The Washington herald., 1922-03-10
A Plea for the Light Touch.

wyHEN F. P. A. cataputed "Hermione and
w Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers"
into the Tribune Coming Tower" several seasons
ago, might have believed that it was the first
symptom of revulsion against somewhat leaden
trend in writings. But then came the and
the spiritual let-down afterwards, producing not a
hedonistic literary reflex as has been the case in
England and possibly France, but of the
heaviness.
One phenomenon of this unchecked develop
ment is noted in the Literary Review of the New
York Evening Post which declares it rather pity
that the present vogue of realism has given rise to
the Earnest Intellectual"
The ban, it is declared, is on 'the sane and
wholesome injunction, Don't take yourself too
seriously! at least it would so, from much
literary shop talk overheard and many literary
gatherings observed. Even satirists heavy
handed.
Most of intelligentsia," the Post goes on,
"cultvates sublime aoofness. A hippant mind
among them suddenly feels intolerably lonely. And
yet one always knows just what they will con-
denim, just what they will admire They have be-
come as formuarized the writers and books they
abhor. They even eat their corn beef hash or ham
and eggs-or drink Postum-for a Behind
it there is idea 1t has something to do with the
doctrines of Jung, Bertrand Russell, D. H. Law
renee, John Dewey, or the New Art. Their cups of
coffee doctrinaire their cigarettes significant.
"One tires of this, perhaps. One gazes wanly
about for the wits of the Eighteenth century. One
listens for surf of laughter from the shade of
Mark Twain. These in earnest. Their
faces are drawn their teeth glitter, their spectacles
fash. Their eyebrows assert their dis1usonment.
But they seem to think they are important. That
is the trouble.
"Of course they are important, as important as
any other generation of writers and critics. but the
human instinct is to revolt from people who sit up
nights fretting about discussing their i'm
portance, the importance of their age One needs
an antidote, rough stuff, the careless lugubrious
stricken average slanging itself A little let-down
from this strain of being significant. 1t is a
strain
1--WE need more good light novels, for one
thing. insignificant novels-possbly insignificant.
1t was healthy for the pendulum to swing away
from them, it might be healthy for it to swing back
again for while When one counts up the num-
Der of really witty writers in this country at pres
ent. one is appalled, the way the heavy realists
overshadow them. In between there is the hack
work, much of it excellently we'll done in the way
that good carpenter builds a good house. But
lightmindedness true, Independent lightmndedness
without purpose is conspicuous by its rarity
Surely we have humor enough nation; we
fear or misunderstood wit, but possess the ca
pacity to encourage it. Our social conscience has,
however, given us mental Indigestion.
Rather, the urbane, the lightminded Va tryst
with the trivial, twinkling skating on the sur
face, indicating depths but not sousing into them
For while! There is some necessity for relief
from the earnest Intellectual while recognizing the
magnificent morality of his sternIy announced inn
morality, the great inherent nobility of his new
ethical code.