Communication
A Letter from Cambridge
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOLI Sue,—After all our Communism, our Anti-War, and anti- Anti-War demonstrations, it was really pleasant to have a little old-fashioned plain politics in the town. The by- election passed off without any great surprises, without arousing anyone's baser passions, and exciting about as much attention in the University as such things should among people busy with their own affairs.
Incidentally, such occasions serve to remind us of an im- portant change in the lives and characters of the senior members of the University, due to the abolition of academic celibacy. Many dons are householders in the town, and as such have votes, and interest themselves in civic affairs. Apart from the fact that this has very much improved the relations between town and gown, the average don is probably much less exclusive in his interests. Even if he is not married, his married colleagues tend to keep him in contact with affairs outside the walls of the college. Whatever the intellectual effects of this change, the social effects would seem to be -wholly beneficial. The members of our various high tables five together in a condition of peace and amity, at any rate as far as appearances go. Certainly there are 'none of those Homeric quarrels which form the subject of so Irruck-traditional University gossip of the last century : how A did not speak to B for twenty years, although they dined at the same table almost every night ; how the fellows of such and such a college took literally a hundred years to choose curtains for their combination room, and indulged in fearful internal dissensions for the whole of that period ; how C was in the habit of leaning from his window to spit on his foe D as D passed through to Hall, and, his room being above an archway, how he would rim across and spit from the other side as the miserable D emerged again. Life is perhaps less interesting without these curious antics, but it is certainly snore com- fortable. The only disadvantage is that we are laying up such a poor stock of anecdotes for our old age, and run the risk of going down to posterity as a very dull collection of people.
So much for the changing don. As for the undergraduate, it is more difficult to estimate changes, because his history through the centuries is conriparatively undocumented. It is easy, of course, to pick out a number of Pendennises as one walks through the streets : an equal number of young men who discuss their cars just as the undergraduate in Miss Austen's novel discussed his curricle : it may even be possible that we have a few Julian Homes, according to the receipt of Dean Farrar. In comparison with the nearer past, college porters, who arc generally very reliable infor- mants, confirm the impression that the young gentlemen today work rather harder than their predecessors. "There are very few idlers up now, Sir, very few indeed. And the streets are certainly much quieter than they were at night a few years ago." The reasons for work are, of course, to be found in the greater number of students who rely on scholar- ships of various kinds, and who know that they have to make their own way in the world, probably in the academic world, and in the generally more serious frame of mind due to the economic crisis.
The reasons for the quietness of the streets at night are not so simple, though the fact itself cannot fail to impress anyone who has known Cambridge for the last few years. Probably less money is spent on drink-there is less to spend ; and drink was ever a promoter of noise among students. But a more important cause has been the removal of the main opportunity for drinking, after Hall, by the general habit of going to the cinema if there is nothing else to do.
The subject of the cinema and the modern undergraduate deserves some consideration. Certainly there is a good deal to be said against it ; it is essentially anti-social, and prevents men from meeting one another, whereas the theatre used to .provide opportunities for inter-collegiate acquaintance- surely a very desirable thing. Even the most hardened theatre-goer would hardly think of spending mire than two nights a week in this way, and one night a week would be a good average. The cinema-goer, on the other hand, thinks nothing of seeing two films regularly every week, and there must be many who see twice that number. The quality of films is only that of the average commercial cinema, with the exception of one small cinema which shows films of the best quality, mainly continental. Against this, it is true that the one good cinema is fairly well patronized, and it is clear that many undergraduates like to see, and really appreciate good films. Indeed, from an educational point of -view, it is very interesting to find students so far interested in the film that they study its principles and technique with an enthusiasm and
diligence denied to their own subjects. Some of them can talk well on aesthetic problems approached from this point of view, who can hardly find a thing to say about the same problems in literature. And it is plain that, for the moment at any rate, the theatre is not popular. The new season at
the Festival, our only remaining theatre, has not met with the support which the quality of its productions merit. Here, as elsewhere, in fact, it would be.a good thing if the authorities could do something to ensure a better standard of cinema entertainment.
As for University news, there is little to report in the present term. University politics have been placid. The Oxford Groups have been active again,, the Communists quiet, although they may stir themselves when the hunger-marchers pass through the town. The only approach to a scandal is connected with the new Library. Black smoke emerges from the top of its very imposing tower at frequent intervals. Nobody foresaw that, and nobody likes it.-I am, Sir, &c,
YOUR CAMBRIDGE CORRESPONDENT.
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