come and thoughts on how to get there. The critique is excellent; the utopia is not. not. Their ability to draw together disparate points of view and use the result to punch gaping holes in accepted paradigms is a sight to behold. And such clear, common sense prose, too! ·----- - - ------ ----- ---- GOOD WORDS --------- --- - Plain Talk, by David }annul, 1981, 76pp., $4.95, from: Volunteers in Technical Assistance 3706 Rhode Island Ave. Mt. Rainier, MD 20822 Ever since Reagan "hit the ground running" and Haig was "impacted negative wise" the less-sense, mumbo-jumbo we've all been guilty of has itself been a subject of much study. Whatever happened to "plain talk?" I remember the first list of "buzz words." They were tools for creating the impression that I was erudite-er-smart. Well, most people don't care how smart we are. If we've · got something to say we might just as well spit it out as spend time composing it. The problem is, many of us don't remember how to talk. Nor do we know how to tell whether anyone knows what we're talking about, and so we end up being, at best, boring. Have you ever tried to talk to your next door neighbor about "appropriate technology"? "It is hard enough to understand a new concept.... Difficult language makes it harder." Given that premise and this book you can learn to assess your use of the language, test your writing readability and restructure your vocabulary-painlessly. One section, the "Gunning Fog Index" (aptly named) is a little test to help you grade your writing. It was too complicated for me, but the rest of the book is more straightforward. So, the next time you feel like impacting and nurturing a critical mass for restructuring the social priorities within a cultural milieu, take a deep breath, count to ten, and reach for t,his book. It'll help. •-CC Unfortunately, they fumble the ball when it comes to articulating their vision-it simply doesn't hold together as a social model. Naive, simplistic and unworkable are words that come to mind. But that is only a question of technique and in no way diminishes the overall validity of their criticisms of the status quo-a critique, incidentally, which is A Thousand Thoughts on Technology and Human Values, by Edward}. Gallagher, 1979, 92pp., $3.00, from: Humanities Perspectives on Technology Program Maginnes Hall NO. 9 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA 18015 Wise Words on the Good Life, by Helen Nearing, 1980, 173pp., $9.95, from: Schocken Books 200Madison New York, NY 10016 Good quotes, as author Gallaggher says, articulate dimly held feelings, wrestle with strongly held convictions, and unleash new thoughts. They carry us inward to discover new things about our own thoughts, at the same time as they alert us to other points of view. For people trying to create a new world, though, the old familiar Bartlett's can seem pretty musty and out-of-touch. That's where these two come in; you might call them quotations for a New Age. Great fun to browse through in a quiet moment. -SMA Some examples: While civilization has been improving ou1 houses it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. -Thoreau ·When the sun rises, I go to work When the sun goes down, I take a rest I dig the well from which I drink,. I farm the .soil that yields my food, I share creation, Kings can do no more. -Ancient Chinese, 2500 B.C. October 19Sl RAIN Page 3 firmly grounded in a clearly articulated set of moral values and assumptions about human nature. This book only adds to the suspicion I've long had that those Europeans are way ahead of us when it comes.to designing societies right. -SMA In the Shining Moun.fains, by David Thomson, 1981 paperback edition, 268pp., $3.95, from: Bantam Books 666 Fifth Avenue New York,NY.10103 Haven't got around to that summer vacation yet? Well lace up your boots, load your rifle, grab your pack and head into the northern Rocky Mountains with David Thomson on a thoroughly enjoyable quest for the last piece of wild country in America. Along the way you'll feel how the ec.irly mountain man must have felt to explore a truly wild territory and feel himself a part of nature. Then you'll know how saddened David Thomson was to realize that such wildness no longer exists in the continental U.S. He went to the wildest regions of the Rocky Mountains-country where you hike in for two weeks to reach a valley no one has seen for forty years-only to find that he · was too late. The advance guard of the · American monied class is already closing in on the few remaining spots that are untarnished and before long they will ruin them. Thomson describes the loss so vividly and poignantly that it makes your heart ache just wishing you could have been a mountain man in 1820. But this is the 1980's, not the 1820's, and we have to learn to deal with our affluence rather than escape it, says Thomson. His thoughts on values for our society combine wilderness ethics, spiritual discovery, and 1960's political awareness in a truly . inspiring fashion. Read this book for vicarious vacationing; remember i~ for the social message. -SMA
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