Friday. April II. m9

SCARLET AN D BLACK

Page Eleven

 

'i'he $6: Reviews:

The Confessional Novel in M ode-m Literature

By GARY GlDDINS

It is an oft quoted cliche that the
age gets the quality of art that It de-
serves. For many reasons, the 1960‘s
is immersed in popular artr I suppose
that the locus on creating for the “now,"
out of resources esoteric to the immed-
iate present and with no ambitions for
artistic immortality or worries about
the academic propriety of the results,
presents the illusion of freedom and rel-
evance to the artist.

That part of the American culture
which the media have chosen to perpet-
uate has taken the form of Campbell
Soup cans, a melange of politely pomo-
graphic novels and him, McKuen’s-
come-home “poetry," posters, mimetic
rock music, theatrical nudity tor spirit-
ual and box office reasons, and mechani-
cal sculpture. McLuhan — the greatest
observer of them all — has attempted
to explain and draw conclusions from
till this, hilt unfortunately he doesn't
comment on whether the inevitable ob—
solescence or books (lige the Gutenburg
Galaxy or The Medium is the Mess»
age?) is a good thing or not, and one
cannot help but wonder during which
segment or Ozzie and Harriet — or was
it the Beverly Hillbillies — that he re-
ceived his enlightenment

But whether one agrees or disagrees,
approves or disapproves, with the cur-
rent speculations about art, there can
be no doubt but that there is a revo-
lution going on in the arts, and when
the Chaos subsides and the rubble is
cleared away, we will have either
something excltlngly new or a lot at
junk that —like all popular art — will
be of no interest in ten years except for
nostalgic or historical reasons. Another
generation will have to decide whether
we have produced any great art. All
we can do is sort through the trash and
the honest stuff and choose that which
is relevant and revealing,

An example of the more serious in-
novations currently happening in the
arts is the confessional novel. We con-
,stantly hear about the death of the nov-
el. Critics tell us that there have been
no great innovators since Joyce and
Proust. and McLuhanites today tell us

Q d

that the other forms of media are
more communicative and meaningful.

In the last twenty years, the major »

themes of American novels have come
from three sources: World War it,
Jews, and Southerners The leading con-
tributors have all shown a decline in
craft, and it is small wonder. Most of
these writers received exhuherant
praise tor first works published in the
early titties. Those novels fit the stan-
dard of what “serious writing" was
supposed to be. The world of the 605
is radically different, and it must be
difficult for novelists in their forties to
tind meaningful relevance to what’s
happening today. And the conscientious
Writer must strive for relevancer So,
Styron, Mailer, Jones, Bellow, Mala-
mud, Salinger, Algren, Capote, Willing-
ham, and all the other "pl'odigies" are
now at the ill-between stage: too young
to put a gun in their mouths. and too
old to feel at home in university dem<
onstrations. When you can’t figure out
what “it” is all about, you can either
observe what's happening or escape
from it. And so Styron and Malamud
have looked back into history tor a
Clue, and Mailer, Capote. and Algren,
have gone into self-analysis and jour-
nalism. Bellow, Styron, and Salinger —
While inventing stronger facades than
Mailer et. all — have used the first
person extensively, not to tell a plot,
but to open the prolagonists's mind up.
Many of these authors have both a
technique and a style (i) that is in-
spiring. But where are the solid accom-
plishments? The writer has become
more important than his art, with mixed
results. Algren indulged his ego by
publishing a volume of interviews with
himself, and Capote has introduced the
Madison Avenue style to his work, On
the other hand, Mailer — in turning
the novel into an advertisement for and
about himseli — produced, in Armies
Of The Night, his masterpiece.
Mailer’s “Confessions“ is a good ex-
ample of this significant trend in the
American novel. The Confessional novel
may be in the term of autobiography or
fiction, but in either case, the protago-
nist's mind is the focal point, not the

Royalty Visits

By LEE SHAMBERG

As part 01 the Social coordinating Com-
mittee’s continuing to put the heyl back
in the Grinnell bob-a—re-bop, Duke El-
lington and. his orchestra Will play for
both listening and dancing in Darby
Gwnnaslum this Saturday night. The
Duke and his men will play a concert
set from 9:30 to 10:30 followed by the
Spring formal lrom 11:00 to 135m

1969 marks Ellington's titty-second
year as a pmtessional musician, and his
forty-sixth as a bandleader. The Duke
will celebrate his seventieth birthday
later this month, and will be honored at I
White House dinner on April 30th.

Originally a pianist in the Harlem
tradition, Ellington has set the standard
against which all jazz arrangers must
eventually measure up. Ellington plays
his band in much the same way that an
instrumentalist blows his sax. His writing
is particularly notable for his melodic
lyricism and his use of tonal coloration.
Ellington's songs have always been eag.
erly accepted by the nonrjazz audience,
and many, (such as Satin Doll and in
My Solitude.) have become standards

Each member of the band is also an
excellent solist in his own right, and
some, such as Johnny Hodges and Harry
Carney, have been dominant forces on
their respective instruments.

Lee Shamberg

dates and events in his life. The re-
sults are usually daring. sometimes in
the form of an expose (Podhoretz’s
Making it) or in an account ot life-style
as a state of mind. Soul 011 Ice is an
example of the latter, and is among
the most brilliant instances of selfa
awareness artfully articulated, and
made relevant in contemporary letters.
All of which brings us to the most
popular novel ot the first tew years,
which also happens to be a confession-
al novel, Portnoy‘s Complaint, by Phil-
lip Rotht

A discussion of this controversial
novel will appear in the next issue of
the 58:3.

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Funk at Schaeifer

By RICHARD WICKSTROM

The San Francisco Art institute Draw-
ing Invitational Exhibition on display
at Schaefier Gallery until April 17 is I
comprehensive representation of the
Bay Area art scene. Examples of Funk
art dominate this month’s exhibition.

A phenomenon of the 60’s. Funk art ll
Iimilar in many respects to the work of
the Dada movement. Peter selz in the
catalogue for the Funk exhibition at the
University Art Museum, Berkley charac-
terizes Funk as a "visual double-talk, it
makes fun of itself, although often
(though by no means all the time) it il
dead serious. Making allusions, the artist
is able, once more, to deprecate himself
with a true sense of the ironic." Most
effective in three dimensions, Grinnell’s
exhibit is the only example of Funk arti
have seen in two dimensions.

Roy DeForest in his Untitled drawing
presents the best example of Funk in
the exhibition. Typical of the hot, bio
zarre, humorous, subliminal post-Freu.
dian erotic imagery of Funk, the drawing
borders on the chaotic; but through the
repetition of faces, feet, abstract geo<
metric patterns, and a strong sense of
design, the work holds together well,
it is an interesting flight into fantasy —-
or reality.

"Mrs, Martin: What is the moral?
Fire Chief: That's for you to find out.”——
Ionesco
The Bald Soprano

Experimentation in new materials
characterizes the rest of the exhibition
Rodger Jacobsen in his Untitled acrylic
on masonite presents a field of olive
green to gold (depending on how the
light strikes the drawing) covered with
heavy black lines. The reflected image of
the observer on the drawmg creates a
beautiful rhythmic movement as the eye
moves across the work. However, some
lines are smudged, which lessens tho
impact greatly,

As i see it, the best works at the exhi-
bltion are Untitled Vacuum-termed Plas-
tic Object A and n by James Reineking.
The three dimensional plastic superim~
posed over harsh geometric drawing:
with subtle gradation of shading create
an interesting interplay oi planes. The
Untitled Vacuum-formed Plastic Object
A works better because the plastic is
integrated more successiuily with the
drawing beneath revealing more complex
relationships.

The exhibition, as a Whole. however, is
very poor, dominated by obviously mun.
nered and technically crude works. out
{or those unfamiliar with the Funk (linm
and Cool minimal work, the exhibition
will prove unusual and perplexing

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