5 Of r’s Open

Vbooco&eVolume 2, Number 17/Thursday, October 28, 1971 / Wi Hi omstown, up and Quod Dixi, Dixi that things aren’t on the straight and idy narrow, ostracism, at best, is the result. I of say A.H. ihe Williams Faculty Minutes for The lumber-jacket, macho reputation of led September 24,1934, report newly installed the days still fits.” by Andrea Axelrod President ’s concern with He hesitated, then qualified his “the value of contact with the students response. Creating a myth in their own rites, the and his desire to do preventive work to the “I guess it’s a product of the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop under end that queer boys, and maladjustments, Williamstown environment. If we were in Ann Halprin spent a week in residence at which come to the attention of the or near a metropolitan area, things would Williams. Their $8,000 fee was paid by the Faculty, be reported at once to the be a lot different. First, you can get some National Endowment'of , the Assistant Dean.” (What happened to such degree of anonymity in a city to help you Massachusetts Council on the Arts and persons after their discovery is anyone’s come out.” , the Williams Lecture guess.) Come out? Committee, and the Margaret Bundy That brief, ambiguous entry is the only “That’s a gay slang term. A Scott Fund. recorded incident concerning homosexual can have clandestine sexual Many who encountered the group in homosexuality at Williams. But lack of experiences without ever having to come performance, in workshop, or in passing recognition has little to do with actual to grips with being a member of an op- called their art life form “the mopt ex- numbers. Statistics compel the existence pressed, socially unorthodox minority. citing thing I’ve ever seen”; but more of a gay population in any community. That’s because he’s not readily visible to tagged it “bullshit.” Kinsey reports that at least 4 percent of the community like, say, a black person himself is the To expose reality and stimulate any population is exclusively homosexual is; the homosexual only awareness of self and community, Mrs. throughout adult life while 46 percent person who can show his neighbors that gay minority. ‘Coming but Halprin’s dance company has freed itself “engages in both heterosexual and he belongs to the led all and social taboos. The homosexual activities, or reacts to per- out of the closet’ refers to the person who of physical with that •ge irony of it is that they never quite come off sons of both sexes, in the course of their consciously identifies himself as at on stage and off they adult lives.” (Sexual Behavior in the group. It’s like developing a black con- as authentic all; or carry with them a nimbus of undistilled Human Male, p. 656.) sciousness or a Jewish consciousness theatricality. The question is how has the ’s what have you.” rly gay population been able to develop an He turned his watch around and played of identity? with its band. Getting back ’to the sen Satan and the Zookeeper ... Black cape, “Well, some write graffiti on bathroom problems of Williamstown, he went on. Tarzan leotard, purple and orange walls,”, answers Roy (a pseudonym). “So, a city can provide the anonymity a crocheted helmet, red patent high heeled “The men’s room in the basement of 1500-student campus cannot. Second, a boots, multi-colored starred boots ... Stetson Hall, for instance, has had a good place like or New York or even Daisy Mae shorts and midriff on a former one for some time: ‘Gay, young, and Albany has gay bars - wretched, North Carolina football player. These are goodlooking’ I think it says, plus a name deplorable places for the most part, to be streetclothes. and telephone number. One of the stalls in sure, but at least you know everybody Above all else members of the a Bronfman lavatory is also a reliable there is gay or possibly bisexual. Look, in Workshop seek authenticity in life and place for choice tidbits of local gay news the northern the homosexual art. Dance, life, and art are equal terms and propositions.” has no outlet for socializing with other brought into balance by the “R.S.V.P. Roy is a senior at Williams, a con- gays. Hell, for that matter, he doesn’t cycle,’” radical dancer rhetoric created scientious, no-nonsense sort, who hopes to know who they are since there’s no way to by Mrs. Halprin’s husband Lawrence to enter law school next year. He has a express that gayness - except the meet the “conflicts, confusions and nervous habit of playing with his watch to bathroom walls, that is.” chaos” of the commune the group founded occupy his hands if he’s studying or in He attempted a weak smile and in the summer of 1969. The cycle defines class or talking to someone. Asked about snapped his watch back on his wrist. A the four holy aspects of the dancer’s his sexual preference, he unhesitantly sullen expression came over his face. entire lifestyle, “a collective approach to replies that he finds men more erotically “It’s funny,” he continued, “about all creativity”: stimulating than women. the games there are which enable you to R Resources, the base of all art “I don’t want to define myself too pretend you’re straight. A guy leading on S Scoring, the process of art narrowly though,” he quickly adds. “In some poor girl at Bennington or Smith,

- The V Valuation the moment of Gestalt saying I’m either hetero- or homosexual, I say, just to be able to show the Bros ‘his awareness of art immediately exclude about half of all my woman.’ P Performance - life as art potential for erotic pleasure. Andrew “I remember in my freshman year I During its one-week residency at homosexual Crider in the Psychology Department invited a girl I knew from high school here Williams the dance group was to have would call that ‘the fallacy of misplaced Please turn to page 5 induced the college community to RSVP. concreteness.’ ” It succeeded instead in shocking it. He grinned, looked at his watch, and Joy Dewey, the College’s dance in- at went on. structor, asked sophomore Jeff Johnson “That means if I assume an exclusive to be student host to the group,and to'find orientation, I do injustice to an infinite ways to involve them with the students. variety of interpersonal relationships, “When I told them it was Parent’s Williams-. both Platonic and sensual. In other words, Weekend,” says Johnson, “a few of them why should I restrict myself before ex- suggested they dress-up and really shock ploring the limits of my social-sexual some of the parents. They are here to surroundings?” reveal reality to Williamstown.” coming Has he been able to explore in Apparently they chose to stay aloof Williamstown? from what in Williams poses as reality. “Not in the least. The students here are really uptight to conform to heterosexual The Greek letter Lambda: logo for the Gay Please to 6 Liberation movement. turn page out If just slightest mores. there’s the hint

sequently, with substantial community by Jonathan Abbott the Public In- will suggest that each campus institute a terest Research Group (WMPIRG), it’s voluntary $4 student tax. Each college appreciation. College students, both here and abroad, designed to meet problems of the “en- would make out a check to WMPIRG for And students working on a paper or have been the most vocal segment of the vironment” - defininingit in “the largest the totalamount. (WMPIRG would return private project will be entitled to look population. Yet what positive results have sense of the physical, social and a small fee for bookkeeping costs.) through the resource catalogue of WM- at they been able to accomplish in the United psychological environments of men.” During the third week of classes each PIRG to see if anyone any other college States? The sum is tragically small; Student Run term, WMPIRG would offer refunds to has done work in the same field. students’ views have often been the ten- Though student-run and -directed, the any student who does not wish to support Perhaps Ralph Nader sums the idea up year vanguard of American thought. corporation will not be subject to student WMPIRG. Consequently, no college nor best: The reason is clear. Students have been time cycles, but rather will operate particular student need feel he is “sanc- The poetntial for student-fundedpublic unable or unwilling to employ the three throughout the year. WMPIRG will be tioning” the actions of WMPIRG. interest research groups is enormous. eight million students in over traditional tools popular among groups non-profit and non-partisan, but not tax- NeedFor Involvement The 2,000 such as unions or trade associations: exempt since it will wish to lobby and to features of WMPIRG will be and universities in the United Two conceivably finance 160 actual or potential voting power, actual or propose new legislation. especially interesting to the average States could PIRGs, at of $200,000 potential economic clout, and infiltration According to Don Ross, an aide to Williams student. Most of us feel the need operating budgets of the political system with their own Nader, students are trying to form such to be involved in the outside community in per year. If even a third of all students participated, a whole new dimension members. corporations in 16 states. Two were some way. Those in Minnesota and Furthermore, the student’s life is started last year in Oregon and Min- found that many of theirbest would be added to the political life of the Oregon have could be formed in punctured by vacations, mid-terms and nesota. The groups focus their attention projects met with success and, sub- United States. Groups finals, summer recess and week-end on consumer protection, resource plan- every state.... No longer would decisions escapism. It’s no mere coincidence that ning, occupational safety, sexual and affecting the public interest be made in all the successful peace rallies have been racial discrimination, protection of isolation. Student-funded lawyers, lob- held either in October and November, or natural resources, health care and land- byists and scientists wouldbe on the scene in April and May. This leaves eight lord-tenant relations. Ross says they’ve representing the now unrepresented months of lethargy. been successful in many oftheir projects, citizen viewpoint. If a staff of 15 can dent But with the help of Ralph Nader and including a $25,000 water pollution suit. the federal bureaucracy, a similar staff in the 18-year-old vote, students are finding of will be the What’s each state (working for students) could A key feature WMPIRG themselves in a position to effect change hiring of professionals — lawyers, change the direction of the nation. through the established channels. engineers, doctors, research scientists, Joe Budge, Clive Hulick, Chris Henry, Frome I This semester, a group of students planners - to give technical help and to Michele and have all been to one Massachusetts WMPIRG? or more of the organizational meetings from all 20 Western provide continuous input when midterms colleges met at to or vacations come around. and are more than willing to discuss the form a Nader-style corporation. Called To pay for its activities, the corporation proposal with anyone. THE ADVOCATE PAGE FIVE as society gay person as any other social stimulus.” song. I’ve heard it enough since then that some subspecies of vermin, he know any other gays on some of the lyrics stick with me. would have you believe. I buried my Does self- campus? stereotyped preconceptions and my ‘Bearding cattle, hopelessness.” “Oh, I’ve heard plenty of rumors, and rode side-saddle, doubt and He answers does he have for have plenty of suspicions, but I only know Down on the range in Texas! What of one other for a fact - someone I ran Williams? He was a prairie fairy! desperately need something here across at a gay function last summer in ee ka yae, “We Well, yip the gay students. Their experiences more New York, just by coincidence. We have He’s the queen of the May, for nothing else in common though.” range Texas!’ may not be as fortunate as mine were this Down on the in heard the rumor that But that’s someone. past summer. I’ve Roy “Sure, of course. But does every Even before classes began, we initiates some years back one student committed straight guy find the first girl he meets to to Williams were forewarned of the suicide just because he couldn’t deal with be the answer to all his specifications? consequences if we didn’t live up to the the pressures of being a homosexual in a Williams played her college in Some congeniality and mutual attraction school’s manly tradition.” heterosexually dominated society. That when price to pay for football. We went to the game, and I are better social motivations than just How had he been able to “come out” seems a ludicrously high her the campus, and we made being desperate. Straight students have then if the College offers all these the luxury of intolerance. showed organization small talk, and I introduced her to all the scores from which to pick and choose --1 problems for the gay person? “Williamstown needs an -- and even gay guys in my entry.” should be happy with one?” “I was damn lucky. This summer I whereby gay students townspeople - could come He stopped and breathed a quick sigh. Any other problems for him at went to ostensibly to find faculty and problems and “I was bored to death.” Williams? summer employment but primarily to together to discuss mutual benefits of such a group And since then? “The loneliness.That really gets to you. investigate an organization I’d heard socialize. The

- to in “I resolved never again to be such a People remark at the paradox of New about the Gay Activists’ Alliance. I would accrue both its members and to the com- hypocrite. Let them think what they York City: being among eight million really didn’tknow what to expect; maybe helping them come out may.” people and not knowing a soul. Well, bomb-throwing arch-radicals or smelly, munity at large in dispelling the - homosexuals that Again he removed the watch and turned Williamstown is no better. In the midst of dishevelledanarchists definitely not my damaging myths about end over end. His brown eyes fixed on 1500 peers, run the risk of complete style.” permeate our society.” it I achieve that some distant object. ostracism, or even worse, of a clawing The pensive look appeared again. And how does he propose to I’ve really developed some condescension, if I dare raise the subject “Surprisingly enough, GAA turned out goal? “You know, a Gay close friendships here at Williams. Some of homosexuality. Williams men are all to be a middle-class, highly bureaucratic, “Anyone interested in forming at Williams should intense Platonic relationships. And I’ve Men, you know. political pressure group. The people I met Liberation chapter never wanted them to be any more or less “Little things, too, add up. At my there were an incredibly diverse lot: call me at 458-8479.” than that for the most part. I guess I’m Freshman Banquet, the Ephlats sang grade-school teachers, college in- I wish him luck. apprehensive to develop an acquaintance ‘Alexis’ to the incoming students. I at structors, Wall Street bankers, you name Oh, by the way, I am Roy. to was cathartic: I with anyone I find physically attractive. my table in Baxter Hall and was obliged it. My response them -Dan Pinello Fear is as great a motivating force for the to add to the uproarious laughter at the learned that gays, too, are human and not

too; are worthless, for the Well over 50 Gay Liberation groups my phone number in The Colorado Daily, “We’ve got a very loose organization show, but those

- most exist today in American cities and on the campus newspaper. here no constitution, by-laws, dues, or part. university The first collegiate A quick laugh interrupted his speech. screening for membership. A steering “Then there’s the Rap-line I mentioned campuses. get organization was Columbia’s Student “That is, we intended my number, but committee, whose meetings anyone can before. As soon as we some sort of center, can done more Homophile League, begun in the Fall of the guy who filed the ad got it wrong, and attend, sets the agenda for the general community that be professionally.” 1967. Since then, such groups have sprung someone else got four or five calls before meetings and picks differentpeople to run to Did that mean some University up across the country. we could get to him to refer all callers them.” the An ADVOCATE reporter spoke to a right number. There wasn’t much What about the group’s size and ac- facilities? some off-campus. founder of the University of Colorado hassle, though, he was un understanding tivities? “No, place Probably get a reliable His interview reflects trends sort.” “When the University’s in session, we a rented house if we can chapter. Association with the apparent in the histories of many The phone rang again. Byron made usually average around forty to fifty source of income. to scare away some collegiate Gay Liberation organizations. arrangements to meet someone else in a people at a meeting. The turnover is University tends few days. really large though, since so many people, I think - those not affiliated with want to over- 20,000 University of Colorado “My number’s become famous,” he students come and go at each semester. the School who don’t be Some students (CU) students converged on Boulder at said as he put down the receiver. “You’d “We divide our efforts into three whelmed by students and those August: rents soared while still be amazed at some of the calls I’ve gotten categories: educational, legal, and social. who don’t want to be found out on campus. the end of at the more than looked for in that since last November when we formed the The first has taken up the greatest “We tried a coffee house 3,000 lodging with dancing, booming college town; likewise, traffic group.” amount of time. The ignorance of University on Friday nights arteries seemed to inflate as innumerable Harassment? straights about gays and gay life is in- but were unsuccessful just because of that to at- Volkswagens and a few Mercedes with “Well, a little, but I mean the gays credible. Boulder Gay Lib has a team that particular reason, I bet. We have of the Eastern license plates clogged parking who’ve called up. One was about a 30- gives informal presentations to classes, tract a broader spectrum gay lots. year-old guy who teaches at a high school usually in the psychology and sociology community than just students, although In his two-room, basement apartment in the state. Very uptight about meeting fields. We sent a form letter to all the presently they are our principle support.” on 12th Street, Byron Sullivan was other gays and being found out. He called professors and instructors on campus What about other social functions? oblivious that classes started that day me at intervals for over a month and a offering this service. The students have “We’ve held four or five dances with a although the previous week he had helped half before I told him that I was tired of generally been open to honest discussion live band at a ranch between Boulder and Boulder Gay Liberation leaflets talking to a voice and that flesh and blood about homosexuality and its changing Denver which has a large party facility. distribute to to registering students as they blundered Four to five hundred people have come from some administration building after them. their endless perennial wait to get a “The night before the one in February, schedule. there was a tremendous snow storm. someone “Just a minute while I finish this let- Every few minutes that morning ter,” he told me as he opened the door to called to see if the dance was still on. I his spacious living room. “I’ll never get didn’t want to take the responsibility of back to it unless I get it done now.” cancelling it and then have the weather I didn’t mind the delay - the posters on clear up, so I told them to come anyway. his walls kept me occupied for a while. Well, the mile-long private road leading to One showed a differentcoital position for the ranch had cars piled up on each side each of the twelve astrological signs. that night, and as people started leaving to Aquarius (my symbol) wasn’t as at two or three in the morning they had was imaginative as some of the others; but dig their cars out of the snow. I told what can you expect from a water the last one got out at 7:00 am.” carrier? Taurus, fittingly so, stole the Where had they all come from? school papers: show. “We put ads in all the On an adjacent wall hung Christ’s CU, Denver University, Fort Collins (Colorado image; love, J.” was inscribed at State University), and Greeley “With Colorado). the bottom. (University of Northern Plus The poster directly behind me last the Boulder city paper and one of the said caught my eye: Popeye and Olive Oil in Denver papers. The ads simply ‘Gay the regular coital positiort with an empty Liberation Dance’ and gave telephone can of spinach lying nearby. Nothing, numbers for information.” apparently, was sacred. What about political activities? The phone rang. Byron arranged to “We haven’t had any marchs or specific meet someone at his office in Denver the political 'pressure demonstrations,” he following day. explained, “but we’ve been political in a we put on a “That was the Denver representative of social sense. For example, the National Lawyers’ Guild,” he ex- street theater production which opened “We their with two gay kissing in public. Some plained. helped organize around national convention here this summer, would convince me more of his existence. position in society. We’ve found that it’s witnesses then began running and they adopted some resolutions on So we finally met and have become fairly better to have the answers to students’ yelling about this social atrocity and of who homosexual rights.” good friends. We still talk on the phone questions come from the horse’s mouth attracted the attendion some Pigs, to Lib He handed me a mimeographed sheet. regularly, but he’s worried about his rather than from some ignorant straight just happened be wearing Gay in court The Guild is a dissident radical group of appearance and meeting other people - writing them in a book. You don’t know buttons. Then there was a scene gays. In lawyers for whom the ABA holds little the fear of being rejected, I guess. what they think when they leave the room where no one would defend the sympathy and tolerance. “Another one called at two in the though.” the end, the lovers beat up the Pigs and “This attorney in Denver has agreed to morning and said he had to get laid, could What about reaching the general ran away.” meet with me to make arrangements for I recommend anyone. I tactfully tried to populace? Byron shifted his position in the chair legal assistance ifBoulder Gay Lib should tell him that this (pointing to the phone) is He draped a leg over, an arm of his again and stroked his black moustache. need it in the future. We’ve worked a little merely a rap-line for counseling and chair. “We got a letter from the Sertoma “Probably the most important social before,this of talking - not a stud service.” Club of Boulder, which is like the Kiwanis, politicizing we’ve done began when a few with the ACLU new source dancing help came along.” I noticed a greeting card propped up asking us to speak to them. That really women in the group began Byron then settled back in his desk above his desk with the inscription freaked me out to have them write us. together at ‘The Sink,’ a local straight began the story the Boulder “Valentine, Let’s Have A Mad, Gay Love Anyway, we went to their morning and bar. The guys took some time to follow the chair and of they group’s founding. “I got back from San Affair.” I asked to look at it. evening meetings, which had about fif- women’s example, but eventually straight Francisco last year and realized Colorado “Sure,” he grinned, “it’s a Hallmark teen to twenty people each. One guy got up, too. A few of the had nothing for gays except a few original. I guess they’re starting to brought along a whole list of statistics customers were uptight about it at the depressing bars in Denver, an hour’s bus commercialize the Gay Movement, too.” from the Kinsey Report, I guess, trying to beginning, but the management has never trip away. So I asked some people I knew Someone flushed a toilet above us. The prove some point - what, I don’t know. said anything to us. I guess we’ll keep on if they’d be interested in starting a Gay pipes groaned as Byron went on about the “We’ve also been on a talk show on the doing it in larger numbers until we’ve Lib group on campus. We put an ad with Boulder group. local educational TV station. A radio completely liberated the place.” T HE ADVOCATE PAGE TWO

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* Reflections B64|6C|jOU2 Co-Chai rmen: David Kehres Dan Pinello Business Manager: Managing Editor: Boromini flourished, and what the dif- John Enteman two John Ramsbottom EXAM ferences between the were. The Features Editor: Literary Editor: second, Stoddard informed us, was “very Mitchell Rapoport Charles Rubin Art 101, we had been told, occupies the easy” and turned out to be an ancient time of nearly one-seventh of the student slide of a Roman triumphal arch. The thus itself the title of THE WILLIAMS ADVOCATE is a weekly publication by the students of ; body, earning students, too, thought it was no sweat. The correspondence should be addressed to THE WILLIAMS ADVOCATE, Jesup Hall, Williams Largest Course in the School. Too lazy to third was either early Byzantine or un- College, Wil liomstown, Massachusetts 01267, telephone 413-458-7131 Ext. 425 check with the Registrar, we wafted over decorated Baroque; the class seemed to Lawrence one morning and attended more certain than we were. The fourth the infamous fall-term hour exam. was the hardest: either Greek or Roman, Masses of people pressed against the probably the former but with some very door, blocking the exit for Art 201 students incongruous elements. The fifth, a snap, editorial: whose bemused smiles only aggrayated was early Gothic. On a hundred faces, the masses’ suppressed fear. Once they tension was giving way to determination. were inside, the eager batches of fledgling Battle joined. connoisseurs and dilettantes hurried to We felt smug and secure for our part. the open community desks at the front of the lecture hall, shed Not only did we remember much of last their coats, and quickly sat down, ready year’s course, but we could even, if for action. Mostly freshmen, these early prodded, recall the anecdotes which had You hear a lot of talk about “openness,” especially on a college campus. People are arrivers filled supposed to every conceivable in- accompanied the lectures, all the bits of verbalizeall their problems, all the tensions between them and the people formation space on the front of their blue- around them. Problems comic relief which had brightened years once brought to the surface can then be discussed, reasonably, books, then waited tensely, poising their by the people and presumably will be of introductory art courses. Ah, involved, resolved for good instead of being left pencils and their minds. Professor nostalgia! to smolder in everyone’s unspoken thoughts. It’s an admirable idea, and to most ap- Whitney Stoddard, who was to administer The identifications were only warm-ups pearances we are following through on it. Look at the popularity of sensitivity groups the exam, wasn’t yet in sight. The up- and similar forms of self-revelation. for the heavies which followed, long perclassmen began to drift in, and they analyses of monuments unknown to the In a larger sense, though, we delude ourselves about “openness.” our real What were a more cheerful crowd, growling class. The students began to write for sorts of things do we confess, usually? That we are male chauvinist. Racist. That we about how fed up with Chartres they all prolonged only occasionally don’t trust one another. That we have doubts about stretches, the validity of our life-style as were, boasting how little they’d peering up students. These may all be studied, to confront the work in true, and some of them may be worth admitting, but this is chatting about some campus minutia. The at from the hardly openness in the sense of verbalizing deeply question that glowered them private distress. We as students are seniors settled towards the back of the bright screen. A hundred Jack-in-the- quite well versed in the standard sociological and psychological jargon of self- hall. The football team clustered in the boxes, bobbing and scribbling. criticism ; we can race through an session sorts of encounter furiously admitting all corner nearest the door. We sat. We As the time pressure began to mount, things to each other, without once risking anything of ourselves in what we admit. The stifled nervous yawns and twitches. We murmurs were trick is to abstract away from things the small of conversation oneself, admit only those that everyone else waited. gradually extinguished; should admit as well. chattering Stoddard eventually breezed in, students became machines which tran- This is the kind of talk that too often passes for “openness” around here. True carrying his little box of slides, and slated visual inputs into written words in openness involves a painful admission of we difficult, feelings that know are unpopular grinning over his half-glasses at the large an Oc- and are going to cause special almost automatic process. others to take note of us. And this kind of self-revelation turnout. Then he commuted between the casionally is extremelyrare, even at a place as a student would break away freewheeling as Williams. light-control mechanisms at the front of from Some words might be said about “taboos” or his furious storm of writing, about the moral bankruptcy of those the room and the slide projectors at the luxuriously to wiggle cramped fingers who refuse to practice what they preach. This would amount to little more than back. Finally he paused beside the screen and breathe deeply, and then return to his renaming the paradox, however, and would do nothing to explain why a group of to explain at the self-explanatory exam appointed task. Not until the lights came people like us Williams shouldbe so enthusiastic about honesty yet so reticent about sheet and answer the practicing it. inevitable inane on after the exam did anyone show any questions. “And please spare the shovel,” emotion. Even without many It might be more useful to consider some ways slides, in which the peculiarities of our he added. (That is Stoddard’s proverbial students continued to write, flipping situation here inhibit openness. Two significant factors operate in this sense, the fact admonition: as veterans of the 101 that we are all highly Art through their bluebooks to find a half- intelligent, and the fact that we all pretty much know each other. factory, we would have felt cheated question touching are based on a answered that needed All friendships limitedinteraction between two individuals: there are without it.) The lights went off and the Big always personal matters into up. Sporadically, individuals got up and which one’s friends do not pry, and personal matters of One was on. theirs which are person’s stumbled slowly away. The departing likewise inviolate. A position in a society is determinedby a The first five slides were short exam- students were not overwhelmed or network of interpersonal relationships silent, each of which is in some kind of stable ples of the “identify and justify” sort of overjoyed, hardly reacting. It would take equilibrium with regard to what is shared and what is not. To extent the that few or problem. The first was an Italian time, gentle time, to bring them out of the none of these equilibria are threatened actions, an to by his individual is free say and Renaissance church, whose dates we fifty-minute trance of the Big left do what he wants, including acting “openly” on this or One. We that issue. And this in turn is a completely forgot while vainly at- It did not seem quite to matter of staying sufficiently abstract. quietly. right tempting to recall when Brunelleschi and smile. Consider what happens when one makes a truly personal statement, though, when one risks something that is absolutely his own. It usually turns out that one becomes quite lonely. One’s friends are surprised, and whatever their specific response to the content of the statement, be it anger or sympathy or fear or whatever, their attitude A Shop and consequently their behavior toward one change. The individual himself is no Devoted Exclusively different from what he was before he acted “openly,” but now all of his close in- To Contemporary terpersonal relationships are changed, are contaminated by the fact of his having American Crafts expressed something different from what was expected of him. In terms of his distant acquaintances, his fate is perhaps even worse. These people did not know him well, perhaps only through a couple of stray encounters, and probably did have Including: not much of • an opinion one way Stoneware# Silver# Glass or another about him. But now that he has risked a personal • truly Pewter • Weaving statement, they type him, they classify him according to it. • Enamels • Cloisonne He has risked himself, and as a result he is alienated from his friends and • Photography caricatured by everyone else who knows who he is. The two special factors cited above about Williams apply at this point. Because he and his friends are all intelligent, they are unable and unwilling 61 Water St., (one block from Weston Field) to pretend that no distancing has takenplace. The dislocation WiIliamstown, Mass. (413) 458-9523 of cannot ignored friendships be out of mutual distaste for it, since no one involved can 9:30 — 5:30 Mon. - Sat.; delude himself easily that nothing has happened. The fact that everyone at Williams 12:00 - 5:00 Sun). knows or knows of almost everyone else implies that our honest individual, having induced his distorted reputation in the others, cannot escape the consequences through anonymity. He must daily face many people he knows are thinking “That’s the fellow who....” True honesty, true “openness”thus has a considerable psychological cost for any individual, and this is made still more acuteat Williams or any comparable smallbody DOWN WITH THE of intelligent, introspective people. The presence or absence of true openness at Williams, then, is a matter of weighing the possible benefits of any candid declaration against the quite easily imaginable disadvantages. Is it then any wonder that the DUTCHMAN prevalent attitude seems to be that “It isn’t worth the trouble to try to be honest. It just makes things worse instead of better.” (Here is much of what is often called “characteristic Williams apathy” about many issues.) Yet the ideal of the Open Community need not sink under the psychological load as KING'S LIQUOR STORE long as some individuals remain who find it worthwhile, and thus possible, to make statements of private conviction that can lead us all to a more honestrelatedness. D.K. SPRING ST.

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