Evening star., 1934-01-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

good members Of the circular school.
Nor derision on the faces OF those Of
the square persuasion.
It Is not so much a matter Of teste
as mood, for mood In reading Is sacred,
let those dispute 1t who will. But this
much Is true-if the reader likes
squares best he may find q certain
distaste at the back of his mind, and
despite him, over the work which
achieves triumphant circles.
This should be enough Of squares
and circles. for good books are neither
one nor the other. but simply intel
lectual qualities for which we have
let these figures stand for q few mo-
ments.
Books themselves transcend analysis;
If this were not so. nothing but best
sellers" would ever be published. There
Is no telling about book.
What each reader may tell about
himself, however, that is different
matterl
Therefore, the man who finds him.
self slightly put out over some real
masterpiece, harboring as he reads a
mingled like and dislike, need not doubt
his own taste, or be afraid to meet
the stareS Of the individual critics Of
his acquaintance.
prove itself each time it Is read. and
that If 1t does not do so, at any time,
or place, or with any reader, the trou-
BILE may lie with the book, or the
time. or the reader, not always the
reader, as SO many intolerant ana
would-be critics would have it.
- y
It Is possible to both admire and
dislike book at one and the same
time.
The feeling, for instance, that char
acters in q novel are not real" but
simply characters, is one which no
author, no critic, no lapse OF time, can
charm out of man.
The greatest critics may say just the
opposite, but let them; one must trust
the sanctity of personal opinion. or else
not read at all.
It is probable that the reader will
not like the characters, but find them,
one and all, Of type which he does
not care for in the least.
Now this Is disheartening, undoubted-
ly, because he then finds himself un-
writer. BY like" of course, one does
uOL IIlcdll dtlOll, LII oily oSA2oC, bbS
simply that inner understanding which
makes for outer comprehension.
Lacking this, the reader fnds the
men and women Of this novel only the
stuff dreams are made Of: they do not
ring true to him. but forever make him
feel that now he Is reading book"
*x* 4
The novel, no matter how often pro-
claimed great, which cannot take the
reader out Of himself, make him live
for the time being with the characters
in it. make those men and women &C
page, so that they seem to be emerging
from the reader, rather than from the
writer is not a great story for that par
ticular reader, and he should be true
10 himself 10 the extent OF telling HIM
self so firmly.
He need not tell any one elsei Dis
cretion is the better part of valor, in
deed, when it comes to running coun-
ter to accepted opinions in bookdom.
This famous story-yet, 1t Is a good
story. but 1t does not strike us at all,
somehow and some way. The charac-
tiers are but types, the emotions false,
there is no truth in it. Let us hurry
and finish 1t, get 1t of our chest, as
the saying is so that we, too. may say
we have read it. The rest of what we
might say let us reserve for another
time, when it shall become expedient,
or right.