W. T. Lippincott University of Arizona Tucson. 85721
Those Poor Little Mattersmiths Who Have Lost Their Way s
Occasions such as this and times such as these lend themselves to nontraditional approaches. What follows is a fairv tale nresented in the hone that an excursion with our-. selvLs in& the land of make-believe may help u s l h i n k again on who and what we are. While the characters and events are fictitious, and any similarity to actual persons or events on this planet is unintended, there is a reason to suspect that somewhere in the universe a few of these things actually happened. The Happy Planet Once upon a time, far beyond the seventh white dwarf, there was a wonderously prodigious planet.' Everything there echoed with the rhythm of happiness. The scientists of this planet had mastered nearly all the problems of mankind. All illness had been eliminated, not a sick person could he found anywhere. Cynicism, nihilism and neuroses had been forhidden by law, nnd arrangements made to provide tender loving care to people even though they were not ill. The happiness cenwr of the brain had heen discovered and, by regulated stimulation, happiness was made permanent. Even the uroblem of eternal life had heen s o l \ ~ dand , each individual could choose the number of years he wished to remain in vouth.. voune adulthood, middle age . or " retirement. Opportunities were so numerous and lucrative that crime was eradicated as individuals sought - perfection . in their chosen endeavors. Evolution to this exalted condition came very slowly, however, and was not without struggle, discord and evil days. Mattersmiths and Their TradRlons In the forefront of those making contrihutions to the final happy state of affairs were a group of scientists known as mattersmiths. The mattersmiths were known for their intense and frenuentlv. . nunctilious interest in the clay, ashes and flesh 0; the universe, for their indomitahle devotion to obscure rituals involvine- mvsterious mathematical . convolutions and perverted culinary practices, and for their insatiable zeal and largely unappreciated efforts to acquaint every citizen with the glories and wonders of mattersmithv. It was said of the mattersmiths that they alone among mortals possessed two unique qualities: they could make a human heart from three dead fish and a bucket of sand, and they could derange a human mind simply by trying to describe how they did it. No other group of professionals on the planet had less difficulty in doing its thing; none had more difficulty in describing what they were about. Of course, the mattersmiths, for the most part, were oblivious of this difficulty in communicating. T o them, the Taken from an address presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 169th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia on April 8, 1975 on the occasion of the author's receiving the American Chemical Society Award in Chemical Education, sponsored by the Laboratory Apparatus and Optical Section of the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association. This paragraph was adapted from Felski, L., "Keeping Laughingly Up with Science," Impact of Science on Society, 29131, 179 (1969).
nature of the material world was so complex and the causes of the complexity so diverse that they found great joy and fulfillment in explaining each newly discovered phenomenon or nuance with a new or modified model. They cheered and rewarded with esteem and deference those colleagues who advanced a new theory for each new fact. They fostered pluralism by assigning to each new idea or discoveryno matter how trivial or similar to another-the name of the distinguished mattersmith who first described i t in print. Soon the proliferation of ideas, discoveries, concepts, names of discoverers, and the terms needed to properly describe phenomena without infringing on the rights of eminent theoretical or proprietary domain of the various groups of mattersmiths and their apprentices became so vast that no one person could learn or retain all the important information required of a competent mattersmith. This difficulty was mitigated in a straightforward and obviously satisfying manner-mattersmithy splintered into a series of suhspecialties. Each of these included those members of the euild havine- interest, expertise and the missionary zeal for advancing the knowledge in a narrow area of the craft. The guild with its several subspecialties was held together hy the common bond of dedication to com~lexitvand diversitv, reinforced by mutual respect and deferenceamong members in the samk or in different suhspecialties. Like the law of the jungle where the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack, even so the strength of the mattersmith became respect and deference for others in the profession, and the strength of the profession became the maintenance of discipline among members. Thus the splintering of the guild led to suhspecialties such as conjectural mattersmithy, determinative mattersmithy, sanguine mattersmithy and inherent and noninherent mattersmithy. As these subdisciplines expanded and advanced in knowledge and sophistication, the ahility of the working mattersmith to produce useful materials and to understand the material universe increased greatly. At the same time, his ability to communicate coherently with those outside his subdiscipline diminished more and more. Once again the diminished ahility to communicate presented a threat to the guild, hut once again, most memhers were oblivious of the difficulty, believing themselves to he in complete harmony with the rest of society. As before they took every opportunity to talk of their work to any who would listen, giving the most excruciating details and using the most baffling of terminology. Meanwhile, the society had become so in awe of mattersmiths and other scientists that certain activist segments began to question whether persons with such far-out notions could he trusted to act in accordance with the best interests of all. At about this time the activities of a group of half-caste mattersmiths hegan to attract attention. For the most part, the memhers of this group viewed themselves as communicators and interpreters of mattersmithy, and as facilitators in the common cause of providing better understanding for the neurosis-free living required by the law of the land. UnVolume 52, Number 9, September 1975 / 555
like other suhspecialties of the guild, this was not one of the in-groups. More often than not, its members were thought of as rebels, renegades, malcontents, defrocked priests or simply imposters. T o many guild members they became known as matter burros rather than mattersmiths; to the more charitable they were those poor little mattersmiths who had lost their way. Thts is the story of some of these matter burros and their colleagues, and how they contributed hoth by design and by accident to the building of that wondrously prodigious planet. Three Crises for Three Friends Dick Roughgem, Billy Warmwit, and Lyle Starscholar were what we would call graduate students together. They were top students and warm friends who shared common interests in nearly all nonprofessional activities. All enjoyed athletics and the performing arts. All were absolutely intrigued by beautiful women. All worked hard and played hard. Their professional interests, however, were more diverse. Roughgem and Warmwit were committed hurros. Starscholar was obsessed with one overridine" ambition: to make it big in mattersmithy. The three often argued bitterly over orofessional obiectives and attitudes. Starscholar forcefullv extolled the virtues and wisdom of p u r s u i n ~new knowledge in the science and \,ascillated hetween caiolerv and ridicule in urging his friends to follow his example. Roughgem resisted this with his everv fiber. areuine comnulsivelv that the profession and the society, particularly'at this-time, needed ahle and dedicated communicators a t least as much as it needed brilliant investigators. Warmwit, always the peacemaker, recognized the wisdom in hoth positions and was seldom disturbed by the passion and invective that frequently accompanied the more prolonged and drink-lubricated debates. Always working for the good of his friends and the profession, Warmwit coupled his winning personality with unusual sagacity in helping him hring reason and vision into the discussions. When they left graduate school, all entered academic work. Starscholar and Warmwit joined the faculties of leading universities. Roughgem chose a four year college with a long and distinguished tradition for educating students of high ability. Over the years they each enjoyed some measure of success and they remained in contact. As a result, hoth their friendship and their differences deepened and mellowed with time. The years also hrought major crises to each in turn.
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The Price of Conscience Roughgem, after nearly 20 years of unspoiled success and acclaim as a master teacher, and the idol of generations of students suddenly found himself confronted with a revolutionary change in the values and attitudes of students and colleagues. His idea of a liberal education as one acquired by students and faculty members joined in a massive and concerted no-holds-barred effort to learn and to use as much as they could of the accumulated and vital-to-life knowledge no longer appeared to have any currency. Instead, the prevailing fashion was one in which faculty and students simply enjoyed one another in casual, lowstress. o~inion-dominatedtogetherness sessions. Learninnthrough feeling, experience by subconscious transfer of information, and acceptance of any view that could be put into words became the popular approach to education. Torn between beliefs of a lifetime and his desire for the acclaim and adulation of his students and younger colleagues, Roughgem was reasonahly certain he could retain his prominence by embracing the new fashion, but he was deeply troubled by the implications for the future in all this. He also knew that unless he changed his approach he 556
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soon would he a complete outcast with no chance of influencing anyone or anything. The internal struggle wore him thin, hut he finally made the choice to hold the line on standards. In doing so he mustered d l the energy and acumen he possessed in a garguantian effort to sell the students on his idea that the kind of knowledge and skills that lead to real contribution come from intense personal effort. He felt he never quite succeeded in this approach and he never again enjoyed the reputation as master teacher he once held. Still, he noted with pleasure the success of those students who did resnond to his methods. and he thoueht that as the vears went hy and as certain of his younger'~olleaguesgrew older, their respect lor him and for his methods grew a little. A Peacemaker at War
Warmwit faced a somewhat different dilemma. His talents, interests and the luck of the draw placed him in a position of hieh Duhlic visihilitv as a trusted and articulate spokesman for science to the society. For years this was a pleasant and personally rewarding assignment hut, as the mattersmiths and other scientists gained more and more Dower in reward for their contrihutions. and as their snecialized knowledge and activities t o o k t h e m further and further awav from meanineful dialogue with ordinarv citizens, there Lose a chorus o f criticism against science and scientists. With time its volume and stridence swelled until it became a refrain of hatred. Behind the refrain was an army of no small means whose mission it was to destroy science as a force in the society. As the most respected (and reasonable) spokesman for science, Warmwit soon became the target of the antiscience forces. He was attacked unmercifully and unrelentingly. For one who viewed himself as a peacemaker, always ahle to see the several sides of an issue, and always willing to use his affable and empathetic nature and boundless energies to hring about harmony, the constant public floggings were more than Warmwit could bear. H e considered retiring to the safety of his classes and laboratory on the camnus. . . and there to finish his active davs in that ouiet teaching and contemplation due a veteran with his experience. He thoueht of waeioe a massive counterattack. usine the weapons a i d tacticsemployed by the enemy plus a few more he had learned in his vrofessiooal exneriences. In the end, he decided tb ignore the attacks and to take the matter t o the citizens as a whole. In doine so he used a simple but effective and obviously sincere ap&oach that is illustrated by his words on one occasion The enemies of science have asked that the scientific establishment he dismantled and that future work in science he discontinued in the interest of preserving our civilization. If this is indeed the desire of the people, the scientific community will, of course, comply because, in the final analysis the word of the people is law and we in science, as servants of the people, will make plans accordingly. Therefore, in the days and years ahead, if science should appear to be exerting a destructive or evil influence on society, let its work cease and its influencewane. While the hearts of his colleaf!ues s k i ~ o e da heat each time he said something like this,the puhiic was pleased by this posture. and its emvathv with science-and es~eciallv withmatter&ithy-took a &rn for the better. A Laureate Tells All
As far as anyone could tell, Lyle Starscholar never faced a crisis in his life. His work as an investigator in mattersmithy hrought him one success and award after another. True to his early inclinations he never quite found time to do a good job of teaching or for conversing with ordinary citizens. And, despite his friendship with Roughgem and Warmwit, he never was known to give a burro an even
break. His successes and attitudes won him the esteem of mattenmiths everywhere-he was indeed the very model of s mattersmith's mattersmith. One late fall day, some years after Warmwit's crisis, Starscholar received the telegram that every great mattersmith hopes will sometime come his way. The telegram informed him that he had been named the MaBell Laureate in Mattersmithy. And, of all the MaBell Laureates that year, his work was considered so outstanding that he was asked to give the address that would he telecast to all points across the planet. On a planet where science played such a vital role and where citizens were so much involved in public affairs, the address of the top MaBell Laureate attracted much attention. This address was a real shocker. I t started characteristically enough with Starscholar taking full credit for his great contributions and acknowledging the helping hands of his a~nrentices.wife. assorted mistresses and vet rhino. Then &'sharply changed direction and trust, indicating that it was time to exolode some too lone held illusions and myths within the scientific communityrThe illusions and myths had to do with the quality of research and the effectiveness of professional training in the sciences, both of which, according to Starscholar, were horribly overrated in the minds of scientists. By this point in the address, citizens across the planet were hanging on Starscholar's every word, and scientists were staring a t their TV sets in stunned disbelief. Starscholar continued with what he termed "placing the matter in a more reasonahle context." This amounted to confessing that the public was paying a very high price for some very mediocre research in many instances, and for some very inadequately trained scientists. He suggested facing the real problems in these areas such as expecting more and more rapid breakthroughs from science and scientists than they can reasonably produce, spending large amounts on . oroiects and activities that have very little . chance of yielding worthwhile information, encouraging orofessional curricula that train superspecialists who must be retrained if they are to he usefuiand productive outside the universities. This he followed with an assessment of the abilities and potential of the scientific community, and of the limitations of science itself. Here he suggested that by proper redistribution of talents and activities, and no larger total investment, the scientific community probably could increase its effectiveness several fold. This redistribution would involve greater emohasis on creative teachine and on the training uf ~tudents,and greater group ~t'tortsin research. He concluded with a movine analvsis uf the value to society not only of science itself, but also of a citizenry enlightened in the principles and limitations of science and technology. His final words often were quoted
burro named Mickey Max who taught for years a t OverSkew University. Over-Skew U. was one of the largest universities on the planet and it was characterized by its excesses in every area except scholarship. While all major universities placed heavy emphasis on athletics, Over-Skew went a t least one step beyond the rest. For example, most schools fielded a rumn-hall team in intercolleeiate com~etition.(Rumn-hall was the most popular sport on the planet.) Over-Skew had three teams in intercollegiate competition, each with its own stadium for home games. While most maior universities offered a course in adiusting to college, 0v&kew U. offered a degree in it. Most of the faculty at Over-Skew was fully in tune with the philosophy and traditions of the institution. Faculty memhers helped students in such interesting ventures as boycotting ciasses, ripping-off the hookstore, sabotaging talks by distinguished visitors, disrupting commencement ceremo&es, working over other faculty members, and destroying such useless pieces of equipment as computers, printing presses and pipe organs. None of this caused any serious problems because nearly evervone (with the oossihle excention of five or six thousandnaivi undergraduates) u n d e k o o d and played accordine to the same rules. In fact. about the onlv no-no a t OverSkew was to act in what most outsiders would regard as a reasonahle and responsible manner. Mickey Max and his colleagues in the Department of Mattersmithy played the game with a skill and imagination that prohahly never will he equalled. They fought constantly, lied to and about one another, cheated, stole, exchanged wives-hut never graduate students-victimized any student who was not their own and occasionally took time for their work of research and teaching. Max was an educational innovator of the first order. He tried every new gadget, teaching method, device and idea that came to his mind or attention. And usually he did this on a grand scale, being certain to attract the attention of as many people on and off the campus as would look a t what he had done. He used television-aided instruction, filmaided instruction, audio-aided instruction, computer-aided instructiou. tutor-aided instruction. masterv-aided instruction, educational-objectives aided instruction, textbookaided instruction, demonstration-aided instruction, unaided instruction and the traditional approach. Soon he had so manv different forms of instruction eoinc on simultaneously that neither faculty, students nor the registrar could keep track of student activity and progress. There may have been a plan behind this, for a t one time a t the height of all the confusion it was discovered that he had been away from the campus, enjoying the pleasures of a seaside resort for a t least two weeks.
It is not science and scientists that can save the planet and make it better for all, but an enlightened and active citizenry, well informed on the limits and ea'oabilities of all its specialists. In recoenizing and acting on this each of you preserves for himself, for all of us, and for those who follow, a say in the destiny of this civilization. Needless to report, the scientific community was enraged by Starscholar's message. The great majority of his colleagues thought he had sold them out, and that the people never again would support science as it had in the past. And, although the address had little visihle effect on the dav-bv-dav activities and attitudes of scientists, and, althou& ~t&cholar never again was referred to as a mattersmith's mattersmith, impartial observers noted what appeared to he the first stirrings of a new scientific c&science.
The Student Brain-Wave Response System
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Mickey Max and Over-Skew U. The next story is that of a flamhoyant and abrasive
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Most of this work in instructional innovation made little or no favorable im~ressionon anvone, . . althoueh here and there an idea or gaiget was picked "p and used elsewhere. The one innovative idea that brought Mickey Max and his teaching circus t o the attention o f mattekmiths everywhere-and indeed, to all in education circles-was his student hrain-wave response system. This system consisted of very sensitive pairs of brainwave electrodes mounted on head-sets. Head-sets were provided a t each desk in the classroom, and they were connected to a large cathode-tube computer terminal a t the lecture table. At the beginning of a class, students placed the head-setsand electrodes in position and, as the classwork progressed, the computer received brain-wave signals from each student. These it interpreted in terms of understanding, lack of understanding, reflective thinking, daydreaming or other. The interpretations were transmitted to Volume 52, Number 9, September 1975 / 557
the cathode-tube at the lecture table and disolaved. . . The display consisted of a diagram of the seating arrangement in the classroom. The small box in the display representing each seat would light up in a different color for each of the brain-wave internretations. For examnle, hlue was the color associated with ;nderstanding, so if most hlocks in the display appeared hlue, the instructor could be certain that most of the class understood the point being discussed. If the display were predominantly red, it meant that the students' minds were mostly on "other" a t that moment. Mickey Max was so pleased with his new response system that he was constantly modifying and improving it. One improvement was in the grading of examinations. Using his never failing imagination, and the nearly infinite campus computer facilities, he developed a scheme in which a student's answers to the exam auestions were picked up as hrain-waves and transferred to the computer. Here the answers were graded and the grades tahulated. recorded and made a v a i h l e to teacher a n d students within seconds of the end of the examination. Mickey regaled his colleagues a t the intraplanetary meetings of burros with an endless string of tales extolling the marvels of his student hrain-wave response system. He claimed. for exam~le,that he could double the learning and retention rate of the average student, that he could see on his display clear evidence of the thought sequences associated with the analysis and synthesis of knowledge, and that he thought he knew the mechanism hy which the mind permanently stores or simply rejects information fed to it. Unfortunately, others who installed and used the system were unable to obtain anything like the spectacular results Mickey Max reported. Yet, those who visited Over-Skew U. and observed the students and procedures were persuaded that the students were learning more and more rapidly with the electrodes than without them. The mystery finally was solved when some particularly dogged visitors. after much effort and some devious Drocedu& wrestledthe truth from a group of students oFquestionahle character. I t turned out that the students were learning more and more rapidly because they were studying much more for this course than for any other. The reason: Mickey Max had persuaded them that by doing so they could gain fame and enjoyment for themselves and for him by perpetrating the hoax of the century on the education community around the planet. The game obviously was irresistible to the Over-Skew U. students, considering their training and environment. Topdude Expands Hs Visibility If the Department of Mattersmithy a t Over-Skew U could he described as a bit raucous. the Denartment a t Topdude U might he said to he a hit pretentio;s. Topdude faculty members had an obsessive preoccupation with their own work and achievements, and they prided themselves on havine" the best record on the nlanet in turning" out mattersmiths who achieved distinction in the science. Tondude not onlv had more MaBell Laureates than anv other university, hut it had the greatest number of former students in the Planetarv Academv of Sciences. I t could claim more great scientific discoveriks by its graduates, and i t enrolled more outstanding students than anv other iustitution. While there were a few signs that this extraordinary success record was due far more to the maduates themselves than to the education they rereivedat Topdude, few would disnure that Topdude was the champion and hert. ~ r o n i c a i lperhaps, ~, t h e most famous of i'opdude's mattersmithy graduates was not a scientist hut a playwright. Jack Bright had been an excellent student who showed unusual promise in his doctorate work. Within three years of graduation he had written a play that became an immediate and universal success. The play is a farce about a law firm of wealthy hut inept lawyers. I t is titled "Quill, Trill, 558 / Journal of ChemicalEducation
Swill, Nil and Fogmacker." This, of course, is the name of the law firm and includes the names of the five partners. The story is essentially a series of incidents involving each of the group. Quill, Trill, Swill, Nil and Fogmacker All five partners come from wealthy families; all are great escape-ballers; all practice law only three days each week so they can play escape-hall on the four day weekend. However, one week each month is set aside for attending legal society meetings or for serving as consultants a t far away places. All of this means that the five seldom snend more than nine davs a month in their offices. Quill, the senior partner, is a brilliant, incisive and especiallv knowled~eablestudent of the law. But he is driven hv a cokpulsive elitism that so interferes with his ability tb function that he has become the verv antithesis of what he believes himself to he. So consistently does he underestimate the abilities and wiles of his adversaries, so seldom does he listen to or take seriously anything hisclients tell him, and so stubbornly does he resist taking advice from anyone, that he becomes the very caricature of the superior intellect. He never quite understands why his friends call him Fluffy Quill. Fluffy's most magnificent failure comes when he is engaged by the Daughters of the Revolution in a major lawsuit against the Sons of the Revolution for the right to maintain and onerate the monuments and museums commemorating the revolution. Fluffy's case is brilliantly prepared and presented; it would have woo easily in any court, except for the fact that i t is based entirely on arguments related to the more ~restigiousand revered revolution of the 10th century, while t h e litigants are contesting over the , lesser-known revolution of t h e 12th century. Unperturbed by his error, Fluffy attributes the entire debacle to his clients' idiotic preoccunation with a third-rate revolution. Bob Trill dearly loves trying cases in court. He is an accomplished charmer of witnesses, juries and judges. Unfortunately he knows only hare snatches of the law. He seldom reads in preparation and he does absolutely nothing to keep abreast of the field. In the courtroom, he relies almost entirely on his memory, wit and rhetorical skills His poor and distorted view of the details of the law, and his quick wits enable him to win as many cases by confusing everyone present in court as he wins by using his charm. No lawyer in his geographical region has more victories overturned hv .hieher courts than does Bob Trill. Examples of the Trill artistry a t work before a judge and iurv orovide some of the best slao-stick comedv not onlv in ' ' ~ i i i l , Trill, Swill, Nil and ~ogmacker,"hut also in-the comic literature of the la net. Sam Swill is what we would call a Philadelphia lawyer. He is a keen, agile disciple of the planet's counterpart of Machiavelli, except that he is just a little too transparent and more than a little too greedv. Swill attemnts to achieve his ends by any conceivable scheme that is potentially workable, he i t ethical or unethical, simple or complex, devious or concealed, and with or without grace and tact. His most amusing hang-up is the array of devices he uses to give the appearance of a noble, forthright citizen while committing one abomination after another. Sam seduces and publicly embarrasses a friend's wife, steals the friend's home by invoking a technicality in the law, and the next day joins the overwrought and by now nearly frenzied couple a t a social gathering, there t o commiserate with them over their misfortunes. Caught red-handed in one of his distasteful schemes, he ~ a t i e n t l ve x ~ l a i n that s he is simolv administering to others before ;heyLseize the opportuii& to administer to him. Sam Swill has few friends hut a lot of ~ e o n l ekeen their eve on him. His partners regard him a vaiuable member of the firm.
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Ned Nil gives the appearance of a strong, stable, able and completely dependahle individual. If he is, in fact, any or all of these things only he and possibly his wife know for a certainty. On his better days Ned communicates a t a level slightly below a porpoise, but definitely above a ground hog; on the average day the ground hog might have the edge. Imagine the excitement when Ned is chosen trial lawyer by the Jiveonia Broadcasting system in a billion dollar law suit brought against it for slanting and distorting the news. The suit is brought by a coalition known as Citizens for Objective News Narration (CONN). Needless to say, Ned demonstrates to all concerned that communication is a much more primitive art than any had suspected, with a result that the JBC and CONN join forces to help improve the quality of public dialogue. Felix Fogmacker is unequalled as a philosopher 6f law. He belongs in a law school. Instead, he insists on being a trial lawyer, at which he is about as effective as a bellydancer a t a Quaker Town-Meeting. Fogmacker makes mind-boggling complexities and hair-splitting entanglements of even the simplest matters. Nothing is without its abstract component. Even traffic fines transcend the letter of the law. In fact, the law, according to Fogmacker, "cannot be dealt with as if i t contains only the axioms and corollaries of a hook of mathematics. The life of the law is not logic, not logical cohesion of part with part, hut experience, the history of the planet, the 'felt necessities' of the present and the endeavor of men, conscious of their human responsibilities to face the future of development in harmony with the ideals of the common good." T o Fogmacker, each case hoils down to a question of whose "felt necessities" were felt more strongly. At times, the feeling of necessities becomes more than the judge and jury care to engage in. This is brought out rather dramatically when Fogmacker defends a young man who is accused of assaulting a maturing sex goddess. Here, even Fogmacker becomes confused over the physical feeling of necessities, (that appeared tb he important to the man), the spiritual feeling of necessities, (that appeared to be important to the woman), the intellectual feeling of necessities, (that appeared to important to the Law), and the proper hierarchy of values among them in a sex situation. With Characteristic Aplomb
Some months after the success of "Quill, Trill, Swill, Nil, and Fogmacker" was assured, and Jack Bright had tasted fully the wine of fame and success, he invited several of his former mattersmithy professors from Topdude to join him for an evening a t the theatre to he followed by dinner. Jack was pleased to observe the obvious pleasure his mentors derived from the performance, and he was gen-
uinely moved by their enthusiasm a t dinner. Over brandy he told them of his delight with their reception of his play and of how much he appreciated their forgiving him for not following the career he and they had worked to prepare him for. He indicated that their efforts on his behalf had not been wasted, for each of them had given him much that he would use and share with those who would see his plays. "In fact." he confessed. "I hove vou will not he disnleased t o know'that the , characters in "Quill, ~ r i iSwill, Nil. and Foemacker" have certain traits that I observed in each of youwhile I was your student. "Ohviouslv, I have taken a eood deal of ~ o e t i clicense and I have immersed the characters into hizaire and greatly exaggerated situations. Still. I would he less than honest not to-acknowledge the sources of these now-famous personalities." While the tone and course of the conversations took a decidedly more introspective turn after this announcement, the professors handled the matter with characteristic Topdude aplomb, and, after an appropriate period, said their farewells and made their way to their respective homes. Not unexpectedly perhaps, they were unusually reflective on the trip home. "Quill, Trill, Swill, Nil and Fogmacker" ran for nearly 20 years in large and small theatres all over the planet. During much of that time and for at least three generations thereafter it was required reading for new faculty members in mattersmithy a t all colleges and universities on the planet, with but a single exception. Envoi
Mattersmithy and the happy planet have come a long way since the preceding events took place. Looking at them in retrospect, a modern-day mattersmith told us While these stories are representative of the struggles and conflicts of a young science groping its way toward wisdom and maturity, they show with some feeling that mattersmiths, matter burros and their students played a most important and highly satisfying role in the history and development of our planet. But even more than this, these stories allow us a glimpse of the growing character and soul of science and its workers. They tell us not only of the dangers of arrogance, born of great accomplishment and opportunity, but also of the promise of humanity, inherent in man's makeup, repressed hy his greed and folly, aroused by responsibility, and tempered by the discipline of doing things well. Perhaps i t is nbt surprising then that as time passed, Mickey Max and his colleagues a t Over-Skew U. matured and mellowed into solid citizens, that Lyle Starscholar very nearly became the first to win two MaBell Prizes in mattersmithy, and that even the faculty at Topdude U, after a good deal of soul-searching and diminishing government support, finally realized that happiness comes from dedicating a much larger portion of one's career to others and to the common good.
Volume 52, Number 9, September 1975 / 559
