The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-22

And so to AVOID something tfat they 1aiSelN laSh0
TO be dsgraccful they do something that they know
is disgraceful; they write from some other motive
and let the reader innocenty think they are writing
with the old and normal and honorable motive.
So widespread is this deluson that it is abso-
lutely necessary to digress for moment and ex-
plain why writing to make money is respectable!
Why is anything respectablef Because it meets
human necessity and meets in an open and above
board fashion without detrment TO society in gen
eral or the individual in particular. All lawful
business conforms to this definition and writing for
money certainly does. Writng-or painting or
sculpturng or anything clse-not done to make
money is not respectable because o. it meets no
human necessity, (2) it is not done openly and
aboveboard CD it is invariably detrimental to So
ciety, and a. it is nearly always harmful to lndl-
viduas, and most harmful to the individual en-
gagged upon it.
1t is useless to say that man who writes or
paints or carves for something other than money
meets human necessity spiritual thirst for
beauty, perhaps. There is no spiritual thirst for
beauty which cannot be satisfied completely by work
done for adequate and monetary reward And
TO satisfy the human longing for the beautiful with
out requiring proper price is to demoralize society
by showing men that they can have something for
nothing.
The Reader as Moral Force
Now it is Just here that the moral pressure of the
great body of readers felt, pressure that is con-
santly misunderstood by the author. So surely az
the writer has turned from writing to make money
and has taken up writing for art s sake twhatever
that means) or writing for some ethical purpose or
writing in the interest of some propaganda thoncA
it be merely the propaganda OF his own poor, single
intellect-just surely as he has done tins his
readers find him out Whether they then continue
to read him or not depends entirely on what they
think of his new and unavowcd (but PATENT motive
OF course readers ought to be stern; having
caught their author in a wrong motive they ought
to punish him by deserving him instantly But
readers are human; they are even surprisingly
selfish at times; they are capable OF considering
their own enjoyment, and dreadful to say, they are
capable of considering it first So if, in the ease
of Mr. CHAMBERS they find his new motive friendly
and Aatterng they read him more than ever; on the
other hand if they find the changed purpose dis
agreeable or tiresome, aiming to uplift them or to
shock them unpleasanty or (sometimes) to make
fun of them they quit that author cold. And they
hardly ever come back. Usually the author is not
perspicacious enough to grasp the cause OF the de-
lection; it is amazing how seldom authors think
there can be anything wrong with themselves
Usually the abandoned author goes right over and
joins small sect of highbrows and proclaims the
deplorable state of his national literature. 1.-The
public be damned - he says in effect but the public
is not damned it is he that is damned, and the pub
Tic has done its utmost to save him.
Sometimes All author deliberately does work that
m less than his best but he does this with the
idea of making money, if he entertans that idea
he fools no one but himself. There are known and
even 1--WE believe) recorded instances Of an author
rdculing his own output and avowing with what
he probably thought audacious candor: 'Of course,
this latest story of mine is junk-but it II sell
100000 copies!
1t never does. The author is perfectly truthful
in describing the book as worthless IL he implies
as he always will in such that he deliberately
did less than his best he is unconscious liar II
was his best and its worthlessness was solely the
suit of his total nsincerity. For
may write very bad book and write it with
utter sincerity that will sell hundreds of thousands
Of copies; but no can write very fine book
insncerely and have il sell.