Evening star., 1938-09-18
PE0PLE'SACTN|TY
HELD TOOL|M|TED
Wearing intellectual and
Spiritual Binders, Says
Author Nelson.

willy nllly, says FRANCIS Nelson, vet
eran writer and stage craftsman.
"A great trouble with this country"
asserted the English-born author, "is
that 1t does one thing and one thing
only. That's rather wearying.
whether we like it or not, we must
adopt some European methods, chiefly
the practice of doing many things.
Il am sick and tired Of having peo-
pie coming to me asking, How do
you do it? How can you have so many
interests and jobs at your age-71?'
am not satisfied to have a half dozen
irons in the fire; must have a dozen.
I want to turn from one thing to an
other-that's where get my rest.
I'VE are faced with an appalling
condition. We see men gifted along
one certain lire. but wholly unrespon-
sive to the movement of the rest of
life and ideas around them Many Of
our people in the professions are thus
handicapped. They cannot converse
1ntelligently on general cultural sub
3ects to save their lives.
Too Much Going On.
1T won't do. There is too much
going on in the world. Well be over
whelmed If We don't watch out"
Limitations attributable to that con-
9 dltion. Nelson averred, were apparent
In the Nations literary production.
1T seems to me, from what have
read, that the writing today is not as
good as 1t was. The trouble I have
found In fiction, in a comparative
sense. is that the men of TODAY are
too fluent. Writing has become an
easy thing. Almost any one can write
today. but one seldom comes across
q great character created by writer
I have found the great defect In
i1ction not in the technique itself, nor
IN the descriptive side of it, some of
which is beautiful. but in the lack
OF strong, clear-cut Characterization
Pernaps this lack Of delineation with
the pen Is the reason why books come
ana go and are forgotten so quickly
american writers are pushed too
Ear: they are writing too much. An
autnor came to me recently and said
ne 1elt creatively empty. He asked
wnat thought he should do to renew
nlmsel1. advised him to spend a
1un year at sea and in quiet. distant
places' TO make no notes whatever.
forget all about pencils and typewriters
ana DOCKS; merely to let things soak
IN, and come back at the end of the
year with fresh and vital impressions
and IDEAS
Plays Too Intimate,
AS for the theater there has been
TOO great tendency to leave the an
dlence out of proper consideration.
Plays had become too conversatio
TOO intimate, too much a private af-
lair among the actors.
The last time 1 went to a NAV
we mad seats in the third row. It
looked like it might be an interesting
play. but couldn't be sure. I couldn't
De turning to my wife all the time
and asking, what did he say?' It
would have been p guess on her part,
anyway"
The author Of "A Butterfly on the
Wheel" lie Baiser De Sang" and other
plays said now that the movies have
pretty much taken 1t over, have little
or no interest in the theater.
Technique is no longer essential.
The camera does what technique used
to do. You can build a real theater
only on principles that have become
a tradition, and the true tradition of
the stage is, I believe, gone forever.
Little attention is given to voice
tooay The profile is all-important,
Actors turn away from their hearers
and humble nobody knows what
jargon. Is it any wonder our movie
audiences are fidgety? Nevertheless,
audiences today will take anything the
producers wish to give them.
Movies at Best in Music.
The only satisfactory function of
the movie that I can see would BE-
as medium for the adaptation of
operas and operettas. The movies
have been at their best in the making
OF musical shows; the players at least
can be understood have been asked
"netner l considered 1t practicable to
put Wagnerian operas on the screen.
particularly Der Ring Des Nibelungen.'
believe it would be possible, especially
II the JOB were given to an authority
as DR.. Frederick Stock, conductor of
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra"
IN late years Nelson has been writ
ing on ECONOMIC and social questions,
trying to express the old ideas that
we're IN mems minds when came to
the United States first in 1885 and
again in 1915"
Il am trying to help restore Amer
lean traditions to America" he as
serted.
I protest against any leader or ad-
mnistration that fosters the notion
that capitalists who have played the
game are nothing but lot Of bandits,
sheer enemies of mankind. It is time
Tor the business men to shake them
selves out of their lethargy and show
they have backbone. American busi-
ness is not run by stuffed shirts and
exploiters of labor"
To Write "reminiscences.
Nelson said his next literary task
would be the writing of his remi-
mscences-a detailed story of his first
years in this country, writing for news
papers and theatrical journals. his