University of Northern Iowa

RescueAuthor(s): James TateSource: The North American Review, Vol. 252, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), p. 12Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25116532 .

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Great as the party is, however, it is not without its

problems, and it is a collegiate's responsibility to be aware of them. Happiness is not achieved by running away from difficulty.

People are the first problem that faces the party. Even though the party promotes happiness, it only does so for the greatest number. There are always those who cannot or do not wish to be made happy by the party. Through envy and malice, they will disparage or openly attack the party. This is hostility towards people, for

people form the party. No satisfactory methods have been devised for dealing with these reactionaries.

Most frequently used of these devices is exclusion. The host, acting on central committee advice, simply does not include the undesirable in the guest list. The

drawback is that those deserving exclusion must often be invited by virtue of their diplomatic weight.

RESCUE

For the first time the only thing you are likely to break i

is everything because

I it is a dangerous

venture. Danger invites rescue?I call it loving.

We've got a good thing going?I call it rescue.

Nicest thing ever to come

between steel cobwebs, we hope

so. A few others should get around to it, I can't understand

it. There is plenty of room, clean windows, we start our best

engines, a-rumm . . . everything is

relevant. I call it loving. James T?te

THE CAGES

The insular firebird

(meaning the sun) gives up the day, and is tucked into

a corner. Order, like a giant janitor, shuttles about naming and replacing

the various humanities. I look at you, you look at me?we wave again

(the same), our hands like swollen flags falling, words

marooned in the brain.

James T?te

JAMES T?TE, who won the 1966 Yale Younger Poets

Award for The Lost Pilot and other poems, is a mem

ber of the Writers Workshop at The University of Iowa.

One attempt to solve this is isolation. Spying an un

desirable, the central committee or the host directs the

legitimate guests to ignore the offender. Theoretically, this satisfies both the need to tolerate their physical presence, and the equal need to remove their cancerous influence. Alas, in practice, the anti-happiness of the

interloper has an inexplicable attraction for the normal

guests. Since it is impractical to have all of the guests ignore each other, the problem remains unsolved.

Though perhaps cruder, another method of dealing with the unhappiness mongers is physical expulsion. Here, chaperones appointed by the central committee are directed to expel the unhappists by sheer force. But witnessing this is liable to make the people unhappy since the sight of force has a sobering tendency. There

fore, this technique is effective only when carried out with a maximum of discretion and secrecy. To mini mize any difficulty, the wise host will unleash the chap erones only when the intruder is alone, perhaps in the

garden or the rest room.

Probably the greatest problem that faces the party is logistics. The purpose of the party being to create

happiness, it follows that there must be a supply of the material things that promote happiness. And these

material things must be delivered to the intended guest with the right material reaching the right guest at the

right time, in the right manner. If all these factors are

not considered, happiness will be diminished. How, then, are we to do this?

One proposed solution is drawn from the mountain to-Mohammed-Mohammed-to-mountain line of reason

ing. This suggests that the guests themselves be re

sponsible for procuring the material of happiness. Trouble arises when the same material makes more

than one person happy and supply becomes smaller than demand, fostering competition. Since any com

petition can have only one ultimate winner, the re

maining competitors will be to some degree unhappy, defeating the purposes of the proposal.

Another view advocates complete control by the central committee. Proponents of this doctrine contend that this way the happiness material will reach all

people in equal proportion. Though this is undeniable,

assuming an honest committee, it, too, has a flaw:

inequality will remain not in distribution but in the utili zation of material. Obviously, one guest will still re

ceive his material first, and another, last. Since resent ment will grow between those with different happiness hours, this method is also unsatisfactory.

Despite the problem with the party's goal of uni versal happiness, there is a secondary function that the

party fulfills superbly. This is the educational facet. It

is here that the collegiate receives his training in the

humanities. Much as a digest of textbook material helps in understanding a course, a brief look at the educa tional aspects of a university party will help you to

profit from them in the flesh.

Most apparent in the party is sociology, the scientific

discipline of human interaction. Party sociology is used to predict the reaction between different persons or dif ferent groups. In a certain party we might find that we

22 The North American Review

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