The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29
From .Harpar,s Weekly.

From Harpers weekly.
N NY one who makes it his pleas
wa ure or business to follow the
drift of our modern fiction must
ask himself over and over again why
the stream should continue to be so cop
ious and SO shallow; why our novels
and tales are SO meagre and so banaL
One can read twenty novels, one after
another of the average output, and rise
IN guiltless of a new idea or emotion;
unnourished by anything but a string Of
words and a few negligible situations.
If one turn from this and pick up
a Russian novel, what wealth OF lie
files before us, what types of breathing,
moving humanity what chains of cause
and effect, what mass of reflection and
suggestion, and what depth of conception!
Again one turns and wonders why We
of all nations. are doomed to produce the
most trihing fiction in the world. Prob
ably there is something fundamentally
young novelist recently put forth
novel of rather more serious cast than
usual After obtaining a marked popu-
larity by writing several books of local
color. this writer decided to portray life.
Not a section. not a superficial phase, but
one whole personal vision of the world.
The question one heard doubtfully ut
tered concerning 1t was, rs 1t a pleasant
story?'' or the disappearing comment 1t
is not a pleasant story" This doubtless
,s one of the fundamental reasons why
our fiction is so trivial and so vulgar, for
IT is not crime but triviality that Is es-
sentially vulgar, Fiction Is or should De
an artistic portrayal of life, PROFOUNDLY
conceived. containing the vitality which
comes of long brooding and deep insight,
and finally set forth with the traiheo
skill of a studious craftsman
For life itself is rarely pleasant story
II may have pleasant episodes IN II, II
may be a glorious and triumphant
achievement, or 1t may be tragic ana
disastrous stretch of agony, but Heaven
never insults US with anything so banal
as merely pleasant story for life.
To the least of us 1t gives some sorrow
some obstacles. some reason to learn
fortitude and endurance. 1t teaches US
the meaning of pain that we may I'M
derstand 1t in others and have the ex-
mansion of consciousness which comes
from feeling other lives as intensely as
our own An artistic portrayal of life
could no more be a pleasant story than
that life Itself could be so. A work OF
art would give the feel of life, Its an
guish and exhaltation, its silent endur-
ance and its outbreaks OF emotion And
above all else work of art is never
afraid of conventions. 1t never hesitates
To state facts as intensely as they can
be felt.
This attempt to be sophisticated and
pleasant Is the bad rock upon which our
American story-writers are laundering.
man of the world, good merchant
a stock broker, even a Journalist, can
AFFORD to be sophisticated, II they cannot
ha ANYTHING better But a great story
writer must not be sophisticated. He
must become simple and serious, and to
do that a man must stretch very high and
dig very Deep he cannot simply spread
over the surface of facts. A great story
writer must take himself and his work
deyoutly; he must feel set apart for this
thing of creating an artistic representa-
ton of life just as prophet feels set
apart to give his message. II this feel
ing were to prevail the sad misconcep-
ton that anybody can write story would
dia out. and the wretched multiplication
of empty, so-called pleasant stories would
die out too. and when we picked up a
novel we would do so with the same re-
spect. the same expectation of mental
help. with which we listen to the great
symphony and study fine painting. We
should feel that in a. short space of time
we would gain the impression of whole,
would see causes merging into effects. see