‘Bookworm’ works, wriggles to success

By Stephen Richardson

As a budding young bookworm, Michael Silverblatt was attempting
to wriggle away from reality, rather than toward enlightenment. But
since 1989, he has hosted KCRW-FM’s "Bookworm," a weekly program in
which he speaks with contemporary authors. Beginning this month,
the show will be broadcast nationally, and this former recluse
finds his lifelong passion for literature draws him back to society
– and vice versa.

In the past five years, Silverblatt has interviewed over 250
authors, including Norman Mailer, Carlos Fuentes, Joyce Carol
Oates, E.L. Doctorow and Alice Walker. In the coming weeks, the
show will feature Joseph Heller and John Irving. The popularity of
"Bookworm" has risen rapidly, and Silverblatt recently obtained a
grant to make the jump to National Public Radio.

Silverblatt didn’t start out in life being this popular. "I was
a very teased child," he says. "I was developmentally slow. I was
frequently called ‘retard.’ School and other people frightened me
… so I escaped into books."

Attending college in upstate New York, he studied literature
under visiting author/professors such as John Barth, Robert
Creeley, Leslie Fiedler and Michel Foucault. "What they were
teaching was passion," he says.

Given his East Coast roots, where book critics greet new writers
with the congeniality of razor wire, Silverblatt’s transition to
L.A. in his mid-20s was awkward. He recalls his surprise when
instead of applauding his vitriolic outbursts, bewildered friends
would "sit there looking at me like, ‘Why do you say that? What did
you do that for?’"

Though at first he found the West Coast attitude "passive or
foggy-minded," he soon saw that here was "a lifestyle that went
forward full-tilt and didn’t edit itself, didn’t censor itself with
what should and shouldn’t be done."

He has assimilated this freewheeling approach into his show. He
studiously avoids predictable, colorless questions that can turn a
tour-weary writer into a chattering automaton, so the dialogue is
often exuberant and always spontaneous. Authors leap at the chance
to discuss their work with Silverblatt, who seems not only to have
read everything they’ve written, but everything they’ve read, as
well.

"Bookworm" often covers obscure works by lesser-known writers,
but the host is adamant about the show’s relevance, even for those
who may never pick up some of the books being explored. "Most of
what you find on radio and T.V. is a repetition of things you’ve
already heard in some form or another, again and again, until you
come to believe that the world is smaller than your mind, because
everything you hear, you understand. I think it’s very dangerous to
only hear things you understand."

Anyone who thinks this sounds too highbrow has only to meet the
host. He enters the studio dressed like a very tall 8-year-old in a
KCRW T-shirt, baggy, brown and white striped shorts, black socks
and brown leather slip-ons. He sits and graciously relaxes his
guest until the opening theme comes up in the headphones and the
merits of reading are melodically extolled by Jiminy Cricket.

Silverblatt is characteristically candid about his hopes and
fears as "Bookworm" goes national. "I’m afraid that other places
will hear me and they’ll say, ‘Aagh! Can’t he come to the point?
What’s the name of the book? What’s the plot? Do they get married
in the end?’ They may want a much more directed thing, and I’ve
been trained by my life here to live in the turn of the moment as
it occurs."

He’s excited about the prospect of giving a wider forum to new
authors who get published but not publicized. "Books are often
about the way life goes wrong when it starts to hurt," he says.
"And maybe writers are alert to that because they are frequently
hurt by a culture that doesn’t love writing. Maybe they have access
to almost daily rejection and economic fear of a sort that’s very
central to daily American life."

The success of "Bookworm" has already brightened Silverblatt’s
life. In addition to the many authors he’s gotten to know, he is
frequently hailed in restaurants by fans who recognize his voice.
"Reading can be an anti-social life," he says. "Going public as a
bookworm has made me more of an available person in the world. I
meet people through the very thing that once removed me from
them."

RADIO: "Bookworm" airs Mondays at 2 p.m. on
KCRW, 89.9 FM.

Letters

All thrills, no success?

Editor:

I have to congratulate Jeanene Harlick (Oct. 3, "Sex before
marriage: why we should wait") for having the guts to stand up for
deep and meaningful living. One thing she does not mention is that
once people start developing "thrill consciousness" (and valuing
temporary excitement more than the long-term good), the next step
after sexual over-indulgence is "let’s try drugs."

People only concerned with immediate sensory stimulation rarely
achieve excellence or make any positive contribution to
society.

Daniel May Physics Fourth-year senior

UC Student Association

Editor:

The Daily Bruin headline, "UC Berkeley’s withdrawal further
cripples UCSA" (Oct. 3) was both incorrect and highly misleading.
It was incorrect in that, as the article itself stated in its
second paragraph, the decision to withdraw was overturned. It was
also incorrect in that the initial decision to withdraw was made
only by the undergraduate UC Berkeley government – the Berkeley
graduate students have never attempted to withdraw. Similar
misstatements were made in the article concerning the UC Davis
situation: the Davis graduate students remain members in good
standing.

Aside from these errors, the article was also very misleading.
The University of California Student Association has always had
members who, for a variety of reasons, decide not to actively
participate for brief periods of time. Moreover, if you were to dig
into the causes of the withdrawals of the undergrads at Davis and
(briefly) at Berkeley, I believe you would find them rooted more in
political disputes than in any particular grievance with the
students’ association. In any case, UCSA presently has as many or
more members than any time in its history. It is, therefore, not
"crippled."

A strong and healthy UCSA is needed by all UC students to
represent our interests to the regents and to the Office of the UC
President. The vast majority of the UC student governments
recognize this need and continue to wholeheartedly support the
organization. Minor disputes and changes should not be contorted
and amplified to create the appearance of otherwise nonexistent
"crippling" events.

Kevin Welner Graduate Students Association Vice
President for External Affairs Member, Board of Directors, UC
Student Association

Tax helps fund UC breast cancer research

By Donna Wong
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Contrary to what its critics have said, cigarette smoking may
actually be good for some people’s health.

Since the beginning of this year, cigarette smokers in the state
of California have been paying an extra 2 cents per pack to fund
breast cancer research and early detection services.

Under Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman’s Breast Cancer Act of
1993, the state created a breast cancer fund, that supports a
research program run by the University of California.

Projecting an annual revenue of $38 million for research and
low-cost early detection services, the act addresses the
continually rising one-in-eight incidence rate of breast cancer
among the general female population.

"She felt that it was a public disaster that could no longer be
ignored," said John Young, Friedman’s chief of staff. "There’s a
real sense of a moral imperative."

Under the new research program, the UC established a 16- member
Breast Cancer Research Council to advise the program about the
types of research they will fund.

Including representatives from the private sector such as breast
cancer survivors, in addition to researchers, the council has yet
to finalize their policy. It will release the grant information by
the end of this year, said Patricia Ganz, a UCLA medical professor
and council member.

One issue definitely on the council’s agenda is researching a
replacement for mammography, Currently, the procedure has a 10 to
40 percent failure rate in detecting breast cancer in young women,
Young said.

The program is headed by interim director Charles Gruder, who is
also the director of the UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research
Program.

"Hopefully, we’ll be able to fund research that is not being
funded by other agencies – such as innovative but high risk
research – (even though) it may not yield a significant finding,"
Gruder said.

Researchers would also like to find a cause of breast cancer
through the program, Gruder added.

Scientists have already found a gene that causes breast cancer
in five percent of those diagnosed, however, the other 95 percent
diagnosed don’t show the gene, said Sherry Goldman, a nurse
practitioner at the UCLA Breast Center.

Through the state’s program, there will be many opportunities
for collaboration between institutions and the private sector, Ganz
said.

Areas of research the program will cover will be the impact of
oral contraceptives, alcohol, diet and the effectiveness of a drug
called tamoxifen developed from the needles of the pacific Yew
tree.

In California last year, 20,000 women learned they had the
disease and 5,000 died, according to estimates by the American
Cancer Society.

However, with new technology and findings, researchers can help
women detect the cancer earlier and more easily combat the disease,
the most common form of cancer in women, Young said.

"I don’t think there is a woman alive who isn’t concerned about
breast cancer," Friedman said. "This program gives us protection
from this dreaded disease."

This freshman fails to find respectable fraternity

Brian Stannard is a freshman English major.

By Brian Stannard

Before entering college, I never had a high opinion of
fraternities. This may be due to the fact that when I was 16 a
bunch of friends and I tried to sneak into a Berkeley fraternity
party and got chased out because we weren’t on the guest list, and
more importantly, because we weren’t beautiful girls.

For the most part, I always had the impression that fraternities
were for people who couldn’t get a beer on their own. They needed a
large group of like-minded people to hold their hand along the
way.

Now that I’m actually in college and have experienced rush week
firsthand, I have even less respect for the greek system. Now I
know there are good fraternities out there somewhere, but I still
haven’t found one, so I’m just going to relate my personal
experiences.

First off, I love how many fraternity parties turn up the music
so loud and dish out so much free beer that intelligent
conversation is basically useless. For the most part, I’ve found
that fraternity parties are basically advanced high school – a lot
of drunk people crammed into a stranger’s living room. The only
element missing from a fraternity party is the police breaking
everything up at midnight.

And I find it funny that both fraternities and casinos give out
free drinks. Why? Because both of them want to make you
incapacitated so that they can get into your pants. Casinos want to
get into your pants pockets to steal your money and drunk
fraternity boys want to get inside a girl’s pants for … well, you
know.

But the specific incident that disturbed me most about rush week
occurred last Monday night. After lying to the bouncer that I was
interested in rushing, I managed to get into a fraternity party
that had a cool band inside that I wanted to check out.

The band was rocking and everything was going great until I made
the mistake of deciding to go to the bathroom. After walking
through hallways strewn with empty Keystone cans and people making
out against the wall, I finally found the men’s room.

That was my big mistake. While in the middle of doing my duty, I
heard a slurred voice yell out to me, "Hey, what the hell is this
guy doing pissing in my urinal?" Through intuition, I figured out
that I was using the guy’s urinal. Then he got closer to me and
repeated the question again to a couple of his other brothers who
were giving him emotional backup. I could understand how there
could have been a problem if I had been going to the bathroom on
the floor or on the guy’s leg, but I was simply using the urinal
like any other civilized human being.

After the guy warned me to hurry up and get the fuck out, I was
out of there. Later a quote by Henry Rollins came into my head –
"whatever you possess possesses you." I found it amusing to think
that the guy was possessed by a urinal.

I came to the conclusion that maybe people should pass up the
big fraternity parties and instead do something constructive like
maybe have a more intimate party in the dorms, suites or apartments
where people can actually converse with each other and learn new
things. Individuals are usually more interesting than large groups
of people anyway.

Like I said before, I’m sure that there are great fraternities
and sororities that do positive things, but the lesson I learned
that Monday night was that the greek system is not for me. There’s
something about the group I just don’t trust.

Scapegoating fails to cure economic ills

Mosun Lawrence Mah-Andujo is a member of the UCLA community.

By Mosun Lawrence Mah-Andujo

Proposition 187, an initiative barring illegal immigrants from
the use of public educational and medical services, is a reflection
of an American political sham, diverting responsibility of
America’s depressed economy, poorly afforded public educational
system, and inner-city crime to an individual or an individual
group. The canon of American individualism not only prescribes
being independent, but presents a false notion that individual
groups are the independent source of social fatigues.

The tendency to blame the non-represented and underrepresented
for the economic or "moral" degradation of American society is
expressed in legislation like Proposition 187 (which I refer to as
Operation Scapegoat). The initiative attempts to curb illegal
immigration by creating laws that would not allow illegal
immigrants from ever surviving in the "land of the free."

If undocumented children and parents are not given an
opportunity to be educated, they will be unable to improve their
poor economic condition. If non-native children and parents are
denied medical treatment until seriously ill, they will either die
because of pneumonia or die of impoverishment because of an
inability to work.

Initiatives resembling Proposition 187 presuppose and thus blame
the undocumented immigrant for overuse of public services, crime,
inadequate education, and the rise in unemployment. This
point-of-view is simplistic and narrow-minded.

Legislation arises for political, bureaucratic and fiscal
reasons, but it essentially arises from one mentality – "we have to
take care of our people first." The Reagan and Bush administrations
(1980-92) took care of their people first and in those twelve
years, many political decisions were made to undermine the ability
of the underrepresented African-American, Latino and Asian
communities from succeeding economically.

The Reagan and Bush administrations spearheaded the systematic
cut of Federal Aid for many of the programs that help individuals
of the inner-city with the pretense that such programs were not
needed. In 1980, funding for the Comprehensive Employment Training
Act (C.E.T.A.) was cut and the General Revenue Sharing program
which assisted local government was eliminated.

Federal housing programs have been cut 80 percent since 1980. In
addition, their terms were successful in creating more part-time
jobs at the expense of full-time jobs.

In consequence of these cutbacks, public policy has successfully
created a greater gap between the rich and the poor. Peter Kwong, a
journalist for the L.A. Times revealed that in 1992 these
reductions translated to "[an] L.A. [where] 40 to 50 percent of all
African-American men are unemployed." These reductions also led to
40,000 teenagers out of school and unemployed. Furthermore, these
percentages do not include the thousands of unemployed,
undocumented workers who live invisibly throughout L.A.

Subsequently, people ask why there are no jobs and why public
health services and classrooms are overcrowded. The fact is that
elected officials have chosen to ignore the demands of segments of
our society.

The 1992 elected Clinton administration has jumped onto the
scapegoat wagon by creating legislation which attacks the invisible
Central American, Mexican and Latino communities. Clinton began
with NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement or Operation
Scapegoat I), which was not only effective in harming American
union’s bargaining power, but was sold to the American public by
creating fears and contempt for any immigrant that crossed the
Mexican/American border.

For instance, during the NAFTA debates, I asked an acquaintance
what he thought of NAFTA. I was greatly offended to hear him say,
"I wish they would put machine guns all across the border. I’m sick
of immigrants taking my hard-earned tax money." I am a child of two
immigrants – my mother is from Mexico and my father is from
China.

NAFTA and Proposition 187 are initiatives that don’t "save
states." They only serve to create an "alien invaders" drama and
fear, which effectively scapegoats immigrants and displaces the
injustice of the American government’s refusal to better education,
community services and employment services for individuals of the
inner city.

These initiatives are false. If you want to improve schools, you
have to put money into schools and build schools, not reduce the
pay of teachers and blockade the doors with "No Immigrants Allowed"
signs. If you want crime to decrease, jobs must be made accessible
so that individuals don’t have to steal for their bread.

My proposal is to stop pointing the finger and start
constructive measures.

Keep open mind about everything, even fraternities

Peter Hamilton Peter Hamilton is a graduate art
student. His column will appear on alternate Tuesdays.

A lot of freshmen have been coming up and asking for my advice
on the greek system. They say, "Peter, should I rush?" How am I
supposed to answer that question? If I say yes, am I condemning
them to four years of brain-numbing debauchery? And if I say no, am
I dissuading them from having a potentially memorable college
experience? The only way I felt I could give these brand new Bruins
the advice they deserved was to rush a fraternity myself! That
might seem strange to you since it is public knowledge that I am
already a member of a fraternity, but I felt that was the only way
I could give freshmen an up-to-date report on what fraternities
are, what rush is and what they should consider before making such
a long-term decision. I would have gone undercover and reported on
sorority rush also, but some guy did the whole wig and lipstick
thing a couple of years ago, so that angle had already been done.
First of all, understand this about me. I think fraternities suck.
But I also think they are terrific. Why the dualism? That’s simple;
some fraternities are misogynistic institutions that foster idiocy,
while other fraternities provide a structure that helps young men
develop into gentlemen. The first time I rushed was in the fall of
1986. I was 18 years old and brand new to UCLA. My first night at
UCLA was spent at wet rush (fraternity rush is now called "dry
rush" [i.e. no alcohol], but it used to be termed "wet rush" [i.e.
alcohol]). I partied it up at wet rush, and went back to my dorm
that night and threw up. The next night was the same story. And so
on. Guys were bid (offered membership to a fraternity) by how cool
they were. That basically translates into how well they could party
and hang with the fellas. I guess I was cool because I received a
bid from an established fraternity my second night out. After
throwing up in their bathroom, I told the rush chair (the person in
charge of rush at a fraternity) that I would think about their
offer. Something inside me told me to wait. I didn’t pledge a
fraternity (that’s when a rushee accepts a bid for membership)
until the following fall. That fall I rushed a different fraternity
from the first year because my roommates were in it. Big mistake. I
didn’t like anyone else in the house except my roommates. As it
turned out, the guys in the house didn’t like me either. When I
refused to do demeaning work (a form of hazing) for an active
member of the fraternity, the ding (expulsion) ball started
rolling, and I was soon kicked out. Surprisingly, I didn’t care.
All I lost was easy access to alcohol. My friendship with my
roommates remained intact. The next year I skipped fraternity rush
altogether because I was tired of the game. I had tried it, and was
dissatisfied with what fraternities had to offer. That was how I
felt when I heard a national fraternity was looking to start a
chapter at UCLA. They said they were looking for students who were
leaders, athletic and most of all, gentlemen. The last criterion
intrigued me. Gentlemen? I applied, and with the help of 80 other
men we founded a fraternity like no other at UCLA (so this article
does not turn into an advertisement for my fraternity, I will not
name the fraternity I belong to). I am proud that I am a member of
a fraternity that demands that its members spend 10 hours a quarter
doing hands-on community service. I am proud to be a member of a
fraternity that achieved a group GPA that was higher than the UCLA
average and higher than any other fraternity on the row. I am proud
to be in a fraternity with men who were the 1993 Interfraternity
Council (IFC) volleyball champions. I am proud to be in a
fraternity that won five out of five possible awards during Spring
Sing 1993. And I am proud to be in a fraternity whose members
graduate from UCLA and study law at Harvard and UCLA, nuclear
engineering for the Navy, microbiology at UCLA, law at Chicago and
of course, art at UCLA. In spite of all this back-patting, I am not
saying that you should "go greek." This article is meant to remind
you how important it is to keep an open mind and explore what
interests you until you find it. If I took the first bid that came
my way, I would have been a member of a party house. If I had let
myself be hazed, I would have condoned a demeaning tradition of a
worthless fraternity. But since I did neither, I had the
opportunity to help build a fraternity at UCLA that conducts itself
in a respectable fashion. Now I am not saying that being in a
fraternity will get you into Harvard law (even though my "little
brother" is presently studying there), because being in most
fraternities will do the exact opposite for you. What I am saying
is, if you are a partier, you can find the perfect fraternity at
UCLA that will allow you to continue with your partying ways. If
you like feeling disenfranchised and need someone to replace the
father figure in your life, there is a fraternity out there that
will gladly haze you. And if you spend your college years meeting
and befriending quality men (or women, because this same logic
works for sororities) who are going places with their lives, then
there is a worthwhile fraternity out there for you. If you think
being a member of an organized group is a pointless waste of time,
then you are set. There are many people on this campus who have
similar feelings. Do what you want, just be educated about what you
do and please don’t be so myopic as to categorize all fraternities
under the same tableau. That would be similar to saying that UCLA
and USC are indistinguishable because they are both universities. I
think you get the point. As for me, I think I’ll avoid rush next
year. Dry rush, though superior to wet rush as a system for
deciding who is a suitable candidate for bidding, is nonetheless
boring. At least one good thing came out of rushing once again. I
got to see other fraternities’ hidden rooms, read their secret
oaths and stand before their sacrificial altars . . . naw –
actually, I went down there and all they did was serve me endless
amounts of free food and soda pop. That is all for now. See you in
two weeks.

W. Soccer battles to tie

By Hye Kwon

IRVINE – The UCLA women’s soccer team battled the UC Irvine Anteaters courageously, but came away from the overtime match with a scoreless tie on Monday night at Anteater Stadium.

The Bruins’ record now goes to 6-2-2 overall, and the Anteaters move to 6-4-1.

The match featured the return of sophomore defender Sue Skenderian. She returned, after missing the matches against USC and Arizona due to a back injury, just in time to face the Anteater attackers who can rough it out with the best of them.

With senior midfielder Shawna Berke leading the way, Irvine got off to a hot start, outshooting the Bruins 4-1 in the first 20 minutes of the match.

“I think we had problems with Irvine’s physical play,” UCLA head coach Joy Fawcett said. “(UCIrvine) was winning most of the 50-50 balls in the first half.”

As the match progressed, the referee blew the whistle more and more as the physical play picked up as well. The Bruins were handed a break when senior defender Christine Awadallah of Irvine was ejected from the match after picking up two yellow cards with more than 30 minutes left in regulation.

The Bruins tried desperately to take advantage of the fact that the Anteaters would have to play the rest of the match with only ten players, but this advantage turned into a source of frustration because the Bruins could not capitalize on the situation.

“It’s always frustrating when the opponent is a person down and they still come at you,” Skenderian said.

The Bruins did have more chances to score in the second half. With 20 minutes left in regulation, forward Christine Sanders rolled a pass to forward Traci Arkenberg for a shot right in front of the goal. Unfortunately, Arkenberg got off a hard shot, but it sailed right toward the Anteater goalie.

The Bruins showed fatigue in the overtime, as Skenderian cramped up in both legs and others loosened their defense to allow Anteater attackers to come dangerously close to putting the ball in the net.

Despite the frustrations, freshman goalie Gretchen Overgaard continued to be a positive aspect of the team, as she collected her third consecutive shutout. She still holds her first-place regional ranking in goals-scored-against