mmmm Back to School Special! i
Hdruckor
1/3 lb. Origirial Hamburger
$1.50
R«S $3.80
Worry - Offer expires Sept. 30, 2000
2206 S Texas Ave, College Station, Tx
Limit - 1 per customer / Must have coupon |
Department of Student Activities
w ■ ■
Center
Volunteer Opportunities Fair
Wednesday and Thursday
September 6th and 7th
10am-2pm
MSC Fiagroom and Hallway
GivEm, Aggies!
tor rno re
serve (a* taniu.edii
Virtual Volunteer Services Center!!
http://givenn.tamu.edu/
Amy Carrier acamer^bush.^chool tamu.edw
Eon Salter % lori-j^tamu edu 845.1133
Mobil
Aggieland Alternator Auto 8 Mobil
SUNDAY SPECIAL:
OIL CHANGE FILTER & LUBE
includes:
Windshield • Tire Pressure Check • Washer Filled
• Charging System Check • Brake Check
• Transmission Check • AC System • Suspension
Sunday Price only s 17.95
reg. $22.50
We Provide Auto Repairs, Maintenance, and State Inspections
815 University Dr.
(Next to McDonald's)
College Station, TX 77845
Mobil Hours: 260-7272
Mon.- Fri. 8:00 - 6:00 Shop Hours:
Sat 8:00 - 2:00 Mon.- Sat. 8:00 - 6:00
Sun. closed Sun. closed
AGGIELIFE
THE battalion
Thursday, September?, 2000
Wicked: The Life and
Times of the
Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire
Published by Reganbooks
Sure, Frank L. Baum’s classic tale
of wicked witches, an innocent farm
girl and an eventful trip down the
Yellow Brick Road was supposed to
be about trading
in the gold stan
dard for superior
silver, but if one
doesn’t have a
taste for alle
gories or, say,
stories with hap
py endings, then
Wicked: The Life
and Times of the
Wicked Witch of
the Wfest might
be more appeal
ing than Judy
Garland singing
about troubles
melting like
lemon drops.
Maguire’s
Wicked intro
duces readers to
a green-skinned
girl named El-
phaba, her un
faithful, alcoholic mother; fanatical
ly religious father; beautiful, but
armless sister, and freedom fighter-
younger brother, leaving the reader to
think, “With relatives like these...”
After growing out of shark-like
baby teeth and getting through a stint
as a missionary working with her fa
ther in the Quadling badlands, El-
phaba is sent to a university to make
something of herself. There she
boards with Galinda (perhaps more
familiar as Glinda, the good witch).
a prima donna social climber who
could not be less thrilled about living
with such an outcast.
At the university, Elphaba contin
ually fights with the head mistress,
Madame Morrible, and begins secret
research with Dr. Dillamond, a goat
biologist who is trying to discover the
link between animals and Animals
(an Animal has the capacity for spo
ken language
and thought) be
fore the Wizard
takes away all
Animal rights.
Dr. Dillamond’s
eventual murder
and Madame
Morrible’s
coverup of the
crime initiates
Elphaba into a
world of con
spiracy that
changes her life,
coloring her
against all au
thority figures
and making her
a radical misan
thrope, hellbent
on getting re
venge against
the Wizard and
Morrible.
Elphaba is strange. She is overly
standoffish. She has an unreasonable
fear of water. However, she is no evil
witch. OK, she does want to rid
Munchkinland of that troublesome
Dorothy character, but only because
Dorothy took the shoes promised to
her by her sister. Plus, the Wizard —
the hapless character of Baum’s clas
sic is Wicked's evil despot who reg
ulates the kingdom of Oz with the
terrifying Gale Force — killed her
lover and regulated her Animal
friends to mere livestock.
Elphaba is not the warmest of
characters ever written, but she is
undeniably human. Maguire’s ele
gant prose and careful crafting of her
character allows the reader to un
derstand her without pitying her
plight. Some might call it sympathy
for the devil, but her demise in
Wicked is a remark concerning more
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Published by Bantam
Classics
Philosophers as far back as Plato
and as recent as the Marquis DtjSade
have questioned the value of human
life and the possible justifications for
crime, but nowhere are the questions
brought to life as well as in Dos
toyevsky’s classic Crime and Pun
ishment.
In the novel, set in 19th century
St. Petersburg, a young former
college student named Raskol
nikov murders a pawnbroker in
order to redistribute her wealth.
In the planning stage of the
crime, he sees it as a justified
killing. After all, she makes her
living on the misfortunes of Olli
ers, so is it not just to rid the
world of her? While the answer
to this question seems clear to
Raskolnikov in the beginning,
as the novel progresses, he
struggles with his conscience
and periods of madness stem
ming from his paranoid fear of
discovery.
The imagery in the novel is
augmented by Raskolnikov’s
grinding poverty and the sacri
fice his sister is willing to make
for him: marrying a rich man to
free the family from debt.
The deeper questions about
human nature and morality
the tragic end of an embittered •
young woman than the courageous J
death of a murderous of a tyrant. /
With Wicked, readers may be
presented with the character of El-
phaba, but the image that keeps sur- ;
facing is one of humanity itself.
(Grade: B+)
— Beverly Mireles ;
notwithstanding, this novel is an ex-'
cellent read with no unimportant'
scenes and never-ending suspense.
The only real drawback is that the
events tend to be slightly repetitive
and that the Russian names present
some problems in remembering who
all of the characters are. Readers
would be well-served to keep a note
book handy to jot down some of the
characters’ names and roles. (Grade:
A-)
Jason Bennyhoff
= Literary classic
|3 = A cut above
Q = Passable reading
D
F
Don't buy it
Waste of paper
Mid ii
Company Sign-Ups
Sun. Sept. 10 th
Starting at 12 noon outside B.S.C. office in
Wehner Bldg.
Come early, many will be waiting
Career Fair website: http://wehner. tamu. edu/bsc