Evening star., 1928-02-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f.. TRACEWELL.

| into evolutiOns Oh. the horrible evolu-
tions of the convolutions! Oh, the in
tense misery Of the cbullitions!'
y # " "
The problem OF writing. the speaker
continued, after a mild burst OF laugh
ter had subsidized Is much the same
whether in novel, magazine. news
paper or what-nOt. He must, above
ali, interest his readers. He cannot
choose his readers: they must choose
him. They read of their own free
will, whether he would approve OF them
or not. In the great circle OF readers
one is on par with another. In so far
| as he. the writer, can make any public
statement upon the case. In private
| he may feel and know that the Criti-
cism Of So-and-So weighs In the scale
against 1000 countcr-critiCisms but
he is not at liberty to say so. There
are certain things that cannot be said
In public in a civilized country.
| Equally. there arc certain ways OF
writing that cannot be indulged In
without bringing upon the head Of the
writer the reproach of cxaggeration.
He is said. by those who believe In re-
straint. to have achieved merely the
mawkish. They laltNh at what he has
written. not because 1t Is not we'll writ
ten. for It's kind. but bccal,e 1t is not
written to suit them. Upon the We
racity Of their belief they rest their
case. They realize. as we'll as any one
and perhaps better than most. tAat
they risk being called old-fashioned
This charge Is the ageless Cpithet
hurled at the conservative. In reply
they point to the endless disputes in
the literary circles OF all countries ovcI
l,c in,, pf it, tf,yifi kr
| canons of good taste demand considera-
tion they declare. Literature, at pain
of being branded silly. must take into
account the thoughts of the best peo-
pie What the best persons think ant
fccl--this Is indeed something.
Every writer, every reader, every edi.
tor constitutes himself the Judge Of
any production. and In journalism this
is made oil the more difficult by the
great speed Of production and reading,
and hence of Judging. Who is there to
place himself as the 1nfalliblc Critic.
and TO say that thing Is or is not
good? There has been no great novelist
In the world who has not. at some time
or other. suffered from a wrong iudg-
mcnt by some one who seemed In n
possible Is It, therefore the speaker
went on. that every ono who reads a
newspaper story" as fact news ar
ticles are called in the profession. shall
be in a position to pronounce Judgment
upon such a production, especially II it
be out of the ordinary?
The criterion. 1t was agreed, must re-
main n fiftv-fifty proposition. one-half
based solidly upon the policy OF the
journal and the other half upon the
opinion of readers II the story" vio-
latcs tho policy of the paper. 1t cannot
b. considered a good story from that
standpoint. II. after violating that
policy. It wins reader approval it must
be held to bo good story from the
viewpoint of those readers that approve
Of It. Just what the Ultimate Criticism
will hold 1t remains To be seen. These
matters travei in we'll known circles.
always getting back TO the thought
that such production as that under
discussion did. indeed, attract atten-
tion. This is where the real writer
shines. II" will attract attention. He
NAV be- held down for time. but hc
will pop forth at last. He has some
thing in him which must be expressed.
even II ha has to become theatrical to
tlo IT,
II may be realized that the consensus
at the end Of the discussion was about
that at the beginning. Some still liked
1t. somc did not Some thrilled at al
legged violation of policies. others stuck
to their avowal OF 'maudlin" Like
most such discussions. It got no
vhcre"-~but just where does thought
go" ANYWAY, and after all?