New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-27
A Booknlan's Day Book
BY Burton Rascoe
AUGUST le

~ tstbHA A<sttN3 AstAN - 49,
any writer knew. He is
A--<N man alsncst entirely OF intui-
tions, about which he is more or less
inarsiculate. That accounts for much
af the charm and irapressiveness Of his
poetry. II he had a keener aisertmina-
ton. i finer sense of word values and
more general information--itl q word
If he were more sophisticated and
articuiato---he would be, ii not Shake
Sneare. at least Virgil or a LuereGius
Hsya i an illustration. received q
letter from him to-day in which ne
said--of me, mind you-"You write 2
Sir Thomas Browne Urn Buriai
urose.p Now, nothing could be further
from the sonoFous organ music OF Sii
Thomas Browne than the piccolo, saxo-
phone and traps of my written stan
Had he said the prose of Decker, swift
Hazlitt or of any of the styiistlc
hoodlunas and hotheads of English hit
erature he would have been quite as
eatravagantly complimentary, TO be
e,,re huf much closer to the mark
The point Is that old Carl had prob.
ably Just been reading urn Burial
md had liked 1t immensely. the
iong~treading Brownesque perioas
would be Just the thing he teoald IKE
and he had liked also what he had
lust read that / had written apous
him, And so, with his genius
for inappropriate analogy when
makes the line Shovel EN- IN! IN
aCool Tombs'' and the whole poem
directed against Billy Sunday so star
tl;nolv distinctive, he said / wrote "a
Sir Thomas Brown urn Burial prose.
You see, he wanted to be at
cnce literary and grateful, and Old
carl'g attempts to be literary are
shont the most comical activities ]
know Of. He doesn't have to be; he
has native genius. Another in-
stance of his confused critical sense
used to infuriate Sherwood Anderson.
When old Carl was given the slnecure
Az motion picture critic Tor ne
Chicago Daily News" he got TO taxing
the movies with a heavy seriousness
He saw in them the modern substitute
for folk tales, hero legends ana ehan-
sons des gestes twhich, IN way, 1Hey
are1. and finally he got to seeing IN
them much more than is there ana be,
can to poetize about them. He would
run into Sherwood Anderson on the
street and say, with his slow, ponder
Gus. drawing bass and his serious
beetIed- browed manner. II just saw a
real. typical, sure-enough Sherwood
Anderson movie. 1t was real Wines
burg stuff. 1t had CUTS to 1T and the
breath of the prairie country Dreezed
all through it. 1t was Bill Hart ~
.---.''' and he would name some
terrible title like Hearts Astray,' where
at Sherwood's lips would culver. ~, :
In CARTS poetry this very quailty !
have described becomes a SHINING a vafsas'
Suggestion, rather than explicit de-
Iineetion and exposition is, of course,
frequently the function of the tinest
noofrv. And Carl is always lntimat-
inc or giving the effect of intimating
much more than you gee in BLACK ana
whi+a when YOU read him. Take ms
bomaoe to Brancusi. AS art criticism
az an exclamation Of Brancusis 1nten'
tons and artistic problems it is nom
sensical and somewhat absurd, but as
noetrv and for an intuitive sympathy
with Brancusi's expressive self 1t Is
sunarb. The poem begins: "Brancusi Is
a qaloot: he saves tickets to take him
nowhere; a galoot with his baggage
ready and no time table
We'll. in the first place, Carl IS even
mixed up here on his slang. When ne
calls Brancusi ''galoot" ne means
TO honor him, and "galoot" IS IN the
West a term of opprobriuln. III IS ho'
complimentary even with . smile. II
the second place, Brancust knows very
we'll what he is about: ne IS con,
scious artist, working on problems o.
form particularly concerning the spneIit
and spheroid. He is not taking Wlie
a;ghts. nor is he on Quixotic aesthetic
spree. And yet the poem essentially
suggests or intimates Brancusfs tlna
aim and effect perfectly.
AUGUST II
Something prompted me this after
noon q think it was another one o.
those "Whither Are We Drifting"
ticles to reread part of g. 4. w
Patricks excellent book on 1.-THE Psy
chology of Relaxation" There Is al
intelligent and interesting explanation
81 iazz music, modern dancing, ses
novels, speed mania, fapper antics ant
other contemporary phenomena t.
which so many lay and professions
preachers take objection, ! shouidn
like to condense DR.. Patrick's thesis, be
cause people who are interested ough
TO read it: but I shall point out tina
after reading that book | had weight,
support Of my belief that all the as
meets Of life which are objectienabl
to some people are but natural and In
evitable satisfactions of definite huma
needs created by complicated serie
of causes. A man doesn't get drum
on prohibition whisky TO annoy som
white ribbon man, and factory glr
doesn't dance the Chicago all nigh
on a IL by Is floor in a sutfocatin
cabaret to give DR.. John Roach Stra
! ton something 20 preach about: She
hn% lAftrifo ncTrh IN
needs To preach against jazz musl
or Da-daism in art is to preach agains
every factor, economic, political, spirit
ual and social Of contemporary civil
cation, of which these phenomen
are legitimate expressions. You can
do away with one without doing ava
with the other. Such knowledge make
me even tolerant Theoretically of ID
Straton and sir. John Sumner. thes
men are fulfilling an urgency in thei
psychological make-nps in relation t
the times. l am exasperated with Their
only when they interfere with my ewl
psychic satisfaction, which, unfortu
nately, they do or fheaten to do, ever
time they open their mouths. War il
self is no more than the outcome 0
this conflict of urgeneies.
The phenomena of centemporar,
civilization, no less. are, If not disturb
ing. at least interesting as a spectacle
and one would do we'll to discover TIL
various links in the chain Of causes
There has been, for instance, boo
on the best selling lists for the pas
six months called 's0utwitting Gu
Nerves" by jackson and Salisbury. |
s, think. sound and practical trea
Use in mental discipline and psyeho
therapy and it 10 fulfilling need
That Is the interesting fact about &