t h e r a c g ill t R i' b a o e Volume 4, Number 8
Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University, Montréal, Québec
Tuesday 30 October 1984
Council Grants P.G.S.S. $10,000 by Brian Todd
Students’ Council spent much o f its time at last Thursday’s meeting discussing whether to give the Post Graduate Students’ Society (P.G.S.S.) $10,000 to enable them to go ahead with their renovation at Thomson House. The Students’ Council finally decided to give the P.G .S.S the money. Scott Keating, V.P. Finance o f the Students’ Society, presented a motion to Council which he had suggested to the Joint Management Committee and which they had subsequently adopted. The motion would have seen the $10,000 grant to the P.G .S.S. frozen until late November. During the in terim Keating suggested that the Socie ty go to its constituent faculties to con sult them on what appeared to him to be dissatisfaction with the Society. After subsequent debate on the
nature o f that dissatisfaction and whether the people reporting that dissatisfaction were fit to represent the various faculties, Steven Fraser, the president o f the P.G .S.S. spoke on behalf o f that group. He fait that the issue o f satisfaction or dissatisfaction was germaine to the question o f fun ding fo Thomson House. He also pointed out to the Council that the J.M .C .’s recommendations were based on the false assumption that the P.G.S.S. had enough cash-in-hand to begin the project. Fraser pointed out that he had informed Sam Kingdon of the shortfall in funds in June. Following this revelation, James Green, Music Councillor, moved that the $10,000 be supplied to the P.G .S.S. if it was necessary in order for the pro ject to begin. It was on this motion that Council finally agreed.
by Patricia E. Rachofsky
On Monday, October 22, American writer Susan Sontag spoke about the notions invoved in writing stories. She also read two of her stories, The D u m my and D escription o f a D escription. Ms. Sontag is well known for her fic tion, short stories, and essays. She has also written screenplays and has directed three motion pictures. One of her books of essays, O n Photograp hy , is studied in the Communications branch o f the English Department. Ms Sontag likes to see literature in which an object is seen “ in and out of the world.” People distinguish bet ween prose and poetry, and then fur ther divide prose into categories o f fic tion and non-fiction. She prefers to “ transgress borders” , to mix poetical effects into prose telling, and to mix real facts into fictional stories. Most stories revolve around the dichotomy of reality and fantasy. To tell a story is to connect someone with something outside their realm of experience. Death is the ultimate horizon of story telling; no experience of man goes beyond death. Ms. Sontag is concern ed, therefore, with the postponement of death and the prolongation o f the horizon it imposes, and she uses a mix ture o f fantasy and reality to explore this possiblity in her stories. The first story, The D u m m y , is about the postponement of death. The average middle-aged businessman (wife two kids, big house in the suburbs) decides to break out o f his normal pattern o f life, a pattern which he sees as a gyre spiralling towards death. He builds a dummy which is identical to him emotionally, physical ly, and intellectually, and the dummy takes his place in his established life. Things are fine until the dummy falls in love wtih the new secretary at work, and threatens to ruin the man’ s entire scheme for the rest of his life. The man
is forced to build another dummy to take the place of the first one. The story ends with the three clones being completely separated and different. Ms. Sontag explains the man’ s ra tionale for his scheme: “ I want to keep for myself only what gives me pleasure. Ms. Sontag dislikes current science fiction, saying, “ It’s just not well writ ten enough.” She cites H.G. Wells as an excellent writer of science fiction. She says that she does enjoy the literature of fantasy, and considers herself relative to it along the principles of Romanticism, along with writers like Kafka and Poe. The second story, D escrip tion o f a D escrip tion showed her tendencies toward the Romantic tradition. It was a complex story, bas ed upon a tight technical format which linked the first line o f each paragraph. Each paragraph was an examination of the self, o f the imagination, which grew out o f the first sentence. All of the first sentences combined to form a paragraph which was copied from the journal of an unidentified 19th century writer. Sounds complicated? You bet. Ms. Sontag has developed her view points on feminism in much the same way as she develops her stories. She says that “ one has to live on many levels.” A woman must balance her own levels o f self-consciousness with a certain amount o f tolerance and accep tance. She disagrees with the radical New Left wing feminists who are total ly self-conscious and subsequently isolate themselves from half the people in the world. She also dislikes the sub jugation o f women: She said, “ L ite ra tu re is satu rated with misogyny!” Ms. Sontag answered the audience’ s questions in great depth. Her lecture was on a higher intellectual level than the preceding Bathurst lecturers, and it left the audience with concepts to ponder, not simply opinions.
photo by Vince Young
Sontag Extends Reality
Council votes to grant P.G.S.S. $10,000.
MAPing Out Our Future by Michael Smart
The McGill Advancement Pro gramme (MAP) has reached two-thirds of its goal, the programme’ s chairman has announced. Fred Burbridge, also the Chairman of Canadian Pacific, announced to the Board of Gorvernors October 15 that the University’ s private fundraising campaign has received $40 659 000, with two years left to reach its target of $61 million. Burbridge expressed satisfaction with the progress of the campaign. “ This has been the result of dedicated effort from the entire McGill com munity. We have reason to celebrate and then renew our efforts towards successful completion of the pro gramme.” Most o f the new funds will be chan neled into research and renovations of existing facilities. However, the
pledges won’t be used to supplement regular funds for teaching salaries or maintenance costs. Private money spent in these areas is by law deducted from provincial government grants. The new funding is likely to mean lit tle to McGill’s many fledgling pro grammes and research departments. In 1983, Hugh Hallward, the Chairman of McGill’ s Board o f Governors an nounced that the purpose o f the cam paign “ is to build on strength; to enable the University to do better what it already does will.” M AP spokesman Tom Tompson ad mits that little o f the new money has been put to use so far. “ Much o f it is in the form o f pledges rather than cash gifts. The actual realization (of the grants) will be over a period o f years.” In the mean time, solicitation o f staff, alumni, corporations and foun dations will go on.
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