AT’S Wrong with Comic

Books ?. This is the title
of an attractive 16-page pam-
phlet, recently issued by the
Advisory Board On Objec-
tionable Publications to the
Government of Alberta. So
far as is known this marks
the first time that any gov-
ernment in North America
has officially published a
guide for parents on the
“comic books’ problem.

A big movement developed
in ‘this province demanding
dovernment action against il-

’ lustrated publications de-

picting crime, lust and viol-
ence, particularly those beam-
ed towards children.

Many organizations, in-

_ eluding the Catholic Women’s

League and the Edmonton
Public Library Board, had
expressed great concern over

» this type of reading material.

As a result of this move-
ment, the attorney general of
the province in the spring of
1955 called a conference of
organizations to deal with the
problem: The women’s sec-

- tion of the Farmers’ Union.
of Alberta, police, the public

libraries, the child welfare
department, and the Home
and School Associations were
among these invited. The
Edmonton Peace Council was
aiso representea.

At that conference a com-
mittee cafled the Alberta Ad-
visory Board On Objection-
able Publications was set up.

Oo

The attractively-illustrated
pamphlet issued by the Ad-
visory Board takes the form
of six questions and answers:

1—Is the police officer of-
ten less clever than the crim-
inal? Some “comics” glorify
erime and criminals.

Alberta issues guide
|fo parents on comics

2—Will a detrimental im-
pression of sex or marriage
remain with you rchildren?
Some comics present a dis-
torted, unhealthy and im-
moral concept of sex and
marriage.

3—Is the villain usually a
foreigner? Is he a member
of the white race? Is the

villain usually from another .

country? Some comic books
foster prejudice against class,
race, creed or nationality.’

4—Do the comics your
children read promote good
mental health? Some comics
portray violent death, gro-
tesque, fantastic and unnat-
ural creatures with repulsive
realism.

5—Is the paper poor, the
printing blurred and the color
unpleasong? Most comics are
inartistic.

6—Is there anything comics
do for your children that a
good children’s book won’t do
better? All comics are detri-
mental to good reading skills.

Included in the pamphlet
is a rating scale for the as-
sistance of parents and a re-
commended list of children’s
books. The scale is based
upon the six questions. The
recommended list unfortun-
ately contains Little Black
Sambo — a book which is
widely considered anti-Negro
and. has recently been re-
moved from Toronto public
schools, by order of the
Board of Education.

A major objection raised
against the government pam-
phiet is the fact that it does
not consider war comics ob-
jectionable. The Edmonton
Peace Council had asked that
‘war comics be included in
the survey, but the Advisory
Board has taken no explicit
stand against them.

Pavlov’s Selected Works among |
most brilliant essays in science

ASTEUR’S antiseptic hygiene

worked a revolution. One
wonders ‘whether a _ change
equally far-reaching — a new
science of nervous hygiene —
may not arise from the work
of the great Russian scientist
Pavlov.

It would be a science embrac-
ing such matters as holidays,
recreation and culture.

It. would look closely at the
effects of slum housing, domes-
tic drudgery, dreary ‘occupation
and entertainments based on
horror and crude sex. —

Pavlov devoted the last 35
years of his long and vigorous
life to study of the famous con-
ditioned reflexes. He believed
that here he had fund the clue
to the physical mechanism of

_ thought itself.

ess eked: ok

His Selected Works  (obtain-
able here at. the People’s Co-
operative Bookstore, 337 West
Pender Street, price $1.25). in-
clude some of the most brilliant
essays in the history of science.
They touch on fundamental
questions of philosophy and
educational theory as well as
almost every branch of medical
science.

When meat is placed on a

dog’s tongue a flow of salava is

brought about by nervous con-
nections which have been traced
from the taste-cells in the ton-
que through the lower part of
the brain (the “hindbrain”) to
the Salivary glands.

The reaction is known as a
reflex and it is present at birth.
If feeding is regularly accom-
panied by the sound of a bell,
the sound of the bell alone,
without food, causes a flow of
saliva.

But at this stage the nervous
pathway goes through the high-
est part of the brain, the cerebal
cortex; and the connections do
not exist at birth. .

This is the reaction known as
a condition reflex condi-
tioned because itis produced by
external conditions and can be
abolished by changing the con-
ditions.

Most scientists were content
to appraise these well-known
facts as, respectively, physiolo-
gical and psychological pro-
cesses. It was simply assumed
that the sound of the bell caused
the dog to think of food, so that
its mouth watered.

He Bek Se

Pavlov, however, was not
content to halt his experiments
at the threshold of psychology.
He saw in the conditioned reflex
a subjective, mental phenomena
—known to psychologists as as-
sociation — which was at the
same time an objective, materi-
al, nervous ,process, roughly
located in the brain.

He considered language and
thought as a system of condi-
tioned reflexes peculiar to hu-
man_ beings.

In this system, each noun,
for example, represents a con-
nection between those nerve-
cells which receive the visual
impressions of an object and
those which receive the verbal
impressions.

Thus, Pavlov distinguished a
material basis for two distinct
temperaments — the artistic
temperament in which percep-
tion is a relatively direct pro-
cess and reflects reality faith-
fully at first hand, so to speak,
and the thoughtful tempera-
ment in which word-connec-
tions play a major part.in per-
ception in the form of reason-
ing processes. f :

This process may penetrate
reality more deeply, but lacks
the general perspective and
freshness of the artist’s intui-
tion. :

Be ae
If mental processes involve
physical nervous changes, then

an important new factor — ner-
vous fatigue — is introduced
into psychology. :

A great deal of Pavlov’s work
was concerned with this ques-
tion. The most natural effect is,
of course, sleep, which enables
the exceedingly delicate cells to
recover. In various. circumstan-
ces, however, other conditions
occur.

For instance, an excessive
stimulus, such as extreme fright,
may cause a temporary paraly-
sis of cortical function. Or a
quite small stimulus may cause
an excessive reponse (bad tem-
per, anxiety neurosis, depressive
neurosis, perversity in tired
children, digestive upsets).

These aberrations appear to
result either from very strong
stimulants — perhaps, horror-
comics or sex-films — or from
less powerful but constantly re-
peated things: the dripping of a
tap, the monotony of house-
work, excessive overtime.

Physical disease such as an-
aemia or fever can catise simi-
lar disturbances.

Current medical literature in
this and other Western countries
has so far shown little interest
in Pavlov’s theory.

Perhaps caution and conser- ©
vatism impose too narrow an
outlook.

Perhaps the drug industry,
which controls most reasearch
and finances the medical journ-
als, causes the doctors to think
too much in terms of medicine.
Or perhaps Pavlov’s work is fal-
lacious. \

In any event it would surely
be a good thing for the medical
professiéh to acquaint itself
with the work of its Soviet col-
leagues.

The Soviet claims in relation
to painless unmedicated child-
birth, for example, merit care-
ful study equally from the point
of view of its practical use and
its theoretical implications.

Ukrainian Canadians to mark
centenary of poet Ivan Franko

HIS year, on the centenary
T of the birth of the great
Ukrainian poet, writer, revo-

lutionary democrat and
socialist, Ivan Franko,
Ukrainian Canadians are

organizing anniversary events _
in all parts of Canada. The
celebrations will culminate in
a great festival of Ukrainian
music, song and dance in the

. City of Winnipeg and the

opening of an Ivan Franko
museum in that city on July
63 7,.8. ;

In Vancouver a provincial
festival of folk music and
dances will be held June 15
in Georgia Auditorium.

The World Council of
Peace which’ each year
marks anniversaries of pro-
minent artists and writers,
has this year added the name
of Ivan Franko to the list.

Ivan Franko has a special
meaning for the Ukrainians.
in Canada. He was _ born;
lived, and wrote his works
and fought his battles in the
western Ukrainian province
of Galicia (the overwhelming
majority of the. Canadian
Ukrainians originated in the
western Ukraine) and he in-
fluenced the thinking and
feeling of that whole genera-
tion’ from which came the
people who migrated to
Canada.

May 25, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 8