Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-18
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

With the millions of words being
poured forth daily from all the presses
Of the world, writing more nearly re-
sembles life today than at any time in
the long history of mans futile efforts
to put himself onto bricks, stone.
papyrus parchment, paper.
Writing, at best, is only an attempt.
Life has never been put into words.
Even the best ordered words, scented
with what we agree to call genius, fail
miserably to give US the laughter of a
child, the smile of woman in love,
the death of a hero.
At best our greatest writings are but
faint approximations. although We
treasure them because they represent
the best We have.
In this situation the obvious fits, pri-
marily because it is obvious. If writer
can. by enforced and unstrained ability,
convey the effects of the known by q
difference of method, or a seizure upon
salient points which may have escaped
the eyes of most, so much the better for
him and for his readers.
But that he should be ordered, upon
pain of q few frowns, to strain his mind
badly in an effort to please just few
people out of the millions is as absurd
as anything might well be.
There is, although some of our chief
smart alexis do not seem to know 1t,
certain pleasure in the reading OF the
obvious.
Does not all writing, even the hottest,
become obvious through mere existence?
Even Mr.. Mencken admits that the
poetry of the Bible is the greatest poetry
in the world: it has been printed and
read so much that 1t is tissue OF
threadbare ideas to all readers of today.
Yet no one, one may venture, can
read certain passages In Isaiah without
receiving q certain combination Oh
pleasure, thrill and exaltation. Yet now
there is nothing there but what IS trlte,
obvious, as familiar as an old shoe.
A man is obvious, a tree is OBVIOUS,
an ocean is obvious, yet each contains
much more than shows to the eye. a
man may hold a dream, tree untolo
fruit. a sea a new discovery. Out OF q
city of obvious walls may come great
war.
WHY should man shrink from the in
dubitable? Death is very obvious. The
pleasures of the senses and the recrea-
tions of the mind, are obvious enough
to furnish the theme song for a thou-
sand new novels every year.
The changes in phraseology are, after
all but part of the universal plot. The
cloud pictures which Nature unrolls in
the heavens are never alike, but basic
ally they are formed from the same
elements.
The obvious is too much with us for
us to forget 1t, or to pretend that it does
not exist, or to dare make out that we
prefer something utterly new, unknown,
unperceived before. The truth Is that
in books. songs, in life and love, we love
the known best. thrill most to the old.
Loves old sweet song lulls us to sleep,
the old country calls us back nome, the
scenes of childhood are never blotted
out by the newer charms Of strange
lands.
In the last analysis We are children
of the obvious, and he writes best, per-
haps, who is brave enough to recognize
this and to put it into words, without
fear or favor. The little dogs bark at
the heels of the great Newfoundland,
but when they grow up TO his stature
thew realize that he has been eating a
very large-and obvious-bone ell the
time.