Burgess
not ashamed
of life on
"Grub Street"
by ALEUA SHIRLEY
Anthony Burgess is unabashedly a pro­fessional
writer. " __ . I must write in order
to eat," he says. "I am not ashamed to be­long
to the 'Grub Street' confraternity
which Dr. Johnson honored. But primarily,
I call myself a serious novelist who is at·
tempting to extend the range of subject
matter available to fiction ... "
In a crowded Bigelow Hall (for once),
Burgess admitted to UL students Monday
to having begun his immensely prolific ( 18
novels, 8 other books) writing career at the
ripe old age of 35. He further stated that
he turned to writing at that time because
he discovered he was dying of a brain
tumor. His doctor told him that they had
found something foreign in his head . "Yes,"
Burgess answered, "that is talent."
The doctor gave him 12 months to live -
"I was elated," Burgess said. "It was the first
time anyone gave 12 months." In that next
year, Burgess produced five and, a half
novels, among them "A C1QCkwork Orange."
He credits that year's fecundity to his diet
of "Dexedrine and gin - which seemed
also to clear up the tumor on my brain." "If yo~ can't hear me, you simply can't hear me."
Burgess told the audience how he sold
the rights for "A Clockwork Orange" for
$500 back in 1963. In the later sixties,
Warner Brothers bought them for $500,000
(Burgess didn't receive any part of the
$500,000).
Stanley Kubrick's movie adaptation of
"A Clockwork Orange" did not please Bur­gess
very well. He accused Kubrick of
being "camera drunk" to the point of dis­tortion,
and of placing the setting of the
film too far in the future. "'A Clockwork
Orange' was set in no future past 1965."
Burgess further stated that the purpose
of the novel was to show that "when we
In talking about himself (the lecture's
title was "A Visit with A. Burgess"), he
interspersed his colorful history with desert­dry
wisecracks. He said that the part of Eng­land
he hailed from would never have be­come
famous had it not been for the "en­tomological
phenomena that came out of
Liverpool" and that the Beatles were,
actually, "themselves, a representative
Catholic group."
Burgess was quick to dispel any lofty
notions that go along with the art of writing,
expressing an abundant displeasure with all
his published works. When questioned as to
CARDINAL
Vol. XLIV No. 30 Rm. 117 .Ptter Hall April 26, 1973
State of University:
"A Year of Changes"
by MARTY KASDAN and
ALEDA SHIRLEY
"The time has come for a much more
concentrated effort," said Acting President
William Ekstrom in his State of the Univer­sity
Message last Thursday. Although he
was referring specifically to the need to
recruit more women and minority group
members for faculty and administration
ranks, this same theme permeated all other
aspects of his address.
Ekstrom expressed appreciation for city
and county funding, and looks forward to
better relationships based on a fuller under­standing
of the university's service roles.
"This service role ... includes our medical
services, our urban studies effort, our con­tributions
to culture and the arts, and our
~tudies of environmental impact in such
areas as air pollution, w~ter pollution, and
waste disposal.
"This has been a year of searches," Ek­strom
continued. "The search for a new
president has been highly successful and we
look forward with the greatest pleasure and
confidence to the arrival of Dr. Miller in
September.
"The search for a head football coach
was a whirlwind affair by comparison,
which dramatizes the difference in tempo
between our academic operation and our
athletic program." He also mentioned the
contin~g searches for deans in A & S,
medicine, dentistry, and University College.
"One of the most crucial problems of
the University is the pressing need for
space . ... " A $16 million emergency con­struction
package, offering "no real priori­ties,"
went to the Council on Public Higher
Education last January.
On projects currently underway, Ekstrom
noted that "the law addition and the human­ities
building are proceeding according to
schedule." Ekstrom also mentioned plans
to greatly expand usage of Shelby Campus.
"A critical matter which has arisen in
the last year or two is university gover­nance,"
Ekstrom said, further noting that
students, staff, and the Council of Deans
all want more representation the decision
making processes of the university .
Ekstrom said that because of a lack of
funding there were very vew new programs
introduced. Ekstrom expressed pleasure with
two new A & S programs: religious studies
and Pan African studies.
Ekstrom next mentioned the use of media
which has been much neglected at UL. He
expressed pride in UL's first TV effort, a
series of chess lessons. He looks forward to
future use of cable television.
In conclusion the Acting President said,
"This is our I 75th anniversary. Whether we
have the wisdom of age I do not know, but
we are venerable and we are proud of our
. history."
which of his books is his favorite, he an­swered,
"The next one. There are too
many faults in my previous books."
Apathy took a holiday for the advent of
Anthony Burgess. Standing room only in
Bigelow Hall is an almost impossible dream,
and a standing ovation -spontaneous and
enthusiastic - such as Burgess got - is
even more impossible. Laying aside the
reporter's mantle of objectivity, I conclude
Anthony Burgess Wilson deserved it.
loose choice, we cease to be human be­ings."
This purpose was elucidated in the
21st chapter of "A Clockwork Orange" -
a chapter which was deleted from the Amer­ican
version, as well as from the film.
Burgess said that some "may find me
garrulous and not at all taciturn" but that
his garrulity was due to the one-fourth
Irish blood that ran in his veins. He refused
to use the provided microphone, explaining
as he walked away from it, that he had
come from a family of performers and that
his mother (who had been a dancer with the
name of The Beautiful Belle Burgess) had
never needed one, therefore he wouldn't
use one. "If you can't hear me," he con­tinued,
"You simply can't hear me."
Prepare for
future shock
by PAUL ARNOLD
The present dynamic intelligence net­work
has ringed the globe and now gathers
and transmits information instantaneously.
Not only does this allow someone in Louis­ville
to be continually and instantaneously
aware of significant world events, but it
also allows contemporary man to gather
and correlate information concerning pres­ent
conditions and thereby enables us to
predict future trends.
Future possibilities become present
reality at a faster rate than ever before.
New scientific inventions and new techno­logical
adaptations continually accelerate
this rate of collision with the future. To
cope with the future one must have accur­ate
information concerning the present;
to cope with the present one must have
accurate information concerning the past.
In McLuhan's words "We view the world
in a rear view mirror." To avoid abrupt col­lision
with the future and resulting "future
shock" we must take inventory of world
trends so that we are able to choose our
future situation.
It is for this purpose that Dr. Jay Kloner
is offering Humanities 396, Futuristics,
next fall. Dr. Kloner describes the course
thusly , "The study of the foreseeable future
in terms of accelerated changes in con­temporary
culture. Modes of forecasting,
alternative directions, philosophies, models,
innovations, and controls." The purpose of
the course is "to equip the student with per­spectives
on the future in the face of a radi­cally
changing world. The great scale and
diverse directions of change demand whol­sitic
comprehension, in order to increase a
student's awareness of trends and alterna­tives."
Following are the required readings for
the course: Daniel Bell, "Toward the Year
2000;" Dennis Gabor, "Innovations: Sci­entific,
Technological, and Social;" John
McHale, "The Future of the Future, and
World Facts and Trends;" Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin, "The Future of Man ;" Alving
I offer, "Future Schock." All of these are
available in paperback.
Continual technological revolution is a
primary fact of modern fact and our ability
to understand and shape this development
into a benign and livable environment is our
most urgen challenge. I believe Dr. Kloner's
Futuristics course will offer some insights
into this problem.
5th Annual Pedalthon Sunday
The 1973 Pedalthon will be held Sun­day,
Apr. 29, at the Fairgrounds Motor
Speedway. The gates open at noon and the
bicycle and tricycle races will continue
until late afternoon.
Two new features at this 5th annual
event will be the women's 2/3 individual
mile race and the final event, a four mile
steeplechase and relay.
The Pegasus Pedalthon is part of the
99th annual Derby Festival. High schools
will also be participating during the day .