University of Virginia Library

Excellent Work

John Morgan's poems stand
alone. I won't attempt to analyze
or criticize them - that would take
a column in itself. They are three
excellent pieces of work.

Victor Bernstein's film article is
up to his usual excellent standards.
Although at times he seems determined
only to impress everyone
with his massive erudition, his
knowledge of cinema and cinematic
techniques generally overpower his
occasionally stuffy style.

However, the adjoining feature
on the ten best films Mr. Bernstein
saw last year is monstrous in its
useless absurdity. The films are in
general long gone, and it is, after
all, March of 1969. It seems a
feature designed only to fill up
space, inexcusable in a magazine of
Rapier's calibre.

This brings us to the problem of
this issue: space. Josh Orkin,
Rapier's new graphic designer, in
his first attempt to design a
magazine, has accomplished much,
but he has a good deal to learn.
White space abounds, often used
for great affect, but too often used
only for white space. There is one
horrible page of ads, and a couple
of pages where the blank space
seems to overwhelm the print. It
can be rationalized as art, but as I
see it, art is art, and blank space is
blank space; the two are not often
compatible.

Some of it is excusable. The
white space inside the front cover is
with the compliments of Charlottesville's
own liberal Coca-Cola
Company which, when it found out
about former Chairman Robert
Rosen's role in the Coalition,
cancelled all its Rapier advertising.
Rapier planned to run the Coca-Cola
letter in the space it had
reserved for the ad. When the
people at Coke found out about
this, they threatened to sue the
magazine if they published the
letter. As it was too late to change
the magazine's layout, there is the
resulting white space in the cover.
It is unfortunate that Rapier
backed down - it's been too long
since Rapier has been controversial.

The letter could have been the high
point of the issue and it would have
given Coca-Cola some well-deserved
free publicity.

The other blank spaces are not
as excusable, although they will
probably be put to better use as Mr.
Orkin gets more used to magazine
layout. In places, the magazine is
uncomfortably reminiscent of the
old UVM, where it at some point
seemed to have more blank space
than print.

The magazine is in other ways
not so well designed as past issues,
although this is only a minor
annoyance.

John McVeigh, in his second
issue as Editor, has produced an
excellent product, well worth your
attention. It is an interesting and
competent fulfillment of Rapier's
present inoffensive, witty format,
giving satisfaction for the present,
and hope and optimism for things
to come.