The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-15
By GRANVILLE HICKS

Such magazines as Blast 1.-THE
Anvil" Left Front" and Dynamo"
are, whatever their shortcomings, the
hope of proletarian literature at the
present moment. The new generation
OF revolutionary writer's have had,
unlike the ;sO-called fellow travellers,
neither the advantages nor the dis
advantages of a literary apprentice
ship spent under bourgeois guidance.
They are expressing literary impulses
that from the first have been nur-
tured by revolutionary convictions.
Though they have not completely es-
capped bourgeois influences, they have
avoided most of the conflicts and
Commissions to which the typical fell
low-traveler is subject. Now the ques-
ton is whether they will receive a
training comparable to that the bour-
geois writer gets. Will their poorer
work be weeded out and their better
work given a chance to reach the
public and the critics? The response
bility is largely on the shoulders of
the editors of the proletarian maya
zines, who not only have the power to
determine what work shall reach the
public but also have uncommon OPP
portunities to exert sympathetic
and intelligent influence.
The second issue Of "Blast" is, like
the first, filled with stories of misery
and despair. Three of its stories end
with man numbering starving mem
beers of his family; three are sketches
of men who have been hopelessly
beaten by the depression; one is a
study Of small business man crack
ing under the strain of the crisis.
Only single story, mo Work, No
Rent" by the editor, Fred R. Miller,
introduces a militant note, and even
here the militancy seems almost &C
cidental.
Now it can be said in defense of
the contributors to BLAST" that the
short story is necessarily fragment
tary, and an author can seldom indi-
cate all the implications of his theme.
The writer's in BLAST" almost over
whelmed by the misery about them,
try to render the poignancy and
downright horror of that suffering.
They feel, and quite rightly, that it is
better to bring home to the reader
stunning realization Of the bru-
tally of contemporary civilization
than it is to feed him slogans.
But, even if we grant that the
short story must be fragmentary, the
question remains why we are given
only fragments of this particular
kind. No one wants Comrade Miller
to print stooge fiction, as Mike Gold
calls it, in Blast; but can he not
find somewhere writers who can put
into short stories the real militancy
of real workers. From Japan, China,
and Germany have come short sto-
ries Of the workers struggles, just as
fragmentary as the stories in BLAST"
but revealing other elements in the
contemporary scene and supplement-
ing the kind of fragments We find in
BLAST" These recdotes-they are
often little more-do suggest the
character and strength of the revolu-
tionary movement. And it is safe to
say that the talents which lie be-
hind such stories of action, when
they are we'll done, are essential to
the full development of proletarian
literature.
Bearing this in mind, we may go on
and ask how well the contributors of
BLAST" have done the sort of thing
they set out to do. And the answer
is that some of them have done very
well indeed c. H. Schillinger's
American Scene" though its CHI
max is too abrupt to be wholly con-
yincing, exhibits extraordinary pow
ers of characterization especially in
the portrayal of the elder Donavan.
In Bruno Fischer's Another Eve
Ming" the MARKHAM point of view eff
fectively reveals tragedy where SIN
clair Lewis would find only ridicu-
lousness. Alfred Morang in "The
Eviction" even more sharply than in
his story in the first issue of Blast"
evokes a scene of squalor that, mere
ly in itself, is almost adequate as an
indictment of the kind Of civilization
in which we live. And such talents
are by no means to be disregarded.
After all, proletarian literature must
be based not only on an understand
ing of militant revolutionaries, but
also on an understanding of the
masses Of un-class- consciouS workers.
"Blast" gives us only half a loaf, but
it is a great deal better than none.
KOIJWitz Exhibition at Chicago