The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12
MACHINE-MADE LITERATURE.

1he pnlllStlne may take courage.
MACHINE-MADE LITERATURE.
A good many so-called poems, produc-
tons, too that are accepted in literary cir
cles as poetry of high grade, bear internal
evidence Of having been written to order
that is. to the authors own order, as if he
sat down to a desk saying, II will compose
a sonnet on the summer moon. or an in
vocation to Pan, or a song to a butterfly"
as the case may be. This, too, where, &C.
cording to the theory of those who only
read verse and do not write it, poetry, to be
genuine, must be the result of something
higher than mere determination to write it
and facility at rhyming The belief of
these persons is that it must have an in
spiration beyond the writer's mechanical
skill. He must have thought and an ur-
gent faith that it is worth uttering. That
so much of the verse printed has obviously
10 inspiration no soul, and is merely the
expression of conventional shoD-worn ideas
in more or less pleasing rhythmical form
proves that rhyme making is art that
may be acquired with comparative ease,
and also that the true poet is not creature
of every day. Tennyson said Most can
raise the flowers now, for all have got the
seed, but flowers degenerate and the peo-
pie rightfully call the later product but a
weed
What is true of poetry is true of the writ
ing of novels. In the flood of fiction it is
only at rare intervals that a book comes
which carries with it that something back
of mere incidents which is variously defined
as the writer's personality, as strength, or
power or originality. What it really is
is inspiration as truly as that which ami
mates the poet who writes because he must,
because he has something to say, and not
because he likes to say something. The me-
chanical art of the novelist and the poet is
so well mastered that the output from the
pens of both is so close an imitation of the
genuine that it often deceives the elect, but
the difference is shown when the real ar
ticle comes The multitude recognize it
QUICKLY. Commonly they take the verdict
of the critics and obediently read what they
are told is the correct thing to read, but
when they find what pleases they wait for
TO instructions. They clamored for
Scott and Dickens, though the lat
ter was at first frowned on by
the literary judges. They have been
led by a devious way in later years and
have painfully accepted Mrs. Humphrey
Wards philosophical treatises as novels and
have made a brave effort to read Hardy,
ZangwiH and host of smaller fry. Hall
Game seemed genuine at first, but they are
rejecting him. Stevenson and Kipling they
received eagerly and knew them for their
own. Recently a school of fiction writer's
| have turned their attention to history. AL
though it has been much worked in the
past by novelists of all nations, it is still
a wide field and comparatively easy of
tillage by the mechanical methods in vogue.
The recipes are of two general styles, and
are simple. In one a period or episode of
history is fixed upon and imaginary char
acters are made to move in such harmony
with the time and the actual events neces-
sarily introduced as the author can con-
| trive The other method is to take actual
historical personages-the more obscure the
better in order that actual chronicles may
| be few and the chance for detecting mac
| CufdcleS leSS-anQ cOnuuCI them through Il
series of romantic adventures. OF real his
| tory there is little in either case, but it
pleases the public to fancy that in reading
! such works they are combining instruction
with entertainment. A number of literary
| editors have lately called the attention of
fiction writer's to the fact that there is an
opportunity to write a great novel with the
| Spanish-American war for basis These
| editors evidently look upon the production
of novels as upon a newspaper assign
ment-a task meaning the gathering to-
| gether of certain materials in readable
shape AS said before, many novels are so
constructed, but no great novels. His
| torical events MUST have a perspective be-
fore they can be turned into romance; the
real tragedies of war must be softened by
! time. No great novel of our civil war has
| yet been written; it may be another gem
Grafton before it comes. Hawthorne repro
duced wildly the atmosphere of colonial
| times, but even his magic could hardly in
| vest the hard outlines of recent events with
| the glamour of romance. We know too
much of Cuban affairs as they actually ex-
list. The light has been beating upon them
with too strong glare. There must be
distance and shadow and partial forgetful-
ness before the Spanish-American novel
that is anything more than machine-made
is produced.