Thought-Forms. Sculptures. Poems by Mirtala Bentov (review)

Books 167 recall when he began working with Alex Raymond on Flash Gordon. On page 82 there is a virtual repeat of the same befuddlement. But such oversights are trivial flaws in an otherwise superior book. Moreover, while 1 have‘ some reservations about Goulart’s assessments of graphic style, judgments that seem to me both commonplace and unreliable, I cannot imagine that any of them would mislead any of his readers. I am sure that many who are otherwise interested in the book will turn away when they see how sparsely illustrated it is. After all, it can be quite annoying to read about a brilliant style that you are not allowedto see,especiallyif the artist is obscure or the point being made is somewhat contentious. Here, at least, I can come to the author’s and the publisher’s defense, for I have also just completed work on a book that concentrates on cartoons and comic strips. Having a fair amount of experience in securing illustrative material for books and articles on the fine arts, I was stunned by the comparatively exorbitant reprint feescharged by most publications and syndicates. The average cost per illustration came to about $150! You can read Goulart’s book with another, The World Encyclopedia of Comics, edited by Maurice Horn,at your side. The book is expensive, but it is profusely illustrated (850 illustrations, uneven in quality but some in impressivelyaccurate color) and it is comprehensive,containing an enormous amount of factual material on artists, writers, features, media and comic art in general (over 1200 entries) as well as an historical introduction, a critical analysis, chronology, bibliography and glossary. The entries sometimes seem eccentric and their crossreferencing may appear inconsistent. For an English-speaking enthusiast of the comics, this fat tome is a mandatory purchase. The Streamlined Decade. Donald J. Bush. Braziller, New York, 1975. 215 pp., illus. Paper, $7.95. Reviewed by Robert F. EricLson* To anyone who was a schoolboy in the U.S.A. in the 1930’sand spent many hours making models of Sikorsky’sflying boats, the Zephyrs and streamlined automobiles, Bush’s book is vividly evocative of an age of style and design that now seems quite ancient. In some ways, we have come almost full circle in our appreciations and our demands in vehicles, appliances and housing; for example, manufacturers no longer produce vacuum cleaners in the shape of torpedoes and the modern ambulance is now a functional box on wheels. The author, who isa teacher of designand a research engineer, has adopted the thesis that streamlining was a response to the problems of life in the Depression era in the U S A . and that it was a reaction to the freer life-style of the 1920’s. In that time, there occurred the archaic period of design, to be followedby the classical of the 1930s; without elaborating, Bush suggests mannerist and baroque as labelsfor thedecades after World War 11, a suggestion that is not very tenable for obvious reasons. What exactly was streamlining? If one relates this concept of design to its scientificfundamentals, it is seen as based in hydroand aerodynamics, and the efforts to find the shgpes of bodies that will pass most easily through a fluid medium. In the determination of maximum efficiency of both penetration and motion, experimentershave been guided by theshapesof fishand birds and in the late 19thcentury began to use wind tunnels for observation. From this work, there came the dirigible, the submarine and the streamlined train. In the latter case, it was possible to make exact findings of the energy efficiency of such notable trains of the 1930’s as the C i t y o f Sulina. It isnot surprising that designersof the era should have turned their attention to automobiles, which from the middle 1920’s were no longer considered to be only for the rich. Norman Be1 Geddes, R. Buckminster Fuller and others designed cars with a teardrop shape and Chrysler’s Airflow (1934) was massproduced . However, the latter automobile suffered from the shrinking market of the late 1930’s and was probably too advanced for public taste. *Dept. of Historical Studies, Social SciencesDivision, Southern Illinois University...