The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-12-04
A NEW LITERARY SCHOOL.

|
A ferocious pronunciamento has
been issued by a new school Of writers
who claim to have evolved CLAW of
inversion No doubt the members of
this school are very young men who
{ think and talk flamboyantly, and
| therefore, it is perhaps just as well
| not to take the following paradoxical
profession Of faith too seriously: "Do
evil not because it is evil, but because
| it is good. One should marry a
woman who loves another, and should
engage in at least one murder, that one
may taste the fear Of being hanged
and play with the shadows of remorse.
One must always lie, for in lies alone
are to be found the truth. -
In this old world Of ours each new
generation Of writers believe that it is
incumbent to raise nloft the standard
of heterodoxy Swinburne has said:
"Old thoughts, old lives. old aspira-
tions, outlive mems lives and lives OF
nations" and the day will como when
we shall find some Of the writers Of
the new school grown SNUG and piously
orthodox.
Youth ever has expressed contempt
for the old things of the world, 1t
looks about seriously for new joys,
hopes and aspirations. Especially
among young writer's this sentiment Is
found in its most extreme form Chow
shall we be original7" they ask them
selves, off we cling to old standards
and old beliefs. Let us turn the world
upside.down and struggle for a new
point of view And so they turn the
world upside-down and give us inverted
views of life, for which they claim
great potency. But somehow the new
schools OF writing make an appeal to
the public only insofar as they adhere
to the accepted standards Of art.
6. K. Cbesterton, one of London s
most brilliant wits Of the present day,
has written a book which all young
writer's ought to read. 1t does not deal
with the technique Of literary art, but
seeks to demonstrate that orthodoxy
and not heterodoxy has had the most
fascinating history; that rebellion
against accepted standards has not
and art, but that all of these desirable
things have found their main inspira-
tion in orthodoxy.
But after all, do not the young
writer's make mistake in their strug-
gle for extreme originality9 1t is true
that new forms of literary art are in
vented from time TO time. For example,
the modern novel is form Of literary
art to which nothing in the literature
Of Greece or Rome can be compared
and writers Of the last two or three
centuries have found it the most facile
means Of expression. Nevertheless, in
dividuality, and not originality, is per-
haps the greatest merit Of literature.
Just as every human being differs in
character. so every poet differs in his
cAPiSocioh VI tuouEhi duu SEuIlDltuls
The most remarkable inventor of
poetic forms in the nineteenth century
was Swinburne. but the content of his
! poems was trivial, and rs a result his
star shines but dimly today beside that
Of Tenpyson, who clung TO the older lit
crary forms. Literature is the personal
and temperamental view Of life, but this
does not mean that all the laws Of the
universe must be turned upside.down
1t merely means that every original
genius sees life in a new perspective
and a new atmosphere. The writer
supplies the perspective, and the
changing conditions OF life supply the
atmosphere.
Not recognizing tho distinction be-
tween individuality and originality
the world is constantly being aston
ished and puzzled by new school.
which seek TO invert or distort nature
Lately we have wondered at the abcrra
tions Of the cubists, and now we have
a younger school that seeks tc
steep itself in vice and crime
in order that it may teach truth
TO the world From such school thu
world can learn nothing, but the mem
bers Of the school will learn by experi
ence, and dozen or score Of year:
from now those VINO survive will b,
ssdder and wiser men and women.