Word: morrison
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...reviewer of "The Stones of the House" in yesterday's CRIMSON makes some statements about Theodore Morrison, the author. Mr. Morrison, it is the reviewer's opinion, "considers a student body as a necessary but unpleasant prop in a college"; he "implies that students in a classroom are not primarily concerned with learning; instead they face their instructors maliciously, much like a mob that needs skillful handling"; in short, "he does not understand his students...
...basis for these statements is not at all clear. The reviewer appears to be examining the people and the situations in Mr. Morrison's book, then, by judging that these people and the situations do not resemble certain people and situations in real life, to be drawing conclusions about what Mr. Morrison believes. I have no desire to refute these conclusions. They reflect less on Mr. Morrison than on the reviewer, as anyone who knows Mr. Morrison will understand. I should imagine, though, that if Mr. Morrison actually believes that the college newspaper in his own novel "gleefully wants...
...world, in which he has placed a college. The central character in this fictional world is Andrew Aiken, president of the college. Andrew Aiken, as the author portrays him, appears to hold some strong opinions about students and about the college newspaper. But to ascribe these opinions to Theodore Morrison is to confuse the fictional character and his world with the character and the world of the artist who created them--a fairly serious critical error. That your reviewer commits this error seems plain. In six consecutive sentences (including the end of paragraph two, all of paragraph three...
...course, if your reviewer means to deny that Mr. Morrison is an artist--to deny, that is, that he has created a fictional world in his novel--that is another matter. To make such a denial stick would require some evidence and some argument, neither of which is offered. Your reviewer concludes patronizingly: "before he writes another novel, Mr. Morrison should get to know his students a lot better." Would it be unkind to suggest that before he writes another review of a novel, your reviewer should get to know a lot more about how to read fiction...
...reviewer felt these opinions belonged to Mr. Morrison rather than to Andrew Aiken, because they were inconsistent with Aiken's other thoughts and actions. As he has already mentioned in the review, he considers Mr. Morrison's sketches of mature people understanding and quite perceptive. Andrew Aiken, in his dealings with the members of the faculty, is consistently a sensitive man, one who sees many sides of his colleagues' personalities. Mr. Morrison, it is true, seldom puts Aiken in direct personal contact with a single undergraduate. The reviewer has no idea what the outcome would have been in such...