Reminiscences From Quixote Magazine, 1967, Vol 2, No 7. Night of the Great Salt

Reminiscences From Quixote Magazine, 1967, Vol 2, No 7. Night of the Great Salt
Bernard Pyron

My short story in Quixote Magazine, Volume 2, Number 7, 1967, The Night of the Great Salt, was written in 1964 and based upon our actual night salt firings of this kiln and my larger more conventional kiln in Whitewater, Wisconsin. In the short story I mentioned that in the salt kiln we could see some dead critters with their feet sticking up.

 In the short story, Night of the Great Salt the University of Wisconsin was seen as a Wrecking Machine and as a Mad Dentist which opens the mind and then slams it shut. Soon Clayton Bailey made a series of ceramic sculptures about the work of Mad Dentists.







My short story in Quixote Magazine, Volume 2, Number 7, 1967, The Night of the Great Salt, was written in 1964 and based upon our actual night salt firings of this kiln and my larger more conventional kiln in Whitewater, Wisconsin. "We drover up to Old Main on the hill and viewed the University as a wrecking machine...Inside the kiln we could see several of Claything's critters, some dead with their feet sticking up...His creatures snort through their ceramic noses and twang like a mountaineer's mouth-bow.....We opened the kiln and shoved in wet salt. A small explosion shook the neighborhood and clouds of white chloride gas billowed out....The salt cloud hung low in the night sky.........,..Never forget that the University is like a mad dentist. It opens the mindandthenslamsitshut... Never doubt.....topple the wrecking machine, and tranqualize the mad dentist." Though I mentioned driving up to Old Main on the Hill, a reference to Whitewater State College in Wisconsin, I was talking about viewing the University of Wisconsin at Madison as the Wrecking Machine, and as the Mad Dentist. At about that time in 1964 I had seen large wrecking machines tearing down two story houses in a block just west of University Avenue near South Park Street. The University as a wrecking machine which opens the mind and then slams it shut was more of a prophecy than an observation of something in 1964. I spent some years later as a non-tenure track junior faculty member at Wisconsin.

My short story in Quixote Magazine, Volume 2, Number 7, 1967, The Night of the Great Salt, was written in 1964 and based upon our actual night salt firings of this kiln and my larger more conventional kiln in Whitewater, Wisconsin. "We drover up to Old Main on the hill and viewed the University as a wrecking machine...Inside the kiln we could see several of Claything's critters, some dead with their feet sticking up...His creatures snort through their ceramic noses and twang like a mountaineer's mouth-bow.....We opened the kiln and shoved in wet salt. A small explosion shook the neighborhood and clouds of white chloride gas billowed out....The salt cloud hung low in the night sky.........,..Never forget that the University is like a mad dentist. It opens the mindandthenslamsitshut... Never doubt.....topple the wrecking machine, and tranqualize the mad dentist." Though I mentioned driving up to Old Main on the Hill, a reference to Whitewater State College in Wisconsin, I was talking about viewing the University of Wisconsin at Madison as the Wrecking Machine, and as the Mad Dentist. At about that time in 1964 I had seen large wrecking machines tearing down two story houses in a block just west of University Avenue near South Park Street. The University as a wrecking machine which opens the mind and then slams it shut was more of a prophecy than an observation of something in 1964. I spent some years later as a non-tenure track junior faculty member at Wisconsin.