The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-12
in THE LITERARY FIELD
REALISM, sO-CALLED, Is OFTEN FAR
FROM THE ACTUALITIEs.
Translated Fiction Rarely I'm Demand
old Books and Their Values
A NOvelist's Method.

The good words "realist" and realism"
have fallen upon evil days and are being
prostituted to such questionable purposes
as to excite doubts in the minds of lovers
of good English as to their decency. says
the Kansas City Journal. An author puts
forth book which is devoted chiefly to de-
scriptions of the vulgar. lewd and profit
gate conduct of vulgar, lewd and profiigate
human animals. If the public. adopting
what he says is his own practice, calls a
spade a spade and denounces his produc-
ton vile and villainous travesty on
human life and character, he cries out that
it is offended by his realism" If an act
ress puts on an obscene play like "A Mod
ern Magdalen," and is criticised for it, she
weeps and says the obtuse populace lacks
the artistic taste to appreciate the reals
tic" If painter paints a picture which is
offensive TO every refined taste and devoid
of even the merit of technical perfection.
and, instead of being applauded. is reviled,
he hides himself behind the plea of real
ISM" Even the yellow press attempts to
defend its pruriency and sordid motives
with the plea that it tells only what hap
pens-which, by the way, lacks good deal
of being true. And when Emile lola died a
few days ago he was generally described
as the great master of the literary school
of realism"
The question which all this naturally
raises is, what is realism, and what is the
realistic? We had supposed that a realistic
work of art was a true and vital descrip-
ton of human life and conduct. The way
| in which the words are being currently en-
ployed, however, indicates that true real
| ism is putting in a book the stage a
story or play which represents human ma
| ture and the lives of men and women as
| wholly base, abandoned and profiigate. For
| these so-called 'realists' do not truly rep
resent anything. lola did not describe men
and women as any other man ever saw
them. Balzac, for the purpose OF his HUI
man Comedy" studied the lives of human
| beings of every class and of every degree
| of rectitude and depravity. lola, contrarf-
| wise, depicted only the vile, the sordid and
| the wicked. The fair inference is that these
were the only kind of people he was able to
| find in his narrow world. A strange and
| terrible earth he must have lived upon
| one, fortunately, to which less gifted NOR
| tails are not condemned.
The fact is, that realism" of this sort
| is as far from true realism as are the i'm
possible performances of Anthony Hope s
carpet-knights and Winston Churchill s
swashbucklers, or the absurdities and in
| anities-perhaps inanties is the better
word-of Marie Corelli. Honest realism is
| not to be found in the works of either of
| those who depict men and women as Who'll
ly groveling or profigate. or of those who
picture them as inconceivably generous.
| good or gallant. There isn't one OF US who
| hasn't lot of the old Adam in him. There
| is none of US so vile that no good can be
found in him.
come such only after lifelong struggle
| to down the evil in him. The exceedingly
| wicked one has become such only after a
| hard and prolonged fight in which his evil
|
good nature Between these two extremes
| are the great huctuating mass of mankind
| who have allowed themselves TO drift as
| circumstances pushed them. They owe
| much of the good or evil that is in them to
| heredity and environment. and little to
their own attempts at self-improvement,
| but thanks to the beneficent order of ma
| ture, their characters have gradually been
| revolutionized until now the beneficent pre-
dominates over the maleficent in a vast ma
| jority.
| Neither author, painter nor actor can
| justly defend on the plea of realism a rep
resentation of human nature which makes
\ IL wholly bad. A play or novel which has
| not its shadows as well its lghts-which
portrays life as one prolonged May morn
| ing in which men and women have nothing
/ to do but baSk in the sunlight and gather
bouquets to throw at each other-is untrue
| and has the same injurious consequences
/ as any other falsehhood. But one which
| women of shady character-which goes
| to the gutter or the barroom for its heroes
| and to the designation house for its hero
ines-is libel on human nature which pol
| lutes the fancy and blunts the moral sensi-
| bilities of all who read or see it. Perhaps
| one day some really great ''realists' will
| arise. A Samuel Richardson may come for
| ward in fiction or a Shakespeare in the
| drama to again paint life and human nature
for us as they are. Meantime, presumably,
/ we shall have to continue to endure the RI
| diculous pictures which are presented for
| our edifcation by so-called 'fdealists," and
| nasty caricatures drawn by so-called real
lists"