The Washington times., 1934-03-17
True To
Type
Book for 20 Years
Given to Scorner
Of Fiction
BY GILBERT SELDES
BY GILBERT SELDES

Of Fiction
BY GILBERT SELDES
For three reasons I have to
write about "Ulysses" again.
First, because the clean bill of
health given to the book has
been challenged and the case
may go to the higher courts.
Second, because several of my
readers have written to pro-
test that, on my recommends
ton, they have bought the
book and make very little out
Of it. And third, because I
have just asked Random House
to send a copy of ulysses" to
Mr.. Martin Panzer. a resident
Of New York, who last Feb
ruary wrote me the most in
teresting letter I received in
answer to my question: what
items of contemporary interest
have any chance of survival
in 1854"
AS to the courts, I have
nothing to say except that I
both hope and believe they
will sustain Judge Woolsey in
his clear and sensible opinion.
If the book tends to debauch
and corrupt, the prosecution
had better scurry about and
bring evidence of corruption
since the beginning of this year
(when ulysses" began to cir
culate freely and exclusively
due to the influence of that
book.
Help at Hand
AS to the difficulty of read
ing ulysses" I grant it freely.
It is the only book of contem-
porary literature, so far as I
know, about which several
companion books, explaining
its obscurities, have been writ
ten. You might think it was
Dante's Divine Comedy" a
textbook, needing explanatory
notes. It is far more inter-
eSting to me than Dante, and
I am just as willing to make
the effort.
There is "A Key to the
Ulysses of James Joyce" by
Paul Jordan Smith, published
by Covici, Friede; I do not
exactly accept all his explana-
tionSp but they clarity the
method. There is Stuart Gill
bert'S immense work on the
same subject (Knopf; and a
new key, James Joyce and the
Plain Reader" by Charles
Duff, has already appeared in
England and will probably be
published here. Also Smith &
Haas have just issued James
Joyce and the Making of
Ulysses" which I have not
yet seen.
Read for Fun
My suggestion is that even
without these books, an average
reader can get a lot out of
ulysses" if he reads it, as Pad
riac Colum suggests in "Con-
tempo" for fun. If the words
seem crazy or jumbled, get
what amusement you can out of
them, treat them as puns or
jokes. Slowly the method will
reveal itself. Gradually, you will
find Leopold Bloom one of the
great. attractive comic figures
of all literature. Do not bother
about subtle meanings; they are
there and they will come to you.
Finally, Mr.. Panzer did not
nominate ULYSSES" for a 20
year span of life. In fact, he
named no names. He said that
''fiction is the toy of our baby
civilization and when that baby
grows up, it will discard the
toys. None of today's fiction
will live, save as a curiosity"
For good measure, he threw in
yesterdays fiction, and to make
sure, added with fiction, into
limbo will go poetry" He gave
Q chance to biography, noting
that it might evolve from the
cheap true story.
I do not agree with Mr.. Pan
Zer. It is quite possible that fic-
tion and poetry are among the
few signs of maturity, and that
everything else may be dis
carded in the development Of
our civilization, in favor of these.
I think it more civilized to read
p. G. Wodehouse than to work
at a machine. However, I didn't
ask for letters stating my own
views; Mr.. Panzer stated his
with vigor; they are interest
ing. and he got a book,