Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-12-05
DR.. FELIX E. SChElllNG
On Literary Phenomena

COBER MINDED journalists give them
y solves occasionally to commencing or
bpInoaning the pass to Which the literature
of the age has come. Some grow nerccIy
Joyous at what they sec rs the creation Oh
new standards and others are ineXprcSsioiE
sadlpncd at what they regard as do"nrIBnt
dCcadenCe. Whichever the case. all inns i
foolish, according to DR.. Felix r. Schclling,
head of the department of English Mt thc
University Of Pennsylvania, because con
temporary literature is just where II might
have been expected under the natural laws
which govern writing.
S,helling, that most Of what is written
nowadays Is trash. To say that Is 10 say
the obvious 1t might have been, ana was
Just as we'll said in any other age. Pcrhaps
there IL Il greater amount of trash written
now, but that is because there are more
writer's nOw and more writer's because there
is a larger reading public. That is one OF
the things 10 be said against promlscu0us
education, for there can never be Such
thing ms democracy of letters. Livery
writer must write down to his audience, ana
| might say that there is nothing new about
that either. Shakespeare did it, and GEN.
turtles before him AriStophancS did. There
Is small point in saying things II nobody
understands them. But the writer OF today,
because he writes to q wider audience, must
strike an even lower common denominator;
provided, Of course, his main concern is to
turn an honest penny.
"But in this | can sec no occasion for
lament, brcauS" it is, after ALL the natural
thing and the expected thing. These
writers that | have spoken Of do II very
useful work in giving the great public what
ever measure of intellectual enjoyment 1t Is
able TO take out of reading. To take an
automobile salesman, mill owner or an
engineer and send him triumphantly over Il
series of obstacles is, after all, to repro
Iurp the CnpTOsSiDH intellectual nrOb-
lens Of an average reader. This stuff will
fill its purpose and then, as such stun has
always done, pass into oblivion and liter
atur" will have been none the worse for II.
"NOr can | see any need to be wrathful
at the AbSurditcs written by our particular
generation Of rcvolteS. The past has pro-
duced such absurditirs, and that nobody re-
members them is the Surrst proof that these
present nbsurditCS will not be remembered,
either. Understanding this, it seems TO lnc
that it is no particular strain to take Il
tolerant view of such things If Miss Lowell
is really trying TO say something, it Is lust
~ we'll to give her the chance, and if she
is not, there is no particular harm done.
Onc may look into Miss Low"lI'S verses and
decide that one does NOT care to continue
thc acquaintance and be justified but one
has no right to jump to the conclusion that
Miss Lowell Is bringing malign influences to
bear ON the coming literary generations.
That is taking Miss Lowell more seriously
IMAM SIlt U'SNlN'H'
''Cnrl Sandburg is no particular harm TO
anybody. either. ! read Somc of Mr. Sand.
burg's poems and found myself Obliged 70
him for telling me many things ] was clad
to know and didn't know before But ON
the whole he is just man who sets out TO
find ugly things and to tell about them IN
un ugly way. He Is an intellectual tough.
Ohc j. not forced to associate with tougLs
hut il is good to remember that tOughnpsS
Is human natur" IN Il certain phase
"'Hhc more ambitious English and Amcri-
can fiction has taken II swing toward rculisln
or emphasis ON the familiar and common,
place; but in this, too, there should be
hutltiug 10 give anybody worry. There is
certainly no phenomenon in it. Twenty wears
ago the swing was all toward romance und
Just aS soon rs some one writes auuI hcr
romance that Is as good as Treasure Islnnd'
the ucndulum will swing back again | do
not object to the attention that Main Street'
Is getting, for the human emotions and i'm
pulses which are the spirit of literature are
felt and may be observed on Main street os
anywhere else.
'Thcrc are only two things that fiction
can do for the reader, and these are TO prc-
sent to him that with which he IL already
familiar or 70 acquant him with something
altogether strange, This Is to define the
academic terms classlcism and romanticism.
Ny feeling Is we need both, and the natural
laws, which govern human life will save us
from too much of either.
'There Is too great a tendency ON the
part Of young writers 10 align themselves,