Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU The Gamut Archives Publications Spring 1988 The Gamut: A Journal of Ideas and Information, No. 23, Spring 1988 Cleveland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/gamut_archives Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, Life Sciences Commons, and the Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Cleveland State University, "The Gamut: A Journal of Ideas and Information, No. 23, Spring 1988" (1988). The Gamut Archives. 21. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/gamut_archives/21 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Gamut Archives by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. First Prize $1 ,000 Three Second Prizes of $250 each The four winning entries will be published in The Gamut in 1989. MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS Entry should be ashort story between 1000 and 5000 words long . Entries must be original , previously unpublished , and not under consideration elsewhere . Each entry should be typed (or printed in near letter quality) , with a dark ribbon , double spaced . Clear photocopies are acceptable . Pages should be numbered , with author's name or short title on each sheet. A cover sheet should include the title, number of words, and author's name , address , phone number, and social security number. ENTRY FEE Each entry must be accompanied by afee of $5 .00 . Make checks payable to The Gamut. One entry fee is waived for each subscriber to The Gamut. MAILING AND DEADLINE Mail entries or inquiries to: The Gamut· RT 1216· Cleveland State University· Cleveland, OH 44115 All entries must be received by August 19, 1988. Entries will be returned if accompanied by a stamped self­ addressed envelope . JUDGES The competition will be judged by Lee K. Abbott and the editorial committee of The Gamut. Winning entries will be announced on or before November 30, 1988. -- - Number 23 Spring 1988 Louis T. Milic 2 Editorial Bearing Witness to the Best Vincent Dowling 5 Interview: The Abbey Theatre-For Ireland and the World New artistic director charts ambitious course for "international Irish" drama. Barbara Green 17 Machiavelli and the Problem of Evil Does Machiavellian have to mean evil? Bruce A. Beatie 29 John Griswold White and His Libraries The Cleveland Public Library's unrivaled collections of chess lore, folklore , and Orientalia. George A. 43 A Stage Set, a Bucket, a Cave Mauersberger Portfolio of drawings. Samuel M. Savin 52 The Great Earthquake of '86 A look at the unstable earth under our feet. Ian Hancock 61 Romani: Language of the Gypsies John Gerlach 66 Fiction Jugglers Sibley W Hoobler 75 Jared Kirtland and His Warbler A remarkable man and the remarkable bird named in his honor. Jack A. Soules 79 Artificial Intelligence Can machines think as we do? And do we want them to? A Fistful of Poets Robert Wallace 88 After a Time 89 When You Buy a Big, Old House Ron Houchin 90 A Short History of Fire Noreen A. McSherry 91 First Communion Jeff Gundy 92 Media Inquiries Christopher L. Domin 93 For Three Who Drowned Young Diana Jachman . 94 Fiction The Scout Editor: Louis T. Millc Editorial Co-Editor: Leonard M. Trawick Managing Editor: Mary Grimm Circulation Manager: Susan Dumbrys Bearing Witness to Production Assistant: Margaret Rothacker the Best Consulting Editor: Stuart A. Kollar Designer: Amy T. Jenkins Intern Editor: Brenda L. Lewison Once again, The Gamut announces a Portrait contest, this time inviting short story Photographer: Herbert J. Ascherman writers to compete for several attractive Advisory Board: John A. Flower money prizes. In our previous seven Joella Burgoon years, we have held contests in various Robert Cheshier genres and media: concrete poetry, William Gunlocke graphic arts, short stories, science fic­ David Guralnik tion, and photography (on the theme of Ronald Haybron "waiting"). Roberta Hubbard Robert Jackson As we were organizing this latest Marilyn Mason competition, we began to think about Victoria Neufeldt the idea of contests. Being logophiles, we Reuben Silver naturally considered first the word itself Katherine Torgerson and its origin. Surprisingly enough, the Editorial sense in which we are using contest (as Consultants: Cheryl Brooke synonymous with competition) is the Fred E. Ekfelt most recent. Earlier senses have to do Gary Engle with the law. The verb contest, which John Gerlach does have a definite legal connotation (as Staff in "contested will"), derives from the Photographer: Louis T. Millc Latin contestari, to bear witness, in The Gamut: a Journal of Ideas and Information is pub­ which we may detect the very common lished three times each year by Cleveland State Univer­ root -test- (witness), itself parent to a sity; Cleveland, Ohio. Subscription rate: one year Ithree issues). $ 12.00; two years, $20.00; three years, $25.00; large family of English words: testament, lifetime, $100.00. Library rate, S15.00 per year. Foreign testify, testimonial, attest, detest, protest, subscriptions $3.00 per year additional. Single copies, and testicle (an organ which bears wit­ $5.00; back issues, $6.00. Claims for missing issues honored within six months of publication. ness to the owner's maleness) and their The Gamut invites commentaries for its "Back derivatives. Matter" section and also the submission of new articles Literary competition is nothing new and creative works, especially by Ohio writers and artists, on topics of interest to readers of this region. in Western civilization. In ancient Ath­ Preliminary inquiries are welcome; detailed information ens, three playwrights each year were for contributors on request. Submitted material will be returned if accompanied by a stamped, sell-addressed asked to present four linked plays (three envelope. Address all correspondence to: The Gamut, tragedies and a comedy) at the annual Room 1216 Rhodes Tower, Cleveland State University; festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of Cleveland, OH 44115. wine and goats_ Although it is not pre­ Copyright c 1988 by Cleveland State University. All cisely known what the prizes consisted rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0275-0589. of (though they were almost certainly 'IYpography and printing for this issue of The Gamut by Schaefer Printing Company, Cleveland, Ohio. THE COVER: A detail from "Scan" (26" x42", charcoal on paper), by George Mauersberger. See pp. 43-51 for more of his drawings. not a sum of money), extraordinary pre­ mies among the critics, his manner is cautions were taken to prevent the rig­ unfashionable, it's time to recognize ging of the competition. There were ten some newer voices .. Nonetheless judges, one from each community, writers, veteran or novice, famous or whose names had been drawn from an still seeking fame, enter the numerous urn containing the names of the quali­ writing competitions which proliferate in fied judges in the community. Only five periodicals or are proposed by acade­ of their ballots, chosen at random, were mies, groups of critics, or educational counted. Whether the prizes were laurel institutions. Writers lust for notice, rec­ wreaths or some other symbol, winning ognition, and readers, and contests offer the first prize was important, certainly to the possibility of achieving these. But the playwright, who was already hon­ what do those who mount these contests ored by having been chosen as a mem­ have to gain? ber of the competing triad. For periodicals, the short answer is Probably, even if the prizes had no that they hope to gain subscribers. Publi­ cash value, winning carried some tangi­ city is good for circulation. But circula­ ble benefits (aside from immortal fame), tion can also be increased by other as was the case at the Olympic Games, means (premiums, raffles, controversy, where the winners' names and achieve­ benefit parties), so there must be a spe­ ments were sung in poems and the win­ cial reason for the choice of this particu­ ners themselves heaped with gifts by the lar means. Tradition combined with the residents of their native cities. Winning apparently inexhaustible appetite for at Olympia was everything; losing was a rivalry among human beings, literate or disgrace. Euripides, it is is said, left Ath­ not, perhaps makes a literary contest the ens because only twenty of his ninety­ intellectual's contact sport. two plays won victories (i.e., five times, But there is yet another reason, since four plays constituted a unit). So which has a certain parallel in the sport much for Athenian sportsmanship. of kings. The justification for racing thor­ Things are easier now. There are oughbred horses is the improvement of many more competitions and the events the breed; and indeed today's horses are are less public. The community (the faster and better than those of a century audience) is much more widely diffused. ago. The horses' pedigrees are preserved So a famous writer might fail to win a with religious reverence, matings are prize and comfort himself with anyone planned with the care usually given to of a number of useful rationalizations: the choice of a pope by the College of his work is too well-known, he had ene­ Cardinals. The progeny expected from such a match is precious before its birth, testants. Interestingly; they also provide in the hope that it will be another the new writer, eager for innovation, the Eclipse or Man-o'-War. But if a horse models to avoid because they represent does not live up to expectations, it is the taste that society has sanctioned. By removed from the turf, like any other turning away from such patterns the sports figure whose performance is rising author may express his outrage at below standard, whether in football, what he thinks is obsolete or passe in lacrosse, or track.