The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 26, 1978 Page: 3 of 8
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Reflections...
4
Round Rock
b
Appearing Weekly- The Debonaires
Saturday- Lone Star Express
eye-watering, eight to an order for a dollar
served 2-6 M-F, all day Sat.
The Back Porch
Restaurant
(Coming November 3: Gary Stewart.)
9-6 Mon-Sat
820 Austin Ave.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceecece
cececeeceeeeecececeed
1
October 26, 1978 The Megaphone 3
McMurtry Shows Candid Picture to Writers
1810 N. Mays 255-6221
Thursday- Student Night
863-6744
ceeceecccecee
$3.00 Cover
Doors Open 8:30 Music 9:00-1:00
TH€
• BACK PORCH
HF
above all, keep them writing. By the
third novel, the product would usual-
ly be a high quality piece of fiction,
that could be marketed for a profit.
Now, the situation is very different.
McMurtry staled his publisher,
Simon and Schuster, is owned by
Great Western Corporation. Great
Western also owns Pocket Books,
and Paramount Pictures. This big •
business influx is the reason authors
must often write three or four
novels before they even sell one.
Television has threatened the life of
the theaters, and the big film com-
panies know this. The only sure way
to make a profit is to saturate the
remaining market, by making the
Big Film, the Blockbuster. '
It is difficult for a hopeful author
to be encouraged in the pursuit of
his craft when the success of his
work depends largely on three fac-
tors: 1) the judgement of the Book
Clubs (whose readership is at least
60% women between the ages of 50
and 60, and thus is a very selective
market), 2) the whims of Hollywood
personalities, stars, producers,
directors, who may like a book
enough to consider making a
screenplay, 3) the name recogni-
tion of the author himself (Which
most young authors don’t have now
anyway. And can’t get without
help).
As the Big Corporations seek
continued on page 6
by Lee Davis
Larry McMurtry, fictionist,
moviewriter, author, visited
Southwestern campus on Tuesday,
October 17, and left not a few gems
for us all. He was able to give a can-
did and real picture of the writing
profession, in all its com-
petitiveness and color.
McMurtry said, quite frankly, that
the field for fiction writers is grow-
ing smaller with each passing year.
Non-fiction now outsells fiction
seven to one, and journalism is
drawing away much literary talent
from the fiction field. The
magazines which once published the
short fiction of budding young
authors have faded away, leaving
only the New Yorker as the final
major market for literary short fic-
tion. Other major magazines usually
buy one or two fiction pieces a year,
but these go to authors who are
already established. Publishing
houses which once published
33 perhaps several hundred novels a
year, and together published several
hundred first novels in the 1960’s,
now publish a total of 45 to 50 first
novels, and these are written by only
the highly gifted (or the very lucky).
McMurtry stated that in the early
1960’s it was easy to publish with
almost no effort. Publishers were
willing to spend money encouraging
writers in order to give them ex-
perience and encouragement, and
...on Buying a Stereo
by Bill DeFries
Not long ago I was in the market for a new stereo system, but with all the *
articles in stereo magazines telling the consumer the right way to buy a
stereo, and all of them saying something different and recommending
different types and brand names I turned to an old high school buddy of
mine, who proceeded to tell me the wrong way to buy a stereo.
This guy was an absolute stereo nut, and, despite the strange way in
which he explained the stereo purchasing process and what to look for, he
seemed confident that he knew what he was talking about. He began with
amplifiers, and it didn’t take long for me to catch on to his game. He
suggested that the first thing to look for in an amp is how many watts it
puts out. “To do this, count the number of knobs and levers on the front,
multiply that by the sticker price and divide by two.”
When he started on receivers I interupted just to show him that I was on
to him. “Don’t tell me. The best way to judge a receiver is to time it in the
100-yard dash or throw it a pass in the end zone.” Not wishing to be
defeated he continued where I had left off. “But remember to make sure
that your receiver has a lot of knobs. It’s a status symbol. If knobs are
lacking, you can buy a kit with knob decals that can be easily applied.”
• We weren’t talking much about true stereos, but we enjoyed humoring
each other, especially when it came to wow and flutter on turn-tables and
tape decks. He explained, “Wow is an acronym for ‘ways of women’ and is
yet to be understood by any man. Flutter can be best exemplified by gluing
a parakeet to the turntable platter and turning it at 78rpm."
I couldn’t resist the come-back. “Another term that is confronted by the
hi-fi shopper is ‘stereo’, which should not be confused with ‘mono’, which -
should not be confused with the kissing disease.”
We then both went into a long spree about the importance of speakers
and that without them we’d all be watching our stereos instead of listening .
to them. Further speaker discussion lead to kicking it like you would a tire
when buying a car, just to let the salesman know that you’re not fooling
around. Then take the speaker out for a test drive, and if it likes that, take
it to a movie.
The final component was the tuner. Here we distinguished between FM
selectivity and sensitivity. Selectivity is the ability of the tuner to pick out
only the stations which play the music that you want to hear. The tuner can
be trained to do this by simply swatting it with a rolled up newspaper
whenever it lands on a bad station or wets on the carpet. FM sensitivity is
simply the number of times you can hit the tuner before it bites ybu.
We finally finished our stereo conversation with his parakeet dead on my
turn-table, feet still glued to it, a hole in his tweeter, where! kicked it. I
had to get a new stylus, because the old one was so full of parakeet
feathers, and newspapers were shredded all over the floor where I had
beaten my tuner.
If you’re in the market for a stereo, I wouldn’t recommend any of these
buying tactics. We can only hope that someday, man, through his superior
technology, will be able to tune into the wow, and then we’ll all know watts
going on.
A
Nachos!
505 Can Beer $1.50 Pitcher Beer
Doors Open 7:30 Music 8:00-12:00
Frontier
Hall
Restaurant
“ I
Y 1
■ ■ FTTTTm
Coors & Budweiser Draft
— Mug 35’ Pitcher $1.50
Game Room Right Next Door!
$1.00 Cover For Ladies $2.00 Cover For Men
\ ■ '
1
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The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 26, 1978, newspaper, October 26, 1978; Georgetown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1560033/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern University.