OVEM BER 12, 1921 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
A Few Platitudes Concerning Fiction
a
(By Hardy Iosver) It
Although it is true that the best th
artist is one who makes his o4,n laws, is
it is not defensible to infer that he w
is justified in disregarding the es- ex
sential canons of his chosen medium. w
This passion for anti-form is due in af
large measure to that phase in the
world of letters called naturalism.. It
is surprising ts see ho wenthusiastic-su
is surprising to see how enthusiastic- Sc
our younger writers have embraced T
this method of expression. We see. th
many'of them carried far out to sea dc
by the excess of their own ardor.r
sc
Is it not just to say that the usa- cli
turalistic fictionist deprives himse f
and usof many of the higher artisti
values? And this, of course, he does r
consciously. What justification is there
for viewing man's life solely and whol-
ly as a series of phenomena This
phase in literature is but a corollary
of the modern over-emphasized scien-
tific attitude.
There is a higher art than the'mere
photographic observation of human ac-
tions. Although it is true that man
is a creature of environment it is just
as true that in his nobler moments
he transcends his environment. This
This he does by imagination, by ideal-
ism, by reflecting upon what he
should be rather than what he is.
Still, the practical protagonist of
naturalism will reply, how can one
express the spectacle of man trans-
cending his environment in objective
terms? The process is difficult, but
it is one which reveals the true"
artist, as in "Hamlet", "Cyrano de
Bergerac", "Polyeucte", the -"Book of
Job", "Faust", as in the biographies
of all dynamic men, all apostles, all
constructive geniuses.,
Progress is not effected by submit-
ting to environment and regarding
mankind as a natural phenomena but
by exercising imagination backed up
by intelligent human volition. Had
our ancestors held views analogous to
naturalism we would today be charac-
terized by astounding helplessness as
regards our struggle with nature as
well as by a much greater degree of
mental sterility than we possss at
present. The view of man solely as
the creature of environment seems to
be putting the cart before the horse.
Aside from external geographical
considerations man makes his own
environment. If he did not we would
still be living in caves and quaking
at the sound of thunder. If he had
thought thus we would have had no
great art. If art, and thus of course
fiction, be considered as the spiritual
rebellion against environment, we can
readily perceive the limitations of
naturalism
Considering these limitations, it is
apparent that this phase in drama and
fiction has two serious accusations to
face. The first of these is that of in-
directly opposing, that is, by exclu-
sion, imaginativeness, and idealism.
Although it were perhaps too severe a
figure to describe the relationship be-
tween these two elements as analog-
ously that between the camera and
th painting, it is still palpably defens-
ible to maintain that naturalism shuns
the treatment of many of those higher
qualities which distinguish man from
the beast. It savours of the animal-
ism of Zola and other French realists.
chooses only a part, and that not
e best part of man's terrestrial ex-
tence, for the great majority of us
ill agree that the best part of our
:istence here is precisly that part
,hich is not concerned with mundane
fairs.
Those who object will hurl back
ach names as Hauptmann, Hardy,
hnitzler, Dostoevsky, and others.
he writer however does not maintain
at naturalism iS not art-but he
es say that it is not the best art.
The second charge is that of con-
iously and deliberately avoiding the
[max.
Let us inquire into the legitimnacy among them would be so stoical, so
of such exclusion. The fact that el- negative in his reactions as Miss Lulu
max has hitherto been an institution Bett? How many mothers would re-
and a sine qua non in drama and act to the news of Lulu's second mar-
fiction does not necessarily render it riage as did tle mother of Lulu Bett?
indispensable. Yet this expunction is True, we must read emotion and
not only a gross technical mistake but psychology between the lines of this
also an unsound and unsupported in- book if we are to receive anything
terpretation of human nature. It is at all, yet there is no doubt but what
poor technically because it intrigues this method, although it has assured
readers and audiences only to disap- an ephemeral popularity, detracts
point them. seriously from the possible artistic
Perhaps there is no mqe monoton- merits of the book.
ous level in contemporaneous Ameri- To continue, the expurgation of the
fiction than that attained by the best-
seller of Miss Zona Gale. The book cImax is unjustified from a human
has many staunch zealots yet who
(Continued on page 5)
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