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VOL. XLII, NO. 16

ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1957_

© Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, 1957

PRICE 20 CENTS

 

‘Revue’ Displays Local Talent;
Its Prose Offers Great Variety

by Mary Elizabeth Meek
Instructor in English

The current’ issue of the Bryn
Mawr-Haverford Revue is on the
whole a creditable performance.
The short stories are all-interest-

ing and entertaining, even if read’

uncritically simply for. the plot,
and are pleasingly varied as to
setting and characterization. The
poetry is less diversified, but is by
no means all of a piece, either in
style or content.

Among the short stories are sev-
eral of the usual recollections of
childhood and adolscence, but no
more proportionately than are ‘to
be found in the Atlantic or the
New .Yorker, and their appearance
is certainly justifiable in an under-
graduate publication. .Of these,
Puss in Boots is notable for rigidly
maintaining the young narrator’s
point of view, by the device of

- describing what can be seen from
his, window, . and thus Saying a

good deal more than is actually)
in the action. In The Most Un-
happy Day, in which the Italo-
American setting is_ irrelevant,
there is a convincing portrayal of
the child, Josie, and a properly de-
emphasized analysis of the inabil-
ity of a mother and child to com-
municate. The child’s problem is

_ ingeniously conceived and complete-

ly believable. Winds of May -suc-
cessfully creates the atmosphere of
a particular moment in a boy’s
emotional development, but might
have n better if the point of
view had not shifted to the teach-
er, whose character is somewhat
flat in comparison with the boy’s.
The boy’s. self-consciousness is
nicely realized through the descrip-
tion of various small details’ like
the gritty railing of the subway
stairs and the smell of sun, and
tar on the roof. Details are also
used to convey self-consciousness

_ in Stillpoint, but in a more obvious

fashion, since the narrator, who
keeps seeing himself as a charac-
ter in a story, is forced to empha-
sibze the disparity between the
real situation and the emotions he
thinks he should be having. The
writing is somewhat turgid, but
the presentation of the narrator’s
experience and his sense of the
falseness of that experience is fas-
cinating, as is the way in which
the relation of all the characters to
the dead boy is gradually revealed.

Real and Unreal

There are two rather interesting
studies: of characters who have
created imaginary companions for

them join them in their
retreat from réal life. Renascence
has.a fine macab uality, remin-

iscent of Poe’s stories, and like
them is concerned with life in
death and death in life. Itis per-
haps too melodramatic. Spring
and the Maiden, however, creates
horror more effectively by being
completely matter of fact in tone
and by marshalling a number of
concrete details. The. unobtrusive,
almost casual, yet quite full charac-
terization of the two “a is also
noteworthy. |

Three stories are especially to be
commended for ‘a more complex
inter-relation of characters and a
more unusual setting than any of
those mentioned previously. These
are A Swamp, The Dead Flowers
of Oaxaca and Miss Andromeda’s
Social Inn. In the first, the charac-
ter of Sylvia, both as she sees
herself and as the other characters

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react to her, is ably handled, al-
though the first description of her
is rather trite. On the other hand,
the first appearance of Benoni is
well done, although the later asso-
ciation of him with the stud horse
is a bit obvious. The ending is
what would be expected, given
these characters, but the atmos-
phere created by the swamp gives
an added dimension and force to
the story. The setting is also an
important factor in The Dead
Flowers of Oaxaca, in which the
concreteness of the objects describ-
ed makes for a sense of the per-
manence of the place as-eantrasted
with, the impermanence of the
people. Degrees of heat and cool-
ness, the feel of dust and flower
petals,.a sense of dark and light
are all managed skillfully. The
characters appear through their
gestures as well as their, words,
such as the bearded man’s settling
his trousers — his hips, and
the ‘bedspread ai as nS had covered].
her husband, The climax of the
story is, in fact, wordless, and
gains thereby both dramatically
and thematically, since it deals
Continued on Page 3, Column 2

League Sponsors

Mark McCloskey

Mark A. McCloskey, educator
and Chairman of the New York
State Youth Commission, will
speak in the Common Room under
the auspices of the League on
Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30 p.m.

Mr. McCloskey, a graduate of
Princeton and the Columbia Uni-
versity School of Social Work, has
directed numerous organizations in
the fields of welfare and education.
His topic is “A Study in Juvenile
Delinquency.”

Rare Book Rooms
Show Arab Mss.

Timed to coincide with the Alli-
ance Conference on “Arab Nation-
alism in the Mid-East,” the “Arab
World” exhibit in the Rare Book
Rooms’ of the library features a
rare collection of early Arabic
manuscripts.

Displayed in the main part of
the exhibit are manuscripts of the
10th century in Arabic on vellum,
including those dealing with old
Christian legends and the Psal-
terium Arabicum containing the
psalter with an appendix of the
Biblical canticles, as.well as an
extremely rare. manuscript .of the
Latin text of book V. of Avicenna
printed in 1380. These are the gift
of Howard L. Goodhart.

Two copies of the Koran, the
sacred book of the Mohammedans,
a gift of Katherine Lord Strauss
Mali ’23, may also be seen.

Another part of the exhibit, de-
voted to Arabian Science, includes
books printed in Europe in the 15th
century. The works of earlier
Ah scientists , such as the Sera-
pions, Rhases,\ Albamasar, Avi-
fue Avetroes* and Hali are in
his category. Twentieth century.
editions of works on Arabian philo-
sophy ‘are also-exhibited.

The second of the Rare Books
Rooms features a variety of books
about Arabia, ranging from the
works of T. E. Lawrence to a copy

 

of The Thousand and One Nights.

 

‘Charming Naivete’ Noted in Music
Of Harpsichord, Baritone and Flute

 

(L. to R.) Carleton Sprague Smith, Claude Jean Chiasson
and Paul Gavert.

by Martha Bridge

ast - Wednesday _evening’s, Fri-
ends of Music Concert brought to

Bryn Mawr an unusual program of
seventeenth and Eighteenth Cent-
ury compositions, for harpsichord,
lyric baritone and flute. The
music seemed in many ways re-
freshingly naive and charming—
one—is, tempted to say “quaint.”
The listener was forced to adjust
his critical sense to a musical
idiom that was winning rather
than impressive, intimate rather
than grand.

A relaxed and happy attitude
seemed to prevail on stage. Claude
Jean Chiasson bent over his harp-
sichord so lovingly that, even
without having read the program,
one could almost tell that the in-
strument was his own work of art.
Paul Gavert, lyric baritone, was
free of the usual posturings of con-
cert vocalists and sang with easy
grace. And Carleton Sprague
Smith not only played the flute
with a gusto that could not fail
to communicate itself to the audi-
ence, but contributed some of his
vast knowledge of musicology in
his witty commentary on the flute
and its repertoire.

“Not Quite Chamber Music”

One gathered that the group was
not an experienced performing en-
semble. Mr. Smith and Mr. Chias-
son, for example, seemed to be go-
ing competent but separate ways
in the Blavet sonata—a perform-
ance which may be partly attrib-
uted to the not quite “chamber
music” quality of the early sonata
form. At any rate, the audience
felt that it was listening to three
individual musicians,. whose ren-
ditions must be judged accordingly.

Mr. Gavert was at his best in
the group of songs with which he
opened the evening’s program, He
displayed~ beautiful diction and
phrasing and an attractive, youth-| _
ful approach to such fragile pieces
as the anonymous Fifteenth Cent-
ury “L’Amour de Moy” and Pur-
cell’s “I Attempt fom Love’s Sick-
ness.” .Mr. Gavert was less suc-
cessful with his concluding group,
mainly because the selections were
less appealing—with the exception
of the Mozart “Dans un Bois,”
to which his voice and style did
hot seem well suited. Mr. Gavert
erided the evening proudly, how-
ever, with a lovely encore, a mod-
ern setting of the Old English
“Balulalo.”

Carleton Sprague Smith. was con-

sistently charming, whether play-

ing or speaking. He showed fine
musicianship, if not perfect tech-

=1 ah
pical polish, in Bis -porformance of

the Couperin “Extraits du Troi-
sieme Livre de Pieces,” and seem-
ed to have scored the hit of the
evening with a radical departure
in mood in his encore—Debussy’s
“Le Syrinx,” in which Mr. Smith’s
tone took on a fascinating sheen.

Mr. Chiasson’s harpsichord both
intrigued and worried this review-
er. In criticising any performance
on the harpsichord, it is difficult
to separate the limitations of the
performer from those of the un-
familiar instrument. It was dis-
turbing to hear the Scarlatti son-
atas played with so little dynamic
variety and yet this is inherent in
the early keyboard instrument, It
makes one wonder just how much
modern performers read into early
keyboard music, or, for that mat-
ter, just how much, with our mod-

ern and differently attuned ears,
we can attempt to be faithful to
the original composition of such
antique music. At any rate, Mr.
Chiasson seémed on more solidly
appealing ground when he played
Rameau’s dance forms, particularly
the “Musette en Rondeau.” In
these the reviewer found the harp-
sichord more satisfying. On the
whole, however, it was an unique
opportunity to hear and reflect on
a sound from the rich musical past
—and particularly fitting that this
opportunity be given in honor of
Dr. Alwyne, who has done so much
to bring that rich past to Bryn

Castro To Speak

At Spanish Club

Americo core Pr ° fessor

Emeritus, gaan University,
will spgpk on “El. Caballero de.
Olmedo,” under the auspices of

ithe Spanish Club at 8:30 p.m. on
! Monday, March 18 in the Ely
Room. aA

Professor Castro holds degrees
from the Universities of Granada,
Paris and Madrid, and is the au-
thor of several books including
Espana en su Historia and The
Structure of Spanish History. He
has also contributed numerous ar-
ticles to American, French, Ger-
man, Spanish and. South Ameri-

 

can publications.

4

 

archeological
| become invaluable to archeologists.

Radio-Chemist
Libby Speaks
Friday Evening

Atomic Commissioner
Studies A-Bomb
Fall-Out

W. F. Libby, Atomic Energy
Commissioner. a°n d_ well-known
radio-chemist, will lecture on
“Cosmic” Ray and Bomb Test
Tritium in Meterology and Hydro-
logy” to Sigma Xi members and
Bryn Mawr students this Friday
evening, March 15, in the geology
lecture room in Park.

_Mr. Libby developed the radio-
carbon method, a process of dating
objects which’ has

The discovery resulted from Mr.
Libby’s interest in naturally occur-
ring radioactive isotopes. He found

the carbon isotope C14; one. could
determine the age of the object
in question.

Mr. Libby is also attempting to
develop a system of determining
che age of water. Mr. Zimmerman
cells an anecdote about Mr. Libby’s
problems in obtaining sufficiently
aged, undisturbed water for his
experiments. While working on a
project for the government, Mr.
Libby unsuccessfully spent a great
deal of time and effort trying to
find water which has been untouch-
ed for twenty or so years, Finally
it occurred to him that the only
liquid which would be allowed to
stand untouched for any length of
time would have to be a fermented
beverage (usually has a_ high
water content). Soon thereafter
the government received a request
to deliver 20 cases of liquor to
Mr. Libby—all in the interest of
science, of course!

At the moment Mr. Libby is
studying the problem of radio-
active fall-out from bomb tests for
the Atomic Energy Commission.
He received his degree from the
University of California, and is

Nuclear Studies at the University
of Chicago. During World War II
Mr. Libby conducted research for
the government at Columbia on
the separation of uranium isotopes.

Trask Will Lecture
Wednesday Night

Mr. Willard R. Trask, writer
and translator, will deliver the
Class of 1902 Lecture on Wednes-
day, March 20, at 8:30 in the Com-
mon Room. He will speak on “The
Problem of Translation.”

Mr. Trask has translated books
from German, French, Spanish and
Portuguese. He is translating a
book for Mr. Ferrater Mora which
has-not yet been published:
Among Mr. Trask’s other trans-
lations are Pushkin, Poet and
Lover by Lydia Lambert, The
World Is Not Enough by Zoe Old-°
enbourg from French by Curtius’
European Literature and the Latin
Middle Ages from German.

 

 

COLLEGE ELECTIONS

Nancy Dyer ’58 has been
elected President of the Self-
Government Association.

Catharine Stimpson ’58 has
been elected President of the

 

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Undergraduate Association,

 

 

 

that by measuring the content of “

a professor at the Institute for |

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