the library. Furniture was found
overturned, nameplates were torn off the
walls, lockers were damaged, and bulletin boards were completely stripped
throughout the wing. Damage is estimated at approximately $400. Evans had
apparently entered the library sometime
around midnight through a door that had
not been completely cloaed.
Evans was charged with malicious mischief in the first degree at the Thurston
County jail on February 6. No bail has
been set. Evans was transferred
to
Western State Hospital on February 7
for: a two-week psychiatric examination.
Friends of Evans claim that he has a
history of mental illness and bas recently

WESTSIDE CENTER

Now showing: ·1 :05. 3: 15
5: 15 7: 15 and 9: 15
A film directed by Peter Brook
starring
Dragan Maksimovic
TerenceStamp
\Xtarren Mitchell

been undergoing counselling. Witnesses
state that Evans had been drinking
heavily throughout
the evening but
Security reports that he was calm i:nd
cooperative when he was picked up.
When aaked why he vandalized the wing,
Evans replied, "I'm tired. I'm just really
tired." Later he told o!licers that he
didn't like some of the things that had
been going on' at Evergreen and that he
didn't want to be drafted.
On the day of the incident. Evans
brought a poem into the CPJ office and
asked that it be published. Dwelling on
war. Nazism and the draft.. the poem
states at one point:
"Let's all speak quietly
Let's say a prayer for the Nazis
They almost went and did it
Oh yeah, darlin', they were mean
They swallowed their innocence and
took on the world."
Evans will be sentenced after the twoweek' examination at Western State
Hospital.

Bump Liberation Front statement

MEEIII\IGS
WllH REMARKABLE
MEN
Gurdjieff's search for hidden knowledge
/\ REM/\R Production

/\

.i.a-

·5

F.U,.w -aS<!
1

The Cooper Point Journal hu received
the accompanying picture and statement
along with a promise that the sculpture
referred to would appear in an obvious
place on campus today, Valentine's Day.
"As you the masses may aU remember,
in early January, the Bump Libt:ration
Front handily and swiftly removed that
most devious of conspiratorial plots-the
speed bu[!IJ) on the Charles McCann
Plau. Since then, we've contfuu
fantasize and connive sinister thought.a
of revolution. And it has paid off, for
what better way to utiliu a ripped-off
imperialist bump than to send it back to
the oppressors themselves (in altered
state, of course). Since we consider ourselves artists as well as revolutionists,
art became the method of the hump's
return. The BLF is returning the 11eulpture to the college aa well H donating it
H a gift. The ■culpture ia dedicated to
the man we all know and love. Paul
Marsh, and is titled, "Salute."
"And now a word about us. The BLF is
a radical fringe group that has reached
ita limit of toleration and will do aboolutely anything to free the struggling
muses (and ourselves) from superfluous
and authoritarian symbols. We feel this
action clearly symbolizes the 1trength of

"The man who embraces a new paradigm will succeed with the many large
problems that confront it, knowing only
that the older paradigm has failed with a
rew. A decision of that kind can only be
made on faith."
Thomas S. Kuhn
The Structure of
Selentlfk Revolutions
By Lawrence Stillwell
Fritjof Capra brought his faith to
Evergreen last week and shared it with
hundreds of young believers in the paradigm of the New Age. In clear-eyed,
simple terms, and in a likable, sincere
tone, he told them what they wanted to
hear. The old world of sexism, pollution,
and Newtonian physica ia dying and a
new one-feminilt.
Taoist, and ecological-is being born. What's more, he
assured them, the New Age's pet causes
and fondest beliefs are somehow supported by the moot modern conceptual
advances in physics, the human mind's
touchstone to reality.
For those who thought beyond his
pleasantly encouraging generalizations,
however, the question remained: So
what?
Capra's main point was that there are
"striking parallela" between the conception of reality introduced by modern
physics and the nearly timeless world
view of Eastern mysticism. Both, he
said, experience the world as a dynamic
"wt:b of interconnections" in four (or
more} dimensional apace-time.
From there be went on to claim lessthan-striking parallels between these
trans-Newtonian
cosmologies and the
feminist. ecological, consumer, wholistic
health, antinuke, spiritual-humanist. ·and
anti-corporate
movements in modern
America. It was an interdisciplinary
sermon made to order for an Evergreen
congregation. Like any good sermon, it
was simplistic, encouraging, and boring.
AU the true believers went home with
their faith reaffirmed and armed with
vague scientific and mystical justification
for the cultural trends they are a part of.
In essence, Capra did nothing but give
us an entertaining, anecdotal introduction to quantum and relativity theory,
refer in a general way to some philosophical parallels with Ea.stern mysticism,

Preliminary

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and imply that "interconnectedness'' is a
key principle in all the current "goodguy" social movement.a.
We already knew that. So what?
Not that Capra's at faulL He's obviously a nice, intelligent guy who's more
progreaaive than most folks, whose field
happens to be theoretical physics, and
who's just spent a little too much time in
California. He probably would have
stunned them in Pullman. But at Evergreen he was dealing with a more sophisticated New Age audience; one that.
like good little groupie ■, applauded
knowingly at. the mention of Carlos
Castaneda and asked questions like:
"Do you think mankind's failure to
achieve satori will result in the total
destruction of all life?" and "What did
Don Juan mean by 'going between the
cracks in the worldr • and
"Why don't you come teach here?"
The audience was a little bored and a
little disappointed b~t they. liked him,
nonethele ... They liked him because he
was one of them and he could put it all
together in a harmonious way, giving
nice, vague, only slightly unsatisfying
. answers and charming them with his
easy manner and cute wit. It beat the

t-iellout of sitting at home thinking about
Mghanistan.
But nobody asked the big question:
3o what? Everyone was too much a part
,f the Church of the Latter Day Con,;ensus of Carlos Castaneda and Company
LO step outaide the New Age paradigm
.ind ask if any of these analogies really
made a difference one way or the other.
Only later, aaaimilating it all, did one
realize one hadn't learned a thing.
The only educational incident was not
even a part of Capra's routine. During
the Friday morning seminar in the Library Lobby, a T'ai Chi class began
grunting and tromping through maneuvers in the open space above the lobby.
rhe discussion downstairs quickly became hopelessly obscured. A steady
-.tream of individuals began climbing the
stairs to quietly ask the class leader if he
couldn't please move his class or refrain
rrom shouting out his calisthenics count.
"HEY, I'VE GOT A CLASS HERE.
THIS IS OUR SPACE. THESE PEOPLE
HAVE PAID FOR THIS TIME!" His
voice boomed across the lobby. A young
woman's long question and comment Lo
Capra was completely lost.

evaluations report completed

The T'ai Chi teacher became more and
more belligerent. His loud voice was
drowning out the discussion downstairs.
Capra tried to carry on but none of the
200 people could hear him or their fellow
students.
"I'VE BEEN TEACHING T' Al CHI
FOR TWO YEARS! I'M A DISCIPLE
OF THE MASTER W'UI CHI TUI (OR
SOMETHING)! I'M SCHEDULED FOR
(pause, while someone speaks to him)
TOUGH!! THAT'S TOO BAD!" etc.
The half-dozen Tai Chiers just stood
there, no doubt embarrassed, watching
their long-bearded. raggy-haired leader
argue with the clean-cul student organizers of the lecture and seminar.
Somehow order was restored, but not
until the disciple had sneeringly addressed Capra as "young man•· and told
him that enlightenment doesn't come
from sitting around talking about ideas.
The irony 0£ the confrontation, in light
of Capra's topic and audience. was more
revealing of what can happen when East
meets West than the discussion itself.
On one hand, a Western scientist intellectually comparing two philosophical
traditions in a teaching/learning situation. On the other hand, a Westerner
trying t.o practice an Eastern tradition,
supposedly achieving peace, harmony.
and enlightenment but revealing himself
to be as egotistical, aggressive, and uptight as anyone could possibly be.
Capra and his audience were in har·
mony with their natures; as Westerners
they were approaching
the East aa
We1terner1, intellectually
and objectively, and there was no connict. The
disciple of the master was trying "to unnaturally force himself into an Eastern
mold and the resulting tension was inflicted upon 200 innocent bystanders.
Thus some valuable lessons for Everl{l"een's budding New Agers in their
1ourney to the east. This is not to sug·
:est that any practice of Eastern arts by
,\'esterners is unhealthy, only that it is
no sure cure for the ingrained pettiness
•1f human nature.
As the quotes at the start of this
1rticle indicate, Capra and believers in
'he California-synthesis base their opti•
mism in the New Age on faith alone. Our
l.{eneration has grown up with the need
• o find an alternative
to hundreds of
l'ars or Western civilization. Capra is
,ne of those articulating
the paradigmatic ideology of the ruturt'. But
nothing he says tells us anything ,-xc-ept
that the New Age is coming. To which
anyone but a true believer will have Lo
ask: So what'!
EvcR&f'\EEN
E.v.AL1.h\ti.;-N
NT£P.Pffl,SONAL
AW/l.f?.£/'lfS.S.
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co,.,.1-0.,f- ...
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f'l:A~ON41 CoHtf">'I
- ,.fo'((fS}iv<J.y

By Carol Tucker

with Evergreen's philosophy of a mod• fu.N ( ti.,( ~L . AM YO<,, i<.,0<1•",1.
Whether it is an incomplete award beule's role in the program. A module eval- Poli/,col,L\l<IARENfSS
Does the faculty have a right to see, cause of institutional processing (because
uation of the student's work is viewed
discuss, and use student evaluations of evaluations are not completed) or be•PoL,f,,Ally Cooscct..
;·
by many (acuity as helpful to a student"s
them prior to writing an evaluation of cause a student's work is not finished.
f\(l~t,:S
w<,I
to
o
/HlR,
entire program evaluation.
The DTF said another problem in
students? The intimidation that a stuf'Rr>M D,fff~f/'iT
50(10·
The most heated discussion was over
incomplete
records
rests
at
the
program
dent in this position may feel was the
E{o,JoM)c BA<l'd,Ro~>lDS
Rf/, t,,e;,
the question of student and faculty evalsubject of debate when the DTF on end- secretary level. It \"as noted that more
uations of each other. While documented
• ttAS .SLA(Cif$F1.Jtly
of-the-quarter evaluations presented a forms will not help evaluations get to the
evidence of student's evaluations prob~,jf< /fo Bo-<~Gfo;,
progress report to the faculty Febru• registrar more quickly, but that com- lems is not available. it is perhaps be5A</(6R"4•!' .. • .•.
ary 18. The DTF, charged lut Novem- petent secretarial staff would.
The faculty debated the question of a cause such evidence has not been solicf'i/~Si
CALA't<ARE,'1£55
ber, directed its attention to three areas
ited and evaluation records are not
• 6o•"f
L~/y(,ll~G('
. - of concern:
time schedule for evaluations. Modules
reliable. Difficulties with the current
• veGlf-ei.-,..n . _ ...
problematic in that
1. Uses and misuses of the "incom- are particularly
proces~ that were cited include intimida·i•G.
I K•t~"''"
•.
plete."
module evaluation doesn't currently play
MC'-'" f•,~ · C /,MlorH •.
tion by faculty in student evaluation of
2. Time schedule of evaluations at the a meaningful role in program evaluation.
IHTt/lfC
TU~L
I\WIIIU~E>J
faculty, a lack of seriousness on both
This is because evaluation, aren't subend of the quarter.
• L,J-€,v,l€{op/,.ool) . .
parts, the value and use of completed
mitted in time. Two weeks past the
3. Improvement of the student-evalua• 5</F -KNIM1LEO&€.. •.
forms, including use for evaluation of
quarter's end wu an agreeable evaluation-of-faculty process.
• f•voll,/€ Ao •l1•<1.
..
faculty by the Deans.
While the legitimacy of incomplete• is tion submission limit for the faculty, but
The possibility or a standard rating
CosM,,
Aw•R<~fs
~
decided by faculty and student,,, the they were divided on the issue of how score for evaluations to lessen intimida·st1,,v11 r,~,+~"'to~ .....
module
and
program
evaluations
should
problem has been recording incomplete,.
•T>IK<to M;W\Al>.
tion and increase structure Wlls met with
It has been unclear. where t~e problem
relate.
•
o
ition because teachers felt that it
, N, r,,<Ai/v >J• •fJ.
lay, and the DTF ,. propoo1ng a new
Some members of the faculty wanted
ppoold)
tab'l't
Th D
,,.._,,
U•b
•
.. 1....1__
t.cu:e.d.u.ce..J.he..xole...of..modules
.
wou
essen accoun
1 1 y.
e eans
1 ,.. ... :_ .. ..._;_,
~ 1 •• •ncomr.lD_prog,:am --n00ltillvtdl!ll·lffl7:l!elnoe:
Y1!rl<Wl5ng
status hu been awarded.
evaluations. Others, fiowever, preferred
appreciating the current. system and
The faculty generally approved of the to completely separate the program and Barbar S 'th •t· •ta d
fal'DTF'
•
•
nd
•
a m1 c1 mg I
own "'·
. ! proposa.I for a more compre hen- modu1e regis~rat10~
a
eva 1uat1on proThe discussion was broad and indeter·
s1ve incomplete form that would make cess. Both v1ewpomts acknowledge the
• t Th' DTF .11 t·
to meet
• •
I
·
f I
d ••
• f ll •
mma e.
IS
w1 con mue
c Iear exac tl y w hat 1s rncomp ete:
previous acu ty ectBton m o owmg to further investigate the issue.

·i
~

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EDUCATIONAL
Test Prtp111t1on Spec11h
S1nu 1938

New directors for grad program
By Pam Dusenberry

Dr. Russell Lid man and Dr. Guy
Adams have been named co-directors of
Evergreen's new mHter's degree program in public administration, which will
begin next fall.
Both Lidman and Adams have been
involved in the development of the program since its beginning, Adams said,
"so the Litle is catching up with what
we've been doing all along." The two,
who currently teach in Management and
the Public Interest. have been assigned

6

.
,
to teach m the mast.er s program next
year. Lid man is an economist and
Adams' field is public administration.
Two faculty members are in the process of being hired in connection with
the graduate program. Adams explained
that they will teach primarily in under•
graduate programs as their orientation
to Evergreen, but will help during at
least one quarter of the graduate program's first year.
The responsibilities
or Adams and
Lidman, as co-directors or the master's

OTE~----------~
CRAB CONCERT

MORE DRAFT INFO

Don't miss Shelly and the Crustaceans
in concert with local folksinger Paul
Tinker, this Sunday, February 17, at
7 p.m. at the Gnu Deli. 13.00 donation.
Proceeds go to Don't Waste Washington.
now sponsoring an initiative to limit
transportation of nuclear wastes within
Washington State.

A WHOLESOME SAGA

Thurston County National Organization for Women, Olympia Anti-Draft
Committee,
and the Fellowship
of
Reconciliation will co-sponsor a forum on
the draft at the Olympia Community
Center, 1314 East 4th, Thursday, February 14 al 7 p.m. Speakers include
Sande Sanders of the National Organization for Women; Stephanie
Coontz,
TESC faculty member; Dr. Ward Miles,
Olympia Friends Meeting; Hildegarde
Dietze. active in peace groups since
WWI; and Adrianne • Alexander, draft
counselor during the Vietnam War.

A trial "Whole-Food Service" program
will take place at SAGA February 25-29,
with the primary objective to demonstrate to consumers that food can be
both nutritional and tasty. The proBUMBERSHOOT
gram's major components are: changes in
taste and nutritional quality of SAGA
An umbrella group meeting of the Profoods, campus-wide activities designed
Peace Committee/Olympia Anti-Draft
for nutrition awareness, featuring speak
Coalition will take place in LIB 3400 on
ers, films, printed materials, informal Sunday, February 17, at 6 p.m. Purpose
discussions; and encouraging consumers
of the meeting will be to discuss the
to give oral and written feedback about
purpose, process, name, and reports
the project, in order for SAGA to know from the various task forces. Come
which changes to make permanent.
get involved!
This could serve as a major turning
point in food service operation and philosophy: your support of the trial pro- MENDELSOHN ON
gram will help. The coordinator of the
project is Kristi Morrish, Sem. 4121. MID-EAST CRISIS
x6019.
Dr. Everett Mendelsohn, Harvard
University professor, will give a lecture
tilled "The Mid-East Crisis: Are There
Options?"' Tuesday, February 19, at
The Office of Cooperative Education 8 p.m., in the Recital HaU of the Comhas been swamp('d of late, so those stu- munications Bldg.
As an active member of the American
dents planning to begin or continue
internships during Spring Quarter are Friends Service Coinmittee, Dr. Mendelurged to contact Co-Op Ed no later than sohn has traveled to Vietnam and, in the
past year, to the Soviet Union, Western
February 20. It is particularly important
that students who need help in locating Europe and the Middle Eaat. He has lead
or developing an internship for Spring important delegations and participated in
Quarter schedule an appointment at the discussions with political leaders and
scholars in those places.
earliest available time.
This is the first in this quarter's TuesAlso, an informal meeting for students
interning on-campus Winter Quarter will days at Eight series.
be held on Friday, February 15 from
12-1:30 p.m. in Library 2205. All student
interns are cordially invited to come and
share their experiences.
Brown•bag
lunch-coffee and tea will be provided.
Have you ev'er: Refused invitations to
go out because you needed to stay home
to study ... and then got nothing done?
Found yourself so involved in other projects that you never have enough time to
The Environmental Advisory Commit- complete assignments? Found you.raell
tee will meet, for the first time in a year,
dissatisfied with work done because
Wednesday, February 20 in Lib 2204 there is stiU so much to do?
from 1-3 p. m. The E.A.C. is looking for
If so: The Counaeling Center is offerthree faculty, three student.a, and three ing a mini-workshop on Procrutination.
staff members interested in reviewing
You will have the opportunity of sharing
issues like biocide use and forest policy how procrastination works for you, what
and making recommendations of environ- the consequences are, and looking at
ment.al concern to facilities. The group ways of change.
will also determine whether or not the
The mini-workshop will be held FebruE.A.C. will continue.
ary 25, from S to 5 p.m. in Seminar 2109.

COOPERATIVE
EDUCATION

READ THIS LATER

ANOTHER ACRONYM

program, fall into two categories, internal and external. Internally they are involved in the development or the program's curriculum and in the selection of
the two new faculty members. Later
they will conduct interviews with applicants to the program. Adams said
around 120 people are expected to apply;
the program will ae<:epl 85 to 40 students it.s first year.
Adams and Lidman are also responsible for explaining the program t.o state
and local members or the community.

Lidman explained that out-reach for the
program is high on the agenda, but since
final approval for the program came only
!a,,t December, he and Adams have not
had much time to publicize the master's
program. They have been busy preparing an application form and brochure;
the latter was finished only !a,,t week.
Application for the master's program
in public administration are due in the
Admissions Office by March I. Student.a
will be notified of their acceptance by
April 15.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES

GET PUBLISHED

Challenges and opportunities awaiting
small businesses will be the focus or a
day-long seminar offered March 1 by The
Evergreen State College Alumni Association.
Community professionals and Evergreen faculty and graduates will offer
their perspectives for those who are
planning or have recently opened their
own businesses.
Enrollment in the seminar is limited;
registration must be received by Fe~ruary 22 in Evergreen's
Development
Office. Registration is $25, $15 for students. For further information, contact
the Development Office, 866-$66,

IS IT BAD TO SPELL
IT "COUNCELING"ON
YOUR RESUME ?
The Office of Cooperative Education
and Community Volunteer Service ~
gram will be presenting a work.shop on
Wednesday, February 20 from 1-3 p.m.
in Library 2205, explaining both the
internship and volunteer programs to
students who feel they are ready to
explore experientiaJ learning.
Representatives
from community
agencies will be presenting both internship and volunteer opportunities which
exist within their respective agencies.
Agencies represented
will be-Crisis.
Clinic, Olympia School District, Mariculture NW and Common Cause.

HAAS FOUNDATION
SCHOLARSHIP
This scholarship will be awarded in
the amount of $1500 for the 1981>-al
academic year. Eligibility rests on student's involvement in Communications,
and on junior or senior academic standing. All information, and applicationa an
available from the Office of Financial
Aid.

WHO CONTROLS?
The Community for Chriatian Celebration invites everyone to view the highly•
acclaimed mm.
C..tnlllas i.-.
Thia
film t.akea a hard look at the impact of
multi-national firma on eeonomlc and
political development in the U.8. and the
Third World. C..tnllias lawill be
shown on Sunday, February 17, in the
basement of Uoiled Church ea, 11th &
S. Wuhington Sta. at 4:80 p.m. A discussion will follow. For more information,
contact JilJI Symons, 948-6859.

By J. C. ArmbrUBter

Thia May, the Arts Resource Center
will publish an anthology of original
poetry, short prose, photography and
graphics. They are soliciting works from
all members of the Evergreen community. Bring your creationa to Library 3215.
The deadline is April 16.

POEMS FOR SUSAN B.
In honor of Susan B. Anthony Day,
the Access for Re-Entry Women center
is sponsoring a women's poetry reading.
Original poetry will be read by local
women poets on Friday, February 15, in
the Library 3500 lounge from 1-4 p.m.
Refreshment.a will be sold during the
event. For more information,
call
~.

RUN,RUN,RUN
The Evergreen State College Running
Club will sponsor a 5.6-mile race around
the coUeg,, campus Wednesday, February 20, beginning al 5:30 p.m. in front of
the Evans Library.
Registration for the run begins at
5 p.m. on the central campu.s plaza and
carries a 50-cent fee to help defray the
cost of awards.

ARE YOU READY?
Employers from several human service
and health organizations and representatives from graduate programs in counseling, social work, and health will talk
frankly with student.a about their hiring
and admission praclicea al tho Job Finding and Graduate Study Workshop on
Wednesday, February 20 from 1:30-4 in
CAB 110. Contact Career Planning and
Placement, Library 1214, for details.

dawn of mankind sees a race of giants
arrive to instruct the newborn race, then
sees them leave as the "'Degenerative
Disease"-a psychic seasickness-afflicts
the Shikastans. due t.o Shammat's evil
innuences. For some muddle-headed reason. the Canopans can·t or won't heal
Shikasta, nor do they give Shammat a
good whack on its collective head. The
Canopans must long ago have lost the
ability to fight the good fight against
exploiters and usurpers.
Lessing doesn't mind mixing in legend
and history. and isn't concerned with
squaring the ambiguities this action
creates. She glosses over all perfected
cultures as agrarian city-kingdoms, and
states baldly that the source of all
human evil and suffering comes from
Out There. These cosmic generalities are
exonerated in her preface, where she
says: "'I had found a realm where the
petty fates of planets. let alone individuals, are only aspects of cosmic evolution
expressed in the rivalries and interactions of great galactic Empires: Canopus,
Sirius (Canopus' ally, one unnecessary to
the story), and their enemy the Empire
Puttiora.
with its criminal planet

and Billy the KJd (best-known as Bob
,Dylan's film debut) and rearranged it.
Continued from page 8
Peckinpah almost had a stroke, had ads
eight minutes. Among the major cuts are
printed stating that it was not his film,
a flashback in which Ryan's and Holden's and asked his fans to boycott ii.
friendship is clearly eatabliahed and a
Peckinpah said he would not work in
scene in which we learn that the youngHollywood again. His next film, Bring
est member of the bunch is O'Brien's
Me the Hood ol Alfredo Gorda, was prograndson. (Friday Nile Films baa been duced in Mexico. It was included in a
promised the uncut, Cinem.ucope version
book entitled "The Filly Worst Films of
that waa unavailable until fmly recently.)
All Time." After that, he came out with
Despite the studio's ahenanigans,
Tlie KIiler Elite, a post-Watergate,
Peckinpah stayed with them and made a anti-C.l.A. diauter that could have just
series of interesting filma in the early as easily been in the "Fifty Worst" book.
70'a: Tlae llou..t ef Cellle B_,
Strow
Since Pot Garret ... , his films have
Dip, and Tlae Ge&awoy. (Stnw Dap
been financial, as well a.s critical Oops,
unjUBt.ifiablyearned him the Wt'ath of although Peckinpah still has hia defendmany feminiata. Pauline KaoL while ad- ers in the critical establishment (moot
miring Peckinpah and the film, declared notably, Pauline Kao)). Actually, his ia,,t
ii "a faaciat work of art." That alatement
two ftlms weren't too bad. Cn,u of lrN
totally bewildered Peckinpah.)
(1977), although terribly flawed and
In 1973, the shit hit the fan when over-ambitioua, is in some ways one of
MGM C)JI43 minutes out of Pat Garret his beaL It's an anti-war mmabout Ger-

man soldiers in World War II that ends
with a quote from Brecht and compares
the Nazis in W.W. II with the Americans
in Vietnam. This was possibly Peckinpah's response t.o having been called a
Fascist. Convoy (1978). his most recent,
is poorly made (in comparison to his
earlier work) and somewhat juvenile, but
still very enjoyable.
But with a string of flops behind him,
it remains to be seen if Peckinpah will be
:i.ble t.o get enough money to make an•1ther film or make a truly artistic come·,ack. Until then, we still have The Wild
Ba.ncll t.o remind us what a great artist
he once was and hopefully will prove
himself to be again.
(incidentally, in 1978, there was a poll
amongol 21 major critics as to what they
thought the best American films in the
previous decade were. Tlae Wild B11Ddi
ranked sixth, tying with 2001: a Space
Ody-y.)

wild bunch

DEDICATION
After nearly six yean of planning and
construction, the Organic Farmhouse
wu finally completed laat month.
On Thuraday, February 14, tho twostory wood structure will be formally
dedicated at a ceremony open to the
publlc. A .noon reeepUon will be followed
by an informal dedication at 1 p.m.
featuring former student.a Gomer 8man and Michael Baron.faculty memben
Carolyn Dobbe and Rainer Hueutab,
and Engineer Darrell Six-all of wholll
have participated in the project.
Public toun explaining the history of
the 1tructure and ita functlona will begin
at 2 p.m.
Parking is not available at the farm, oo
guests arriving by car are encouraged to
park in Lot B and enjoy the 10-minute
walk through the wooda via the trail behind the lab buildlngo or board a free
shuttle bua behind Lab II.

' POWERLESS FBI
I regret to Inform you that we of the
FBI• are powerleu to act in cases of
oral/genital contact, unleu if it somehow
obstruct&intentate commerce.
J. Edgar Hoover

ddSunda

Special
Isl & 3rd Sundays

Soup or Salad

Parts and repairs for all makes
Complete line of accessories from
experienced cyclists.
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olg'afl)

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ft'• worth the ride acrou lawn/

Canopan empire, while speeding up the
Rohandans' ascent to complete planetary
harmony-a
kind of tune-up for the
noosphere. Alas! for the evil Shammat, a
gangster planet with the instincts of a
lamprey, begins sucking off Rohanda"s
growing psychic health, physically crippling the Rohandans and-horrorsspawning conflict among them. The
appalled empire-builders
wring their
celestial hands and rename the infant
planet Shikasta, "the hurt, the damaged.
the wounded one."
Now, do the Canopans retaliate
against nasty old Shammat for trashing
their daughter planet? No. Instead
Lessing goes on for 300 pages recounting
Shikasta's
centuries of degradation,
attempts at reunification, and collapses
back into cultural idiocy. Her mouthpiece
is Johor, the chief Canopan emissary to
Shikasta. J ohor never focuses on the
cause of Shikasta's ilJs-Shammat. Instead he uses stifling bureaucratese t.o
report Shikasta's plight, without offering
any clear-cut solutions for its salvation.
A number of transmogrified legends
surface, a la von Daniken. The tower of
Babel rises and crumbles once again. The

UNCLASSIFIEDS

service!

1931 E 4th

Lessing's welter of old cliches

An author can wake up one fine morning and suddenly decide to Explore New
Literary Fields. The result, often as not,
is a welter of old cliches masquerading
behind the author's previous accomplishments in other genres. This is the case
with Shlkuta, a "space fiction" by Doris
Lessing.
_
The full title gives an inkling of what
dull vastnesses He within: Caaopua in
Argos: Archive•. Re: Colonl&edPlanet 5
Shlkuta. Personal, Psychological, Historical Documents Relating to Visit by
Johor (George Sherban) EMISSARY
(Grade 9) 87th of the Period of the Last
Days.
In all fairness, I must say Lessing can
write well when she is familiar with her
material. The Golden Notebook and
Briefing for • De.cent into HeU match
style to theme; they are good works.
However, Lessing fails t.o understand
that science fiction is not one genre. It
is, instead, a compilation of many subfields of writing, m0&t of them focusing
on man's future as a race, both in the
realms of the physical universe and the
worlds of ·fantasy. AU these areas are
untidily lumped together under the bifurcate heading of "Science Fiction &
Fantasy." The styles and scenes used
range from the ultra•scientilic Rationalist
in his laboratory, to the sagas of dragonriders on faraway, utterly fantastic
planets.
Shlkuta melts half a dozen of these
correctly separate subfields into one
fused mass of slag. The basic plot is
easily grasped: a beneficient star-empire,
which radiates from the parent solar
system of Canopus-in-Argos, finds the
tiny garden planet of Rohanda. Deeming
it a promising site for a new colony, they
seed it with semi-intelligent monkeys.
The new dwellers in Paradise evolve into
human beings with lifespans of 600
years. They build geometrically perfect
cities, develop metAllurgy and agriculture, and Enjoy Life. War is noneT.istent
and children never bicker (I find the
latter harder to swallow than the
former).
EventuaUy Rohanda is bathed in spiritual energies locking it into the larger

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Shammat. I feel that I have been set
free, both to be u experimental as I like,
and as traditional."
If the above is true, then by God why
don't we stay away from one small
planet and its half-sentient rulers? The
planets of Canopus, Sirius, and Puttiora
are never once shown, nor are their cultures reflected through Johor. They
never even have their emissaries confront each other-this
being one opportunity C. S. Lewis didn't drop in the
Perelandra trilogy. which Lessing seems
to take as her model. The ideology and
long-range goals of Canopus remain unstated. They're the good guys. What
more do we need to know?
It's 'hard to piece together the reasons
for this book being written. much less
printed and published. Therefore, I will
leap into the realm of speCulation. Suppose Lessing wanted to place all her concerns about the human.race-our individual antipathies, ·our \\'armongering nationalism. the disintegr:ation of family
life. our despoilment ~f th~ erl~ironment-leL"i· say s~e -wanted tb -~orral all
these jlls in one book. 1':ow aSsume she's
read Stapledon·s Last and First Men.
Lewis" trilogy, and London·s The Star
Rover while in a half-stupor. She might
have gotten the notion Lhat the best way
to study a planet would be from the
viewpoint of a superpowerful,
kindhearted alien. So she sets off with
clumsy enthusiasm and little wisdom to
enter the "genre" of "space fiction,
science fiction," as she so quaintly labels
it. She must. of course, eliminate chapter
separations which allow the reader to
catch his/her breath. After all, this is an
"unlraditionaJ'" work-people should read
all 365 pages as one big gestalt.
A failure, for all ils creator's good
intentions. remains a failure. Shikasta is
one such. It fails to fit itself within one
literary corpus. whether that be fantasy,
political futurism, or straight science
fiction. It ignores all the compassion and
sensitivity
we poor barbarians have
managed to retain over the years. And if
anything, iL further obscures the sources
of our tragic weaknesses.
I have great respect for Lessing when
she works in a well-tilled field. I can"t
sland the destructive
abandon with
which she unconsciou;;ly levels SF's few
strengths. As an act. of mercy. ignore the
sequels to Sbi.kuta when they come out.

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