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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1978)
For those not familiar with the game, Spit in the Ocean is a form of poker played by dealing out a certain number of cards and then, from the top of the deck, turning a single card face up. This is the wild card and it is wild in everyone’s hand. For those not familiar with the magazine, Spit in the Ocean is an irregu larly published pastiche of thought and literacy put out by the Intrepid Trips In formation Service (of Hoo-Haw fame and more). It will deal out a hand of seven issues, each with a new wild card editor and a new theme, reflecting that editor’s interests. This article will con cern itself with issues three and four, which have just come out together. Leary’s High Intelligence Number three’s wild card editor is none other than Dr. Timothy Leary and the issue's theme is “Communication with Higher Intelligence.’’ In a letter published in number two, Leary states “There is a new generation of turned-on young scientists just now manifesting itself in publication — long hair mathematicians, computer-adepts, bio-chemists, geneticists, particle physicists, astronomers. These are the people I would like to present in my issue of Spit." And here they are. The participants range from poet-scientists to novelists to physicists to an ex-Marine Captain turned-Prankster. To begin with, Leary has some fas cinating ideas about the possible future of homo sapiens, especially in terms of the gearing up of the nervous system to deal with this future. He says, in an ex cerpt from his book Exo-Psychology. “Whatever the mind can conceive it tends to create. As soon as humans ac cept and neurologically imprint the no tions of higher levels of intelligence and of circuits yet to be activated in the ner vous system, a new philosophy of evolu tion will emerge.’’ Several exponents of the various as pects of this new philosophy are in cluded in .this volume. Saul-Paul Sirag (“I’m interfacing be tween mind and matter, working on the physical models of consciousness, try ing to find out what they hell is going on") contributes not only some fiction (see above), but also provides an introduc tion to the volume (about various Pandora’s Boxes being opened by the less rigid thinkers in the scientific com munity) as well as an article entitled “The New Physicists" (in which he dis cusses who some of these thinkers are and where their thinking is taking them). One of these New Physicists is Jack Sarfetti. His contribution, “Higher Intel ligence is Us in the Future,” consists of various quotes and individual ideas on the “new renaissance ”of thought, e.g., “Matter is thought impressing itself in space/time. This is the modern Qabala! There is an equivalence of conscious . ness to energy." Neil Freer, in “The Spherical Uni verse,” presents his theory of the Universe-as-Bubble and gives insights into the velocity part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (E = MCZ). Robert Anton Wilson replies to Leary’s 18 point questionaire on H I., both on this planet and off, and how it might be achieved here. Some intelli gent answers to intelligent questions. Joanna Leary writes about aliens who come to this world every day. Who are thrust into blindingly bright, cold, harsh, inhospitable surroundings. She then of fers suggestions on how to ease the alien’s journey from their world into this f based on an actual experiment. Christensen’s poem is an odd one about bats while Ackerman’s two pieces are extra-terrestrial visits via the mind’s eye. It’s space poetry and ethereally beautiful. Straight from the Gut On not quite so grand a scale, but of _ equal interest in its own right, is issue number four, an all-woman issue called “Straight from the Gut.” Says editor Lee Marrs in her introduction, ‘‘I asked do zens of creative women to show me a piece of their unseen work (too bad we never call it “play”) that had come I by using the methods Dr. Frederick Leboyer outlines in his book Birth With out Violence. Along with science speculation, Leary also deals with science fiction. He calls it “The most important and relevant litera ture of our era,” but says that, unhappily, few SF authors “are able to come to grips with the notion of higher intelli gence." However, he here represents ex cerpts from three novels — Rotwang, The Stars My Destination and Gravity's Rainbow (by Tom Hildebrand, Alfred Bester and Thomas Pynchon, respec tively) — which do indeed deal with the subject. In addition to these he includes a short story by Saul-Paul Sirag and Ken Babbs and poems by Diane Ackerman and Marty Christenson. “Metaphase,” the short story, is an interesting and amusing little tale about a combination computer-plus dangerous drug attempt to communi cate with Harry Houdini on his 100th birthday anniversary. It seems to be straight from the gut. A work that was dose to their soul, rang with heartfelt power or tickled their funniest bone ...” The works in this issue, albeit often off-beat, generally fall into two major categories: the written work and (since Marrs is primarily known for her under ground comics like ' Pudge, Girl Blimp”) visual presentations. The written words are from Mugsy Peabody (“Little Cat, The Potted Palm, and the Naked Lady,” an amusing little fantasy concerning the triumvirate men tioned in the title); Phyllis Speros ("The Movie of Dee Dee” about a woman whose life is constantly on film and how it compares to the author's acting career) and Kathy Reilly (' Miasma,” a Kafkaes que reflection in a mindless situation women all too frequently are involved in). Aide Light s "Journal Entry June 26th” blends both the written word and the visual. The words are about a specific incident in her and her daughter's life which caused fear, a particular fear women have but men seldom do. Light’s photographs show other views of her life. On the visual side, we are offered photographs by Happy Hyder (“Lifeo graphs,” portraying various women in their various moods) and graphics by Shelby Sampson (“Once in a Lifetime,” about a trip she took as a young girl with her family in their Wood); Marilyn Hill (“Pure Adventure,” a strange combina tion of bold drawings and words that don’t fit on a line) and Marrs (“Pain Porn,” a capsulization of the female psyche; she delves into the differences in men’s and women's psyches, why they are that way and what we may each, individually, do to change it). “Individual expression” is indeed the key phrase for this volume. Grandma Whittier’s Seven Prayers Running through the entire seven issue series is the seven part serializa tion of Ken Kesey’s new novel, Seven Prayers, by Grandma Whittier. In Prayers one and two (neatly coinciding with issues one and two and also pub lished in the Northwest Review's special Kesey issue), Grandma Whittier has her 86th birthday celebration on Good Fri day at her grandson’s farm. Present at the party are a black gospel-rock group known as the Birds of Prayer. After a strange all-night debacle she manages to affront the charismatic leader of the group, but the next morning surprises all by announcing her desire to accompany the group on their cross country tour “to check up on some old mineral rights in Arkansas.” The first leg of the journey is south to Los Angeles for the Easter Sunrise ser vices in the Hollywood Bowl. We also see how her relationship with the group begins to grow, especially with the bril liant four-year-old son of the group’s leader. Prayers three and four (in the corres ponding issues) outline her experiences at the Service and its devastating after math, involving a crazy man “dressed entirely in Leprechaun green” and vari ous desperate but absolutely necessary acts. It’s difficult to comment much on the merits of the story until all the install ments are in, but I would venture to say that if you've been pleased with Kesey’s work in the past you won”t be disap pointed here. Copy space has always been the bain of the newspaper reviewer and in order to make it fit, I’ve had to delete so much from this story it hurts. I can only say that both of these issues (as well as numbers one and two, for that matter) are highly recommended. At present, the only way they may be purchased is by sending cash, check or money order to SITO, 85820 Ridgeway Rd., Pleasant Hill OR 97401. Prices are $2.50 per issue (specify which one), $6 for any three issues, or $12 for all seven. By BOB WEBB COPIES 30 OVER NIGHT NO MINIMUM 8 am - 8 pm NOW OPEN SUNDAY 12-5 KINKO’S 344-7894 1128-B ALDER STREET 2nd floor Atrium 485-1063 V
