Morning journal and courier., 1890-04-03
DIR. HOLMES ON REALISM.

[From "Over the Teacups' in the April Atlanticl
We got talking on the subject of realism,
of which so much has been said of late.
1t seems to me, said, that the great ad-
ditions which have been made by realism to
swampy, malarious, ill-smelling patches of
soil which had previously been Left to rep
tiles and vermin. 1t is perfectly easy to be
original by violating the laws of decency and
the canons of good taste. The general con-
sent of civilized people was supposed to
have banished certain subjects from the
conversation of weli-bred people and the
subject, or hardly any. which may not be
treated of at the proper time, In the proper
place, by the fitting person, for the right
kind of listener or reader. But when the
poet or the story teller invades the province
of the man of science, he is on dangerous
ground. need say nothing of the blunders
he is pretty sure to make. The imaginative
after truth, science is decent. modest; does
not try to stsrtle, but to instruct. The
same scenes and objects which outrage every
sense of delioacy in the story-teller's highly
colored paragraphs can be read without Civ
ing offence in the chsste language Of the
psychologist or the physician.
There is a very celebrated novel, ''Madame
Bovary," the work Of II. Flaubert, which ia
noted for having been the subject of prosecu-
tion as an immoral work. That it has q
serious lesson there is no doubt, If one will
drink down to the bottom of the cup. But
the honey of sensuous description is spread
80 deeply over the surface of the goblet that
large proportion of its readers never think
of its holding anything else. All the phases
of unhallowed passion are described in full
detail. That is what the book is bought and
read for, by the great majority of its pur-
chasers, as all but simpletons very well
know. That is what makes it sell and
brought it into the courts of justice. This
book is famous for it's realism in fact, it is
recognized as one of the earliest and most
brilliant examples OF that modern style of
novel. which, beginning where Balzac left
off, attempted to do for literature what the
photograph has done for art. For those who
take the trouble to drink out of the cup be-
low the rim of honey, there is scene where
realism is carried to its extreme-surpassed
in horror by no writer, unless it be the one
whose name must be looked for at the bot
tom of the alphabet, as if its natural place
were as low down in the dregs of realism as
1t conld find itself. This is the death bed
scene, where Madame Bovsry expires in CON-
vulsions. The author must have visited the
hospitals for the purpose of Watching the
terrible agonies he was to depict, tramping
from one bed to another until he reached the
one where the cries and contortions were
the most frightful. Such a scene he has re-
produced. No hospital physician would
have pictured the struggle in such colors.
In the same way, that other realist, N. lola,
has painted patient suffering from delirium
tremens, the disease known to common
speech as ''the horrors" In describing this
case, he does all that language can do to
make it more horrible than the reality. He
gives US, not realism, but super realism, If
such a term does not contradict itself.
In this matter of tie literal reproduction
of sights and scenes which our natural in
| stinct and our better informed taste and
| judgment teach US to avoid, art has been far
| in advance of literature. It is three hundred
years since Joseph Ribera, more commonly
known as Spagnoletto, was born in the
province of Valencia in Spain. We had the
misfortune of seeing painting Of his in a
| collection belonging to one of the French
princes, and exhibited in public gallery.
1t was that of man performing upon him
| self the operation known to the Japanese as
hara-kiri. Many pereoEs who looked upon
this revolving picture will never get rid of its
remembrance, and will regret the day when
their eyes fell upon it. I should share the
offence of the painter if ventured to des
cribe it. Rbera was fond of depicting just
such odious and frightful subjects. "Saint
Lawrence writhing on his gridiron, Saint Se'
bastian full of arrows. were equally source
of delight to him. Even in subjects which
had no such elements of horror, he finds thu
materials for the delectation of his ferocioul
pencil; he makes up for the defect by render
ing with brutal realism deformity and ugli
ness"
The first great mistake made by the ultra
realists, like Flaubert and Zola, is. as hav
said, their ignoring the line of distinction
between imaginative art and science. W.
can find realism enough in books of auato
my, surgery and medicine. In studying tn
human figure. we want to see it clothed will
its natural integuments. 1t ia we'll for thu
artist to study the echorche in the dissecting
room, but we do not want the Appolo or tn
Venus to leave their skins behind them whel
they go into the gallery for exhibition
Lanciei's figures show US how the great stat
ues look when divested of their natural Gov
erinQ. It is instructive, but useful chiefly a
a means to aid in the true artistic reproduc
tion of nature. When the hospitals are in
; vadsd by the novelist, he should learn some
thing from the physician as we'll as from tn
| patients. Science delineates in monochrome
She never uses high tints and strontial
lights to astonish lockers on. Such scene
as Flaubsrt and Zola describe would be re
| produced in their essential characters, bu
:. not dressed up in picturesque phrases. Tha
is the FIRST stumbling-block in the way o
the render of such realistic stories as thos
, to which have referred. There are subject
. which must be investigated by scientiH
men which most educated persons would b
/ glad to know nothing about. When q realit
tic writer like Zola surprises his reader int
kind of knowledge he never thought {
I wishing for, he sometimes harms him mol
/ than he has any idea of doing. He wants
produce sensation, and he leaves perml
! nent disgust not to be got rid Of. Who do
!, not remember odious images that can new
Q be washed out from the consciousness whie
they have staineda A mans vocabulary
q terribly retentive of evil words, and Il
], images they present cling to his memory n
t will not lose their hold. One who has hi
= the mischance to soil his mind by readil
certain poems of Swift will never cleanse
y to It's original whiteness. Expressio
d and thoughts of certa
n character stain the fibre of the thin
ls ing organ, and in some degree affect the b
=. of every idea that passes through the
Is colored tissues.
This il the prayeaA accusation Il, bri