Letters

"A Doric Dialog"

To THE EDITOR:

I seem to have found this in my typewriter:

MAN BITES ARCHITECT or Come with me to the Bauhaus, a Doric Dialog (with apologies to everyone)

John Q Layman, hereinafter known as Q, is consulting with his Architect, known as A.

Q: I see you are reading how Nature Conditions Architecture by E. H. Hunter Jr., class of '38 it says.

A: Photographic embellishments by Molitor.

Q: Say, that's pretty mouthy for a jet-age architect. Couldn't you just say "pix" or something modern like that?

A: I am, sirrah, a Contemporary Architect. We of the Contemporary School are prone to compensate for our severe designs by employing purplish prolixity in our prose. That's gobbledygook to you.

Q: Specimen please?

A: And I quote: "The automobile, viewed in its simplest terms is a mechanical contrivance for transportation."

Q: Golly gee, that's a humdinger, if you'll pardon the expression. Versatile though. Also suits a scooter and a parachute.

A: Do you, sirrah, question the accuracy of my quotation?

Q: Well, he left out about the wheels.

A: Piffle. Hear this now.

Q: Another quotation?

A: Quiet! "This instance of the utilization of natural forces for human benefit is an important aspect of conservation principles applied to the residence."

O: Oh my.

A: (WORKING UP STEAM) And how about this: "Satisfactory planning for specific circumstance and in relation to environment. ..."

Q: Quarter - hold - enough - bastante! You'll never top that definition of the family jalop. Let's go on to more earthy matters.

A: Isn't conservation earthy enough for you?

Q: Oh, a gag man too, eh? Come on, Arky, let's talk house.

A: The word is residence.

Q: For all I care it can be domestic structure. (I read that there piece myself you know.)

A: Well, here, have a look at the plans I've roughed out for you. Notice the commune-with-nature effect. The integration of abode with environment. The expression of outdoorsiness.

Q: You're slipping into jargon, Arky. Were you by any chance once scared by page 432 of The Fountainhead?

A: Digressions, yet! Look, what do you think of the roughs.

Q: Frankly, it looks like a cheese box stuck up on toothpicks.

A: Have you been reading Frank Lloyd Wright or something?

Q: I said Frankly, didn't I?

A: Well, for your information, and in your parlance FLW has had it. He is not with it as the saying goes.

Q: But I thought he was the most.

A: The man's mad. Opposed to the dictatorship of Thermopane glass. Opposed to the box. Thinks Gropius was a ... and as for fenestration, well!!

Q: What was that again? Fene ... what?

A: Did you expect me to say "windows," you churl?

Q: Now, listen here Arky. Who's to say that a hundred years from now, more or less, folks won't smirk at these boxes of yours just the way you snigger at Georgian, Federal, even the Parthenon?

A: Sirrah, contemporary domestic takes "full advantage of both the experience of the past and the technological possibilities of the present." Another quote.

Q: Whatever that means. Now seriously, old sport. Be objective. Colonial has been around for a long time. People seem to like it. Why else would they keep reproducing it.

A: Ignorance. Banality. Poor taste. The herd instinct.

Q: Or maybe tradition, appreciation, cultural roots. Or maybe chacun a son gout, de gustibus non etc., to each his own. Why be so arbitrary about it, Arky?

A: My dear patron, the purpose of a domicile is to function, not to please.

Q: So I noticed from those "embellishments" by Molitor. No pictures on anybody's walls. Is art passé? No curves anywhere. Is femininity gone sterile? No easy chairs, nothing comfortable at all in fact. Even the fireplace looks like a pass-through. And oh those chrome and stainless fixtures. Man!.

A: A house, sirrah, is in its simplest terms a mechanical contrivance for living.

Q: Contrived is the word for it. I may be suffering from what you cats call "cultural insecurity" but my ignorance is blissful indeedy.

A: Unenlightened. Stubborn. Resistant to change.

Q: Let's call it "fad" not change. Next decade the hemline may go down again. Don't get me wrong, Arky, some of my best friends are modern houses, but you'll never convince me you've scaled the ultimate peak of perfection. Especially with those preposterous phrases like that Hunter cat uses.

A: And what's wrong with a little Victorian here and there?

Q: Listen, if you guys can abbreviate Buck-minster-Fuller down to Bucky, I think you could depurplize your sesquipedalianism a trifle too.

A: But I tell you it's our outlet for emotion.

Q: I'm leaving Arky. This design smacks too much of Motel City on the Wilbur Cross Parkway.

A: No. Don't go. I've got something else to show you. (Lowering voice) I could lose my rep for this, but cast your eyeballs at one of my other-type houses. A snazzy split-level Dutch Colonial with a real gingerbread flavor.

Q: Why you old faker you.

A: I Black Market this stuff in Fairfield County. This particular job I'm building for myself.

QUICK CURTAIN

MORAL: Be it ever so pretentious In redwood, glass and chrome, When Alan Conditions Nature A house is not a home.

Stamford, Conn.

Southern Query

To THE EDITOR:

As a Dartmouth man of the Class of 1922, am I alone in being discouraged with the obvious trend of the policies of the College, the undergraduates and the faculty in Hanover? Has the steady hand in steering the College course of Ernest Martin Hopkins been entirely removed?

As the years pass, the ALUMNI MAGAZINE becomes of increasing importance to me. The June issue really stirs me. The article by Dick May '54 is just another illustration of the resentment of discipline on the part of so many of the younger generation. To them, freedom of action in all things seems to be the sum and substance in life. No recognition is given to the importance of learning to creep before you walk. May recommends throwing the first two years' courses into the "ashcan from whence they came." Isn't he aware of the fact that his education is just starting with his graduation? From his article more drill work and mental discipline would have been in order to prepare him for what he has ahead of him.

Again, I am worked up over the new modern trend in the homes around Hanover. Flat roofed, large glassed areas in a country where two feet of snow is usual and where the temperature drops to 30 below zero at times! To me the pictures of the houses look like caves in the side of the hills with straight, severe lines. None of the rhythm of curves and arcs. True, they are the modern "functional" (how overused that word is) homes of today, but remember that in ten years, when another "functional" design is worked up by the architects, they will be old-fashioned. I dislike to see the traditional New England Colonial design, as seen around Hanover, pushed to one side in the name of "art" and the "functional."

Hardeeville, S. C.

As DARTMOUTH'S REPRESENTATIVE, Ernest W. April '37 attended the inauguration of Frederick A. Meier as President of State Teachers College, Salem, Mass., on June 3. This month, Dr. Ben S. Read '32 will represent Dartmouth at the centennial of The School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga., October 4-5; and Lincoln S. Wilson '13 will be the delegate at dedication ceremonies at San Francisco State College, October 16.