Evening star., 1925-10-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
TAKING THE LITERARY PULSE.
Joseph Collins. George H. Doran
/. G.. NJ.


Co.
! the Literary Pulse" and THE Doctor
Looks at Literature" evidence the
tact that their author, Joseph Collins,
M. d., does upon occasion apply the
science of diagnostics not exclusively
| to the ailments of mankind but TO
the ailments Of modern literature as
! well. And of q certainty there are
! signs aplenty that considerab BILE pro-
| portion of current fiction is in need
OF expert medical attention. For,
| clearly, much OF this fiction is run
ming a temperature It's symptoms
are strongly febrile. It's appearance
Is hectic. It's reactions are all those
OF uncontrol and spasmodic incerti-
tude. Not alarmingly. but to a GER
tam extent, a psychopa thic state Of
current literature exists, correspond
ing TO the sick and ailing states of
mankind itself.
The professional career of DIR. Jo-
seph Collins has for 80 wears centered
upon the mental and emotional insta-
hlllty that so commonly aff1icts men
and women in these whirling days.
His business, in 50 far as this is pos
Slble, has been to hunt down causes
of such manifest failure on the part
OF these impaired people to equili-
brate themselves to human units of
! efficiency and happiness. An earnest
man devoted to his profession. the doc
tor in these probings must, obviously
have discovered much of fundamental
| moment and general concern about
the human in general. A vital point
in these Investigations has been to
ascertain the effect of these errancies
OF thought and feeling both upon the
secret life of the individual himself
and upon his influence as an outgiv-
| ing member of society.
Poise and good sense hold the doc
| tor on the one hand from complete
/ Submergence in the fascination Of
pursuing the deeply hidden human 10
whom every mothers son of us is
involuntary host and. on the other
hand, from running amuck, when he
does emerge. upon some fanta site
! scheme Of palliation or cure.
~
And this good dlagnostic equipment
the doctor here turns upon the sick
fiction that nowadays is spreading
| both England and America with the
effiuvia of its personal unhealth and
the backed-up slime Of a general bad
drainage. Current fiction is sexTid.
den. To be sure. there is still a good
stock of fine authorship that exists
thrivinsly and which will continue SO
to exist. He agrees, however, that the
press, the play, the movie. the pub
Usher, are-consciously or needless
| ly-combined in a tremendous public
! ity campaign for the exploitat ton Of
sex as the openly avowed center of
all human interest and concern. He
| cites the alarm of the good folks, eX-
| pressing itself in hysterical mea sures
! for stemming this tide of dangerous
! publicity. Legislation, purity leagues
and other associations of a thousa nd
| names are bent upon this stampede
| of reform. Appreciating the source
| and fervor of the general agitation,
| the doctor, nevertheless, advises cool
/ ness and common sense. The forbid
| den thing is the desired thing. Eve
| started that-a passion that has been
| going strong since 1t bourgeoned in
! her own private garden patch. To
! assuage the fears, TO mollify the
! acute distress of the good people
| the doctor opines that salacious lit
| erature is not so generally read by
| the boys and girls as may be as
! sumed. He reminds us that young
. people-the ones around whom all
| this anxiety gathers-are absorbingly
! busy with their own affairs, active
! affairs. instead of the sedentary busi-
| ness of poring over books. Youth
! is "a period of tremendous preoccu-
. pations. 1t is avid for experience, for
! life, for happiness. Youth, moreover
! has an instinct of reticence that shuts
| it away from many harmful things
| Youth is instinctively clean. The doc
| tor observes that the ma ajority OF
! readers of books which are bent upon
| official ban are elderly men Of remi
niscent mood and sex-hungered elderly
| women of sequestered life. Sounds
| pla usible So he is all for soothing
hubbub that only stimulates desire
| by exciting curiosity. And here the
| doctor says something that sounds
| sane and quite beautiful: Sex is
an integral part of human life. With
! out it life would cease to exist in a
| very short time. But it is not the
! whole of human life any more than
! the gasoline in the tank is the whole
| Of the machine that transports us
| from London 10 Paris in two or three
| hours. There are other constituents
| of the airship as worthy of considera
! tion and quite as essential as the
gasoline and which excite ones ad
miration even more. In human life
| we call these factors by different
names; truth. beauty. humor, spiritual
| ity. and we believe they play very
| important part in the history of every
! Individual" Children should be taught
! the truth about sex, SO the doctor
/, saws. asking Immediately. who shall
! teach them a question whose
J prompt answer is God knows -
since every father and mother is SC
mortally ashamed of that which
brought these children into existence
DARK LAUGHTER. Sherwood An.
derson. Boni G. Liveright.
Sherwood Anderson has a place in
the clinic for diseased literature. car
ried on here by DIR. Collins. Sher-
wood Anderson of America and Mr..
| ID. II. Lawrence of Great Britain.
The latter concerns himself with sex
perversion, Anderson with sex -obses-
sion And the doctor has very sane
and dispassionate things to say about
| Sherwood Anderson, illustrative Of
| the erotic neurotic egotiSt, endowed
| with great ability that flashes out be-
| tween black clouds of confusion, am
biguity, rebellion and sheer nonsense.
| He agrees that Anderson has the gift
| of cadenced prose, the gift of words
| that march together in harmonic
wholes. He gives him the benefit of
honest intent in the furtherance of
stark rebellion against the purpose
and the substance and the spirit of
| American literature.
must have been buried away
| somewhere not to know sherwood
| Anderson better. AS an admission
this Is deeply humiliatins. AS an 'ex-
pericnce, however. BLACK Laughter
is like meeting the first man, or the
| first woman in the world. Like walk
ing up to some strange being, and
around him. and away from him, try
ing to decipher the alien appeara nee,
to determine the curious movements
to recognize unfamiliar gestures, to
| interpret the unknown speech, to un-