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) mU- THIS SAXOPHONE KIND DOESN'T the music of these mod- ern popular orchestras thrill you and make you hanker to get hold of some instrument and play WHY not try a saxophone? When you -get to fooling with one of these instruments you'll not stop until you can make it talk. And it's some talk, too, - this saxophone kind! CULTIVATE that musical bump. Play asaxo p h o n e. There's a world of pleasure -- and profit too - in playing a saxophone. 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