Evening star., 1938-07-10
POETRY GREETED WITH SMOKER
Dampish Cutery Gets in Reviewers Realism
Dream Verse Seem Exist for the Sake of Discussion
but Have Nothing to Say. it*'i

VET this quoted editorial Is one Of
the very few tntelligible passages
in the more than 800 pages Of the
quarterly. As . statement Of pur.
pose, past and present, 1t is reason.
ably comprehensive; all you need to
get through 1t Is dictionary. But
that very circumstance Is illustrative
Of the reviewers whole objection to
writing that runs to schools" which
objection is that the school men can
| tell you what they want to do, and
that, II you are going to understand
their efforts, they will have to tell
you, too. Their best work is in ex-
planning themselves. The art III you
allow the word) which they produce
tells you nothing. It exists for the
sake Of the discussion which centers
round it.
Now, this is not the mark Of great
artistic achievement. There Is no rea.
son in the world, Of course, why .
man should not write something
which means nothing to anybody but
himself. (Psychopathic wards, it may
be remarked, are full Of fellows who do
that very thing. The reason for the
writing Of anything is only that
writer has meaning which he wants
to put into form-he wants to, you
understand, and that is enough But
If, when he has finished the job, his
work is no more than gibberish in any
language, there is reason why he
should not loftily announce that he
has spendidly subjugated syntax and
vocabulary to his individual ends. and
that his work is the more significant
from this eccentricity. And the rea-
son is very plain one, to wit: that
II he makes such a claim, he Is not
telling the truth.
For what are these schoolmens
"ends?" That is what the whole mat
ter gets down to. What is there for
them to express which requires the
'Subjugation Of syntax and vocabu-
larly?" Something tremendously inn
portant? 1t does not appear in their
works, unfortunately. Their ends are
considerably less notable than those
reached by Shakespeare. Goethe,
Moliere, to pick a few examples. And
those giants contrived to get along
with the language as men knew 1t.
No-the present generation of school
men. with their constant chatter about
pioneering" and ''frontierlessness"
and new forms" and the like resem-
BILE party of explorers who send word
daily to their base that they are dis
covering symptoms" of a mountain
range; they simply burst with reports
OF that range. but they never find it..
And the reason is, Of course, that it
is not there. So with these intrepid
literary would-be adventurers-they
are going to evolve universal sym.
bolic language with which to say
what? That they live in cobweb-dec-
GRATED attics, the stairs Of which have
fallen down. So far. at least, they have
told us nothing more.
THERE is. to be sure, In the current
issue of Transition. a great pother
about the might mind" and the edi.
tor, Eugene Jolas, announces that he
is at present engaged in q search for
the Language Of night" In pursuit
Of this search. he has sent out q
QUESTIONABLE to prominent and not
so-prominent writer's. asking II they
feel "the need for a new language
to express the experiences" Of their
respective might minds" It Is In.
teresting to note that writers Of any
ability have in general answered ths
question with brief negatives. But
as they grade downward in the scale
of talent the correspondents send In
longer and more serious replies. This
ought to be significant.
T. S. Eliot, for example, says that
the answer is definitely no." Ernest
Hemingway replies that he would
like to be able to handle day and night
with the same tools" Robinson Jeffers
does not think we need a new lam
guage." Gilbert Seldes opines that he
will stick to English" And Sherwood
Anderson writes that there seems to
him IAN infinite opportunity. as yet
untouched in the language as 1t
is" These are men of definite accom-
plishment.
As for the reviewer, she can see no
reason why anybody should not in
vestigate the might mind if he so
pleases. But to announce that the
study Is going to be so productive Of
profound revelations that q new Ian
guage must be prepared in advance for
1t. Is patent nonsense. To claim any
relationship between the results of such
a study and the literary art Is of itself
likewise nonsense. It Is study for
a psychologist, anyway, not for an art
ist. When the psychologist comes to
write his findings up, it is to be hoped
that he will be able to do so in a de-
Gently understandable prose. So much
for him.
As for the artists, wnen they make
use Of the night mind in their works,
they will do so Tin the future as in
the pasO out of their own Unborn un-
derstanding Of the human soul, and
not out Of the results Of q statistical
study Of selected subjects. And it
will be q long time before the makers
Of statistical studies of selected sub
jects catch up, in their findings, with
the already written knowledge Of the
great artists. For the most the psy-
Geological statisticians have done to
date IS to put names and labels on
matters which have been perfectly
familiar to competent artists since the
beginnings Of writing. And this re-
quires, now, the creation Of . new
language?" Oh, little dampish clutter.
fiy, bless your earnest heart.