The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-19
THE DREAD OF BEING DULL.
A Danger in Modern Letters.

"A bdllkEI ilN NiOQCi IL lLC~tSASs
The constant effort to amuse, varied
by the endeavor to astonish, Is work.
ing considerable havoc even in that de-
partment of literature supposed to be
sacred to amusement, and is assuredly
defeating its own end. The vast ma
jority Of present day novels do not
amuse. If they are novels OF adven-
ture, they provide a species of excite
ment which is soon worked out.
Broadly speaking, as there is limit to
thenulnber of possible mathematical RI
ders, there Is a limit, generally a very
narrow one, to the possible develop
ments of plot. Material can only be
manipulated in certain ways, and one
can scarcely hope to surprise the reader
long accustomed to guess, at earlier and
earlier stages of successive stories,
who is going to fall in love and out of
1t, who is at the bottom of the villain
ous Vaccination, and who Is going to
pay lHe NlIluOuS uClCCtlNC' We SPCs
these things as the examiner, by vi
cious habit, spots possible questions on
the most innocent page Of history.
Great masters of narrative, indeed,
have felt adventure insufficient to
maintain interest Defoe called in the
aid of a background totally foreign to
the readers experience. Scott used
that of character.
But the modern reader doubts the
virtue of Character" Some books
have it writ large on every page, as
some books used to have problem"
They differ in the working out. Some
times the dramatis personae achieve
eccentricity, if not personality, and the
book is COMPOSED of their remarks. IT,
by and by, the Importance of construc-
ton were better understood no author
would attempt to make novel out of
remarks any more than he would
crowd all his verve into his first three
chapters. His characters would do and
say what arose out of the situation, and
not what appeared to him to Illustrate
their peculiarities. He would regard
them as real people with an indepen-
dent existence--not diagrams in Illus
tralion of lecture; and he would i'm
part to the reader vital interest In
them, not a languid curiosity as to
what they were meant for He would
have q plot, too, perhaps a simple one,
but still Ineligible. He would make
the situations arise naturally from the
plot. and the emotions from the situa-
tons. He would not leave the simple
reader inquiring within himself what
If is all about And--this has nothing
to do with construction-only with re-
spect for good work--he would read his
proofs.
Why do authors commit these famii-
lar sins? Probably because their temp
tations are great-if they live by writ
ing they are perhaps insuperable. Ii
they wish for an immediate hearing
they must write what the great mass
of readers can rear, not only with pleas
IRE. but-a far more deadening restric-
tion--without effort. 1t may, indeed,
be said that those who wish to provide
anything higher than amusement have
always been forced to cater for the
few, while the gentleman who caters
for the many simply discharges what
was the bear leaders function in for
mer days, and has no place In literature
at all. or course, public exists for
good work. and is perhaps larger than
ever it was But public also exists
now for second rate literary work, and
for il is produced an immense mass of
fiction, which threatens often to smoth-
=; haa of thp GILL
pendous nature of the task of sitting.
II like to have room in q book" said
a friend Of the present writer; but De-
mos, the unreasonable, wants crises
packed in a book like behring's in a
barrel. Fielding allowed himself
room for disquisitions on life whose
style places them among the Jewels of
the English language. They do not as
sist the excitement, and probably con-
temporary Demos did not like them,
but posterity does. Why do all for De-
mos? Why not something for posteri-
ty? Fielding and his contemporaries
give us time to live with their heroes
and heroines under normal conditions
we get to know them-they are not in
cessantly urging our jaded emotions to
tears and laughter. So with Thacke-
ray, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte. George
Eliot-but which Of them would obtain
the coveted NEED of praise-the state
ment that you cannot put down the
book till you have finished it, from
review in which Demos puts his trust?
The books you cannot put down are so
often the books you cannot take up
again-but Demos goes his way in bis
full ignorance of that
Still, in every age, real greatness VIII
turn to sound and natural methods.
Mr.. Meredith and Mr.. Hardy do not al
low Demos to regulate their style, their