Evening star., 1924-01-22
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THAT MARvEL-THE MOVIE. Ed
ward s. vanZile. G. =. Putnam's

THAT MAHVEL-ThE MOSIks Eo-
ward s. vanZile. G. p. Putnam's
That's it. That's my name. Cynic
t--Ichabod A Cynic. I'm from Mis-
souri," He locke it--both OF it
wearing that blend Of disillusion and
disgust seen at it's top notch of per-
| fection only In tho face of pure
bred English bulldog. I've Just read
the last chapter of this book about
the movies. That's all read of any
| book, the last chapter. Too many
books. Too little time. II a writer
has anything to deliver. or thinks he
| orally stops fooling around and shoots
straight. Now this movie man Is
clear up in the air--as far up in the
blue as William Jennings Bryan de-
claiming dry millennium, or Edward
Box turning, Innocent wise. broken
down experiment into a brand-new
peace propaganda The movie the
hope Of civilization" VIII you listen
to that? The eagging chops and
dropping mouth let down a full inch
here. and /. Cynic glowered around
for something to chew up--a railroad
tie, a telegraph pole--as he brr-rr-r3
out string OF movie names thai
were, clearly. g. stencil in his nostrils
If + II
"Oh. come now. You own up to hot
| reading the book. Had you done so
you would agree that the writer has
limned no impossible vision. has made
| no extravagant claim. What. In es-
F! scnce, he does say is that il the peo-
pie OF the world could be brought to
a common understanding, then the
barbarisms of the past would be
largely forgotten in an eager concert
amazing present and for progress
spiendor. That's what he says,
That's what you say. too. You have
Of your own daily contacts where
| common understanding produces the
plain give and take OF decent neigh
borhood relations. Just expand that
practice enough and you come up
beside this writer Our own Mr..
| Harding believed that. too-Let's get
| together and talk it over is what he
| said. thereby setting up a new way
\ mark along the road Of human prog
ress.
| "The chief barriers against this
| common understanding used to be
distance and diverse speech. Today
there is no distance So speech alone
Is the great obstacle. You recall
| when that difficulty arose-away
back at the Tower of Babel when, as
a safety first expedient. God con-
founded the speech Of men, leaving
them dased and bewildered under the
| blight Of a confusion of tongues.
That confusion has, since, increased
| in geometric ratio. Inventions have
sought to circumvent II, 10 overcome
| clumsy devices adding only to the
confusion.
| Then came the moving picture.
: and the great problem was solved.
Here, the first universal language
one that flows through the eye
straight into the mind. = language
and Eskimo. to Fiji islander and the
wild man OF Borneo, all of whom
| seize upon it as readily as do the
rest OF US. Here is the first real
/ chance for those contacts upon
! which a common understanding must
| rest, the first real step toward that
| general dissemination of knowledge
upon which genuine progress de-
pends; You, Ichabod A Cynies, you you
story. Read 1t all. 1t is silly for
you to sit in judgment when you
haven't a blessed thing TO sit upon,
except a prejudice that YOU call z
\ pious moral objection. Go back and
| read about the beginnings of this
I great ART. Feel proud of the Ameri-
cans-Edison and Eastman-who had
so large = part in 1t. along with
Daguerre and Lumiere Of France,
| along with Muybridge and Robe IT
| Paul of England. Go over that
| thrilling incident out in California
when. in dispute over the racing
action of a certain horse, Muybridge
4 ~
the course. settling the dispute and
( producing as we'll the first moving
| picture. A bungling process, to be
| sure, reduced later TO practical use
by the invention of single camera
to turn the trick.
| II = y =
| After reading so far. go on
| through this biography of the movie.
| Picture the work, the experiments,
| the failures. the courage. the excite
ment Of that first period. What. for
| for actorsT oh. nybody-anybody
| young and eager and with some SEM
blance of personality And. of course.
| II was all q mesa melodramatic.
| sensational. cheap and tawdry mess.
4 what trem endous success in q busi-
/ ness way it was. And what curious
! by-products appeared out of this sud
| den inflow Of money to .untried
4
| point at which you stopped. You are
| browsing over stage of the en-
| terprise that has practically been
\ superseded. Better move UP a little.
\ Better take up three or four more
| chapters in order to find out that
\ we are now near the end of a Soc
| ond and better period. This period
| Is that of the novel turned to movie
uses; stories1some Of them great
moved straight into the hearts and
minds Of millions. Another interest
ing by-product here. For the Ii
( brarians tell us that this pictured
| literature has drawn crowds to them
| for the books that first told the
! stories, and then for other books by
| these famous writers. Pretty fine,
! that"
well, the next stage of the movie
is clear only in general direction and
| stay by, for no one needs more to
| keep in step with this drift than you
do. Clearly, you demand to be shown.
Why not show yourself? Follow
thinks about the future of the movie.
According to him, its next field will
! be that of education. Don't fidget
/ and don't get ready to growl. 1t
is a forbidding~ word. education. one
| admits-made so by centuries Of timid
| muddling. But this writer is not
| thinking about that sort Of educa.
ton. instead, he means the real
| thing and a new day for 1t. To him
| the education of the future means the
| marvellous world Of science. first hu-
I manized, then turned over to general
| use by way of the movie, for the
| understanding and acceptance and in
! spiration of people everywhere-the
| real hope Of the world.
x x * y
! Knowledge, pure knowledge. you
! know, Mr.. Cynic, leaves one cold. No
| matter how wonderful science may
be in the nature and powers 1t Is
| remote, abstract, unappealing till 1t
l has been humanized made part
l ak fha narsnnal drama of life. I'M