BOOKS New Fronti ers honors great Canadian pact A CANADIAN writer recently dropped a few home truths into the sedate proceedings of a high school convocation in Montreal. “J suspect,” said Leonard Knott, “that there is a plot on the part of Canadian education- ists to keep Canada dull. They spend so much of their time de- glamorizing Canadian history.” And, he added, “Canadian chil- dren are the only children in the world who know practically no- thing of their own country. They know nothing of Canadian folk- lore, music or art, and they don’t have even one great national hero!” All of us who are the victims ef that educational system can testify to the biting accuracy of Knott’s words. Hence when a Canadian maga- zine appears which dips even a small cup into the great reser- voir of Canadian culture and lore, it is as refreshing as water to a thirsty man. In this regard, the current is- sue of New Frontiers (Vol. 2, No. 2) offers a wealth of fascinating material. The article by Prof. H. Milnes on the Canadian - Icelandic poet Stephen G. Stephansson is alone worth the price of admission. It is certain that no more than a handful of people outside the Icelandic community in Canada ever heard of Stephansson, the farmer-poet whose hundredth an- niversary of birth went by un- noticed this October. Yet the few samplings of his work presented in New Frontiers reveal a writer of stature, an ad- vanced and fearless thinker, who ranks with the great. Four lines by Stephansson, written in 1916, conjure up an im- mage of damning power, as time- ly. as though they were written about Korea today: "tn Europe’s reeking slaugh- ter-pen They mince the flesh of mur- "dered men, . PENDE AUDITORIUM (Marine Workers) 339 West Pender LARGE & SMALL HALLS FOR RENTALS Phone PA. 9481 NOW SH in “RETURN TO in PARADISE NASSAR GARY COOPER -Season’s Greetings To All PLAZA THEATRE PERC PRR PES VA PI PEK YAK PRL BR BEL PIE PIE BES OL BIE BE PI BIE AE Seo Pa BEX Pe Pe PA . © BOWERY BOYS e “PRIVATE EYES” ” also “GREAT JESSE JAMES RAID” Season’s Greetings % SANSA SES While swinish merchants, snout in trough, Drink all the bloody profits off!” Like that other farmer-poet, Robbie Burns, Stephansson can translate the folk lore, mythology and even Biblical tales of his peo- ple into lyrical and trenchant at- tack on hypocrisy, smugness, ex- ploitation, and cant. I personally want to read a lot more of his work after being al- lowed to nibble on such a choice morsel as “Political Reforms Promised in Time of War:” “The Devil went to confession Shaking with colic. He promised to reform The entire system of health care and hospitalization. He swore he would get at the roots : Of the trouble, ‘And, if luck would permit, He would put God himself to shame. MARGARET FAIRLEY The devil went to confession Shaking with colic.” Or the humorous piece of sa- tire: “The Seventh Day”: “In six days God created hea- ven ‘and earth. He. invented something new and different on each of these days, and on the _ seventh he rested. Or—it comes to the same thing—on the sev- enth day he created echo, the priest and the editor.” x * + I SUGGEST that for anyone = who wants to make up for a lack of knowledge of Canadian cul- = ture, you can’t start in any better way than by getting a subscrip- tion to New Frontiers, edited by an outstanding Canadian, Marg- = aret Fairley. OWING PARADISE” £4 THEATRE To All SES EERE LSE USS PSOE ES VISE PSS LIES PIE PE Wins peace prize Howard Fast (above), world- famous American novelist, has been ‘awarded a Stalin Peace Prize, it was announced this week. Fast’s most recent work is The Passion of Sacco and Van- zetti — A New England Legend, published this fall. ; Not that New Frontiers is per- fect. Far from it. I feel, for example, that from the outset the magazine has not really come to grips with the biggest “cultural question” the ordinary Canadian has to face—what to do to stem the flow of American cultural sewage into our country? Over the radio, TV, in ‘millions of “crime comics,” on every news stand in. Canada, in the maga- zines, pocket books, and novels— from one end of this country to the other — the Americans are exporting their cult of murder, sadism, brutality. Yet New Frontiers has been woefully weak —and this latest issue is no ex- ception — in helping the average working man and woman to meet the challenge to our independ- ence. The latest issue, ‘it is good to see, has lost the trace of “pre- ciousness” that marred the earl- ier magazines. It’s mare readable, livelier, not quite so pallid. When you have finished read- ing: the two articles on the Cana- dian-Indian (“Tzinquaw” by Eloise Street and “Iroquois Per- sonal Names” by Charles Cooke), when you’ve read the other splen- did articles, poems, songs and re- views in New Frontiers, you will feel a new sense of pride in the cultural contribution that the working folk of Canada have to offer the world. —FRANK ARNOLD SSS VK SS PE VEE YEE YES PSE ERE CE Season’s Greetings MILO CAFE 136 E. HASTINGS ST. SERA NAA RRS Vancouver, B.C. YSRARALA RAPA RARAPARA PAM ie SARI AAA AAR SARA RANE NAPA i . Compliments of the Season TO ALL OUR PATRONS OVALTINE CAFE 251 E. Hastings Vancouver, B.C. WL SL SE YS SEVEN IK PERE PSE YEE VERE YEE VICE LIES PIE VIE HS TE RR AA RAR RIN IANA, RRS SAA RE Roman persecutors with Yankee accents GEORGE BERNARD Shaw’s fable about the persecution of the early Christians by the Ro- mans is even more topical today than it was when it was first performed 40 years ago. The film version of Androcles and the Lion unconsciously em- phasizes this. For in this Holly- wood production nearly all the Romans except the dandified Caesar (Maurice Evans) speak with American accents and com- port themselves like members of the U.S. Army. Shaw wrote the play to show that the persecution of the Chris- tians by the Romans was “an at- tempt to suppress a propaganda that seemed to threaten the in- terests involved in the establish- ed law and order, organised and maintained in the name of relig- ion and justice by politicians who are pure opportunist Have-and- Holders.” The result is that the argu- ments of his Romans and Chris- tians fit the current witch-hunters and their victims today as neatly as if Shaw’s fable had been set in Washington instead of Rome. Gabriel ‘Pascal, who produced this film, is reported to have said that all that was needed to make a Shaw play a great film was per- fect casting and a proper direct- or. In this case the cast, while not perfect, is mainly good and often distinguished, the direction gen- erally straightforward without be- ing in any way inspired. Alan Young, Canadian star of American television, has a sure touch with the tricky role of An- drocles, the amiable and absurd animal lover. Jean Simmons is not quite the cool combination of nobility and intelligence that Shaw had in mind for Lavinia, the leader and spokesman of the Christian prisoners. It is Robert Newton however, Castle Jewelers ‘Watchmaker and r ‘ Jewelers Vie Special Discount to AS A all Tribune Read- N AN ers. Bring this ad with you 752 Granville St. y 2" FRR SR RRA OTR SAT EXPERT REPAIRS | TO RADIO, TELEVISION & APPLIANCES FREE PICK UP & DELIVERY ~ i i i i i For Better Service At 4 5 Lower Prices Vancouver oF ¥ Phone HA. 7262 i North Vancouver — ¥ Anytime % ‘e Po § CITYWIDE _—# ¥ Rear 3364 Comb g i ELECTRONICS ; | SERVICE FA. 7577 692 E. Hastings St. : : wae Fomcescumcens vac SDRARIRAA MARAE a [RALALALA RT RAAT NARA ANAL ASA EAA IAA SEASON’S GREETINGS LACEY SIGN AND SHOWCARD STUDIO “Signs For Every Purpose” 415 West Cordova (New Address) - VANCOUVER, B.C. . who gives the most fully-realised Shavian performance. Ferroyius, the fighter whose religion tells him to turn the other cheek, is # — broad comic character who turns) — Se » Vicior mature with Marie Blanchard in Veils of Bagdad. up more than once in shaw* plays, combining the inspiratl of revealed religion with more than a hint of humbug. Rom Newton plays the part with * humor that exactly fits the es In a production which, W e many faults, does at least st ‘§ faithful to the spirit of Shaw light fable, including such J? as the singing by the Christ’. of such hymns as “Onward ; tian Soldiers,” one of the teries is the way it is beiné vertised. 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