At a time when undergraduate literary effort is limited in quantity and circumscribed in scope the editors of the Advocate continue to justify the appearance of a creative magadine. Their latest issue shares the weaknesses common to any literary magazine in time of war, but two unusually fine short stories and a wealth of excellent critical material serve to make this copy of the Advocate one of this year's best.

Harold Smith's "Appraisal" ranks with the Advocate's best stories. Featuring the same control of medium which has characterized this author's earlier work, this tale demonstrates a new and more mature attention to descriptive detail. An unusual plot conception adds interest to the story, but its triumph is the integration of plot will the delineation of character and scene to achieve a unity of achievement uncommon in undergraduate literary effort. Ralph Bennett has contributed an excellent account of an everyday incident at a barley harvest. More a narrative essay than a short story, this episode gains from Bennett's obvious familiarity with his material and from his facility of description and mood. The story, "Cold July," is neither exciting nor obscurely modern; it has the virtue of literary excellence.

Unfortunately the lead piece, Henry Miller's "The Loveliest Inanimate Object in Existence," will confuse and discourage the uninitiate. Readers unaccustomed to Advocate vagaries will proclaim this fragment from "The Air Conditioned Nightmare" a new and more foolish form of word game, while an older audience will have new cause to regret the Advocate's inability to refuse the mediocre material contributed by the literary elite. Even Reed Pfeuffer's provocative illustration fails to justify the space consumed by the overly obvious gibberish it illustrates. Day Lee has retold the story about the boy and the B.B. gun without sufficient penetration or originality to excuse the return to a high school theme. His small boys are as stereotyped as their actions, and his dialogue is inadequate to indicate the tumult Lee tries to create in his little hearts.

George Bemberg's "The Craftmanship in Paul Valery" heads an excellent critical section. Expert and authoritative, if overly lyric in its praise, the article is mainly handicapped by its audience's unfamiliarity with the subject matter. Fortunately many well chosen quotations will aid readers over unfamiliar ground. An expanded book review section and a series of three columns on Music, Theatre, and Art add unusual critical depth to the issue.

The issue is weakest in its poetry. Gray Burr's "Letter to Dead Soldiers" is perhaps the best for its occasional originality of imagery; even its obscurity appears as mock-virtue beside the apparent triteness of most other poems. Ormand deKay's "Floor Show Fantastico" would succeed as a piece of light and amusing by-play if its structure were not completely destroyed by two unnecessary lines, while John Crockett comes no closer to reality in his work on the war than he did when limited to suburban scenes.