SUNDAY, NOVEMBEP. 20, 1921
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
5
A DEFENSE OF NATURALISM
(By Eva Anderson) ing by the naturalists into the physi- as he sees it portrayed in naturalistic At the end of his article Mr. Hoover
There appeared in these columns cal and spiritual texture of human fiction. But, I question, do not cli- seems to demand that art be a sort of
last week an attack on naturalism. life? New values to displace the old maxes become monotonies after they short cut to cheerful living. Of course,
The writer no doubt expected an ones that are constantly disintegrat- begin to repeat themselves? And many there is nothing of this kind in natu-
answer. He perhaps knew that there ing and changing. In attempting to repetitions are inevitable, especially in ralistic writing any more than there is
are among students here too many ad- form new values we must strive to the mental life, because a man's tend- in the "Iliad" or in "Lear." The natu-
herents of the naturalistic writers know in all its intimacy, the reality ency is to react rather than to act. ralists recognize life for "the vast and
for his views to stand unassailed. But from which alone such values can The article then cites history as a awful business" that it is. They are
upon starting to write, I hesitate. This arise. The fundamental truth upon record of a series of climaxes, but he trying to understand and conquer an
struggle between the real and the which rest all science and all natural- neglects the fact that history is not unfathomable world by grappling with
ideal is as old, of course, as the fac- istic art is that the concrete is eternal- art; the writing of it is a science. the facts of life first-hand.
ulty of expression. And compared to ly significant. His two main charges against natur- Can life, which contains so much
all that has been said on the subject However, Mr. Hoover 'prefers to alism concluded, Mr. Hoover begins to meaningless monotony and common-
in the past, this latest manifestation stumble upon these values or ideals argue "constructive criticism." I won- ness, be other than tragic? Persons
seems puerile-a tempest in a tin can. in what he terms "our nobler mo- der if in so doing he is aware that he who have not the courage to face this
But such is the calibre of the usual ments." He and the rest of the ideal- disposes of Voltaire, Swift, and a half fact may seek refuge in reading fairy
college discussion. ists seem to prefer to veil the im- hundred other famous critical writers. tales with the children. Men of stern-
The first point upon which I dis- mediate facts of human nature and de- In this "constructive criticism," I er stuff will turn to Whitman who,
agree with Mr. Hoover, the author of lude themselves with a hollow per- find Mr. Hoover contradicting directly feeling only "underfoot the divine soil.
the article, is his affirmation that fectionism. Their "ideals" can be no what he set forth in the first part of overhead the sun," desired also that
naturalism is hostile to man's pro- more than mere empty figments since his article. At first he is prone to man in literature should be treated "as
gress in living. He considers the they are not be evolved by the genuine condemn naturalism and naturalistic he is in himself and in his own rights."
ugliness and sordidness of life; to give longings of the human soul. methods because such a view of life
a photographic view of life and to rest The second charge brought by Mr. would keep things static, hinder all
content. This fallacy is an old one, Hoover against the naturalistic method progress. Now having advanced Russell's Book Sells in England
and I am rather surprised to find it is that it "consciously and deliberate- through a half column, he is ready to In October 1919, Alfred A. Knopf
so persistent. ly avoids the climax." It is true that affirm that it is not a matter of pro- published a first book of short stories
As a matter of fact, the spirit of our naturalists will have nothing of "cli- gress, but of moving in cycles. He is
naturalists' endeavor to understand max" as this device is so ponderously also ready to prophesy that the "litera- of the South Seas by a young Ameri-
and present the facts of human life explained in the average "literature" tsre of tomorrow" will be profoundly can writer, John Russell, under the
just as they are is somewhat the same class. To them climax is so much influenced and reinforced by the nat- title "The Red Mark." Only a few
spirit that governs the scientists when lumber. Life-the stuff with which uralistic method. Thus, he has proved hundred copies were sold, and both
he tries to discover and understand they deal, and deal honestly-does not nothing. author and publisher were according-
that which is. These moderns observe work towards "curtains" through a He is also given to the making of ly much disappointed. The book was
life with stringent closeness and as it series of conveniently arranged epi- bold statements, to back up which he published this year in England under
is; even as science has seen the pro- sodes. Going a step farther, is climax makes no effort whatever. For ex- a new title, "Where the Pavement
cesses of nature as they are. The sci- essential to art? If so, why not look ample: "The writer does not maintain Ends", and proved one of the chief
entist sees the processes of nature not for climax in a song, a painting, or a that naturalism is not art-but he does successes of the London season, run-
as some theological preconception statue? say that it is not the highest art." Who ning through eight editions in the
would have them be; in the same way Mr. Hoover objects further to the is to stand judgment? Mr. Hoover needs month immediately following publi-
the naturalist of the first rank sees exclusion (he calls it "expunction" to learn from the naturalists a lesson cation. It has now been republished
life not as some moralistic preconcep- once) of climax on the ground that about drawing conclusions. The great here by Mr. Knopf under the English
tion would have it be. human experience is a "series of cli- naturalistic artist sets down his vision title, the American edition having two
And what is to come of all this dely- maxes" and not a "monotonous level" of life and is silent. more stories than the English.
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