Evening star. [volume], July 11, 1936, Page B-2, Image 16

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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CHANGING MOOD EVIDENT IN NEW NOVEL BY HUXLEY
_ ___ ♦ ♦-—-—
DISILLUSIONMENT TEMPERED
Outstanding Figure in English Literature Today Concedes Pos
sibility of Life With Dignity—Georgia Woman’s
First Novel Is Notable—Other Reviews.
By Marv-Carter Roberts.
EYELESS IN GAZA. By Aldous HUX
LEY. New York: Harper & Bros.
FOR some time the question of
what would happen to Aldous
Huxley has been an interesting
one to this reviewer, and, no
doubt, to all persons concerned with
current letters. In view of the tre
mendously conspicuous nature of his
work, it hardly seems necessary to
linger over the reasons for the Inter
est here; suffice it to say that as
long ago as "Antic Hay” he was ex
pressing with singular completeness
an attitude of intelligent renunciation
toward all dogma of illusion, and
that since the writing of that work,
in his fiction at least, he has vir
tually limited himself to restating his
position. His successive novels have
contained little that was not implicit
in the earlier one. No one, however,
could imagine that he would go on
Indefinitely in that manner.
It seemed likely, indeed, that he
would abandon the novel altogether
and turn finally to the essay. For
the novels that he has written have
been given over in large part to criti
cism. It was uttered usually by im
possibly long-winded old gentlemen
who had no other function in the
story or inserted as parts of the diary
of this or that literary character.
And increasingly the Huxleian fic
tion has shown a tendency to patch
these critical essays together with a
stereotyped action; increasingly Al
dous Huxley's books have seemed to
exist for the sake of their author's
asides rather than for their charac
ters. They have been slowing down,
in other words; the furious rush of
the earlier novel has become nearly
static; the attitude has crystalized.
How long, one has been wondering,
before a maturer economy would di
rect that the pretense of fiction be
dropped altogether and the essay
adopted openly? Or, if not that, how
long before some other course would
commend itself to this man of un
questionable genius who. as a novel
ist. seemed to have written himself
brilliantly out? It was a question.
It is answered in "Eyeless In Gaza.”
Admirers of the definiteness and clar
ity of past works will receive it with
For, io this latest work, Mr. Hux
ley has preserved his old novel form
and many of his old characters, and
moved them, too, through many of
the old gambits. But he has. for his
own part, attempted a new one. He
has made an effort to go outside of
his crystal of disillusion and pro
pound what one necessarily calls A
Solution. He seems to do it experi
mentally. With diffidence, with timid
ity almost, he puts forward the notion
that perhaps it is possible to live
with dignity and reason after all.
He suggests even that it may be
within our potentialities to live ef
fectively. It is a turn from the old
philosophy—a turn with a vengeance.
How does he go about this trans
formation? As has been said, he
keeps pretty well to his old outline.
The “action” of his novel concerns
itself with betrayals of individual in
tegrity, with adulteries and conver
• sation, none of which are very dif
ferent from the betrayals, adulteries
and conversations of previous works.
- ■ Interspersed through this familiar
material, however, are excerpts from
the journal of the hero, and into this
document Mr. Huxley puts his new
atrange interpretation of existence.
It has little or no relation to the rest
of the book until the closing chapter.
The behavior of the hero himself cer
tainly reflects nothing of the philos
ophy which his creator makes him
W'rite down. The new concept is
slipped into the old action paren
thetically — almost surreptitiously —
and with little relevance. Only in
the very closing pages does Mr. Hux
ley connect his hero with his hero’s
supposed ideas, and then, obviously,
it is a connection by technical neces
sity—the book had to end somewhere.
But what Is this new Huxleian
philosophy? That, of course, is the
important thing. One sets it down
in quotations, taking the passage from
the hero’s final meditations on his
future course in life.
"He himself. Anthony went on to
think, he himself, had chosen to re
gard the W’hole process (human poten
tialities! as either pointless or a prac
tical ink* Vpc Oh neon cv*... If ~1
been an act of the will. If It were all
nonsense or a joke, then he was at
liberty to read his books and exercise
his talent for sarcastic comment;
there was no reason why he shouldn't
sleep with any presentable woman
who was ready to sleep with him. If
It weren’t nonsense, if there was some
significance, then he could no longer
live irresponsibly. There were duties
toward himself and others and the
nature of things . . . And now at last
it was clear, now ... he knew that
the point was in the paradox, in the
fact that unity was the beginning
and unity the end, and that in the
meantime the condition of life and all
existence was separation, which was
equivalent to evil. Yes, the point, he
Insisted, was that one demands of
oneself the achievement of the im
possible. The point is that, even with
the best will in the world, the separate
evil universe of a person or a physical
pattern can never unite itself com
pletely with other lives and beings, or
the totality of life and being ... It
Is a test, an education—searching, dif
ficult, drawn out through a lifetime,
perhaps through long series of life
times. Lifetimes passed in the at
tempt to open up further and a little
further the closed universe that per
petually attempts to spring shut the
moment the effort is relaxed. Passed
In overcoming the separating passions
of hate and m&Uce and pride. Passed
In making still the self-emphasizing
cravings. Passed in constant efforts
to realize unity with other lives and
other modes of being. To experience
It in the act of love and compassion.
To experience It on another plane
through meditation. In the insight of
direct intuition. Unity beyond the
turmoil of separations and divisions.
Goodness beyond the possibility of
evil. But always the fact of separa
tion persists, always evil- remains the
very condition of life and being. There
r must be no relaxation of the opening
pressure. But even for the best of us,
the consummation Is still immeas
urably remote." After which medita
tion, the young man decides to devote
his life to pacificism.
That is what has happened to
Aldous Huxley. He hag adopted, it
would seem, a philosophy based on an
ultimate hope and allowing for a con
stant present failure—a species of
patient mysticism nearly Oriental In
character. He has found the physical
sciences on which he was nurtured in
sufficient and has reached out into the
realm where one man's guess is as
good as another's. Combining his
scientific attitude with the mystic in
a desperate attempt to rationalize the
universal phenomenon. Is it the end
of him as a novelfst? Frankly, it
looks like it.
Perhaps this development has been
implicit in Mr. Huxley's work from
the beginning. For there has always
been an element of desperation in
him. The thing which made his early
work sc stimulating was the shock and
horror with which he rejected. His
was never the renunciation of ennui;
it was the renunciation of young dis
covery. There was no weariness in
him. He rejected rather with positive
passion. And that was precisely why
his work towered above that of the
other disllluslonists. It sprang from
a nature fundamentally naive, and,
therefore, capable of seeing truth orig
I..ii.. aL_ t
iiihiij , miu *«v/v urn uuqii viiv jviiu vs
tradition or fashion.
So perhaps it was to be foreseen
that, desperate, he would lift himself
by the bootstraps of his need clear
beyond the objective reality which he
had found so loathsome—which is
what he has done. Indeed, he even
propheslzed his own course. One re
members, out of the lost young 20s, a
burlesque drama which he published
in Vanity Pair; it described Ironically
the youth of a coming generation
turning to the religion which their
post-war parents had renounced. Is
that not precisely what he has done,
in spirit if not in letter?
And yet one cannot cry "Ave Atque
Vale” either. One cannot quite bid
him good-by. “Eyeless in Gaza” is a
groping, uncertain book, but it atill
does not lay the question—what is
going to happen to Aldous Huxley?
As long as he writes at all, one
prophesies, he will still be Interesting.
He is too vital to be otherwise. As
often as he writes himself out, he will
return. He may turn monk, but he
will not turn trappist. He will not be
silent; he is incurably a writer. One
waits now his next move—with in
terest.”
GONE WITH THE WIND By Mar
garet Mitchell., New York; The
Macmillan Co.
'J'HIS novel of more than a thousand
pages' length has been praised for
presenting a vivid realistic picture of
the South during and after the Civil
War. It will not be the present re
viewer who takes exception to that
finding. It does most certainly present
a remarkable picture of the war and
the reconstruction day*. But more ex
cellent than that, to this reviewer's
mind, is the delineation of character
accomplished by the author in her
tieroine, Scarlett O’Hara. If the book
Pad no other merits—and It has many
—it would still deserve attention for
[he skill and consistency shown by its
author in portraying the female preda
tor, pure and simple. For that is what
the lovely Scarlett is.
She—Scarlett—dominates the book.
Rarely does one encounter a historical
novel which gives a realistic interpre
tation of its time and still has a char
acter who lives and seems to the reader
capable of living in any time. Usually,
in the historical work of fiction, the
packground subordinates the people,
pr else the people are romanticized
into types conventionally supposed to
pelong to the period under examina
tion.
But in “Gone With the Wind” there
is no such ill balance. The book is
fitted out with a heroine who is any
thing but a conventional Southern
type; she is a beautiful woman, to be
sure (belle of three counties), but also
me who is ruthlessly selfish, "unlady
like” and stupid. She is carried by
the action through paths somewhat
customary in the reconstruction novel;
she is left impoverished after the war,
tier once luxurious plantation home is
stripped, her slaves desert her, her
relatives and friends, similarly bereft,
are unable to help her. All this has
been met with before in novels about
the Civil War. But seldom has the
lovely heroine done anything except
suffer gentee'.y until a hero was raised
up to end her troubles by marrying
her.
Not so the redoubtable creature
whom Miss Mitchell has created in
‘Gone With the Wind." She doei not
wish to suffer—a fig for the genteel at
titude! She briskly marries the only
man she knows who has any money,
and the fact that be has been engaged
to her sister does not deter her for a
second. She tells him that the sister
is false to him (a lie) and catches him
neatly cm the rebound. With his money
In her purse she that sets out on a
business career as the owner and oper
ator of lumber mills. She is almost
Mtracised for doing anything so “un
womanly." Social approval, however,
means little to her. she has tasted
poverty, and now she is out for money.
When she is unable to make her
nills pay with colored labor she coolly
leases convicts and hires a driving boas.
She grows rich and takes on other
ventures; she runs a store and builds
i saloon. She uses her “womanly ap
peal'* all the time, of course, to help
ier on, but her secret feeling toward
hose whom «he bambooclea la hard
»n tempt.
It would sound u if this were a sin
gularly intelligent anti cynical person,
indeed a sort of Becky Sharp. But
that Is not the case. Miss Mitchell
makes it painfullv clear that it is not
brains, but pure desire-driven instinct
that guides Scarlett cn her way. She
endows her with no other characteris
tics than greedy. desire—and beauty.
She gives her no wit; she does not al
low her poor Becky's saving sense of
humor. She has her marry three
times without achieving any emotional
level beyond that of a dreaming school
girl. She does not even permit her to
display any great intelligence in her
business afiairs, but hu her act rather
on hints overheard from masculine
conversation. Yet, from the sheer drive
of her desire, she does succeed.
It is an admirable job that this
young author baf done, and evidence
of it is that, while she never spares
Scarlett, the reader will more often
than not find hlmscJf sympathizing
with her. Against the proud, frail
futility of the Southern defeatists,
who cling to their "ideals'' after the
strength has gone out of them, Scar
lett's brutally realistic behavior has a
tang of fundamental honesty. It is
she of course, who lws to come to the
rescue of the Idealists time and again,
but, while accepting her help, they still
gravely censure her for her “unlady
like” ways and speak disapprovingly
about "tainted money.”
Her masculine foil is provided in the
character of the blockade runner,
Rhett Butler, who would have been as
strong and Interesting a personality as
Scarlett herself had Miss Mitchell not
unfortunately fallen in love with him
about half way through the book and
tenderly romanticized him until his
original harsh outline is almost de
stroyed.
Withal. sne nas done a nne piece 01
work. Her style Is undistinguished;
she writes a simple chronical, but con
vincingly. She could have dispensed
with much detail without injuring her
story, but even with her 1.000 pages
she is seldom without Interest. Her
account of the South In its darkest
days shows deep knowledge and study,
and her treatment of the reconstruc
tion Invaders is admirably restrained
NEW YORK DISSECTED. By Walt
Whitman. A sheaf of recently dis
covered newspaper articles by the
author of •'Leaves of Grass.” In
troduction and notes by Emory Hoi- i
loway and Ralph Adlmari. Illus
trated from old prints and photo
graphs. New York: Rockwell Wil
son. Inc. Limited edition.
'T'HIS highly entertaining volume
1 consists of a group of newspaper
articles which Walt Whitman wrote
about the sights and people of his fa
vorite city—New York—together with
a collection of early reviews of "Leaves
of Grass’ and some contemporary imi
tations of Walt's poetic style. The edi
tion is limited to 750 copies.
The newspaper articles are divided
in two groups. There is a series of
six pieces published in Life Illustrated
of 1855, and a second group of four
which appeared in New York period
icals at about the same time. The
subjects are much the same as those
which occupy columnists today.
We have Walt writing about the
bunco-steering of strangers In the
town, about the opera, about the per
sonages to be seen in the Broadway
parade, about the circus and the
Christmas services at Grace Church.
We have him, in short, as the Odd Mc
Intyre of his day. 1116 pieces were
written after the first edition of
"Leaves of Grass" had come out, but
the sales of poems had not been great,
and Walt still did journalistic Jobs to
earn a living.
He writes in an entertaining vein.
Hf: reminds one of Irving In his note
book mood. His pieces are compact,
neat and clever. They correspond
closely to passages from "Leaves of
Grass' at times, and occasionally give
vent to the poet's personal biases In a
way denied to journalists today. There
is nothing very important about them,
however. Their only interest today
would lie in the fact that Walt Whit
man wrote them.
The reviews of "Leaves of Grass" I
■re interestingly tolerant. Some of the
periodicals, to be sure, did assault the
volume on the grounds of impropriety,
but for the most part the critics ex
pressed themselves as interested, but
puzzled. It was the English Westmin
ster Review which was most vitriolic
against the work, while an American
woman, Fanny Fern (Mrs. James Par
ton), wrote most enthusiastically about
it. The present book reprints these
old notices, together with advertise
ments by Walt's publishers.
WASHINGTON AND HIS AIDES DE
CAMP. By Emily Stone Whiteley.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
'T'HIS book, called by its author a
A “footnote to history,” is one of
those minor but human documents
which, In an unobtrusive way, often
throw valuable light on the personali
ties of those whom fame has brought
close to illustrious non-entity. It
Is the story of the men who were
aides and secretaries to Washington
during the eight years of the Revolu
tion, told with the human values
paramount. To read the successive
chapters is to be aware of our early
leaders as men, gay, young and some
times troublesome—and not Just a!
storybook heroes.
The work takes the reader through
the major battles of the war, into
Washingtons headquarters and with
i
him on the field. Tt reveals a touch
ingly intimate relation between him
and his young stall, but successfully
avoids sentimentalism. The style is
agreeable, the method anecdotal. The
book, though history, can be com
mended for thoroughly pleasant
reading.
GREEN LAURELS By Donald Cui
rass Peattie. New York: Simon
Sc Schuster.
JN A mellow and aimiable vein Mr.
Peattie writes here of the achieve
ments of the great naturalists, from
I" " — ■
the schoolmen of the Middle Ages,
down through Darwin and Pabre.
His bools is finely interesting; it bears
the unmistakable impress of deep
Interest on its author's part, and is
devoid of any perfunctory quality. A
very little could be written about it—
or a very great deal. There hardly
seems to be a middle ground. In
view of space limitations, the re
viewer suggests that the book be read
—by all lovers of nature, and by
all those who enjoy works of popu
lar science, and also by addicts of
biography. It seems to All all three
categories very satisfactorily.
THE SON OP THUNDER. By Wil
liam Brewton. Richmond: Gar
rett & Massie.
! rpHIS book centers about the part
played by Robert Toombs in the
congressional battles preceding the
i Civil War. Its author is a Southerner
. I
and writes, frankly, with a Southern
bias. His book is lively melodrama,
even though non-fiction. It reminds
one considerably of the vein in which
one Dixon wrote a now forgotten
novel called “The Klansman.” Al
though it is based on historical docu
ments, it is by no means dispas
sionate; it is virtually a refighting
of the old Issues which led up to
the war. Its restatements of the old
questions, its quotations from im
portant addresses of the day, will
give it a certain value. But in the
main, its highly partisan character
must count against it. Its author
has not seemed to realise that the
best case is made by not making any.
WASHINGTON,
From a painting by C. W.
Peale, reproduced in “Wash
ington and His Aides-de
camp,” by Emily Stone
Whiteley (Macmillan),
#■
ALDOUS HUXLEY.
Author of “Eyeless in Gaza.” from a drawing by S. Holt McAloney.
MARGARET MITCHELL,
Author of "Gone With the Wind” (Macmillan).
Brief Reviews of Books on Various Topics
■ -
Non-Fiction.
A NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION
POLICY. By C. S. Duncan. New
York: D. Appleton-Century Co.
A PROGRAM for co-ordinating
our five great transportation
system*—railroads, highways,
waterways, pipelines and air
ways. By the economist for the As
sociation of American Railroads.
HOW TO ABOLISH POVERTY.
George L. Record. Jersey City:
George L. Record Memorial Asso
ciation.
Yes—how to abolish poverty. Better
get it and find out.
UNCONVENTIONAL ETHICS. By
Osias L. Schwarts. Washington:
Perennial Publications.
An attack «n present day ethics as
taught in schools, preached from pul
pits and written in newspapers. De
scribed by its publishers as a “red
blooded monumental work."
»
Fiction.
A WOMAN’S PRIVILEGE. By P. E.
Bally. New York: The Macaulay
Co. »
A sort of love atory. About % hero
ine and a hero. They get married.
THE DUMB WITNESS. By T. Arthur
Plummer. New York: The Macau
lay Co.
Scotland Yard solve* the mystery
of the Moated Parm. (The dumb
witness is a dog.) t ",
Poetry.
A BOOK OP PERSONAL POfMS.
Compiled by William R. Bowlin.
Chicago: Albert Whitman Co. ,
A selection of poems of a personal
religious nature. Some good ones .and
gome bad.
Juveniles.
WITH Fire AND DRUM. By Flor
ence W*Ju>n Taylor. Pictures Is?
Eleanor Museey Young. Chicago:
Albert Whitman & Co. •
Youngsters on the Santa Pe trail in
covered wagon days.
COWBOYS AND ROUNDUPS. By
Clara Pelt Nims. Illustrated by
C. W. Gauss. Chicago: The Albert
Whitman St Co. ;
Eastern boy and girl summering on
a ranch.
THE TRAVELLING GALLERY. By
Bessie Schlff. Pictures by Emma
Brock. Chicago: Albert Whitman
<k Co.
Travels of a little girl with her
photographer father.
INDIANS OP THE PUEBLOS. By
Therese O. and Edwin Willard
Demlng. Chicago: Albert Whit
man St Co.
Indian boys at home.
SPOTTED DEER’S PARTY. By
Bertha Marl Ida Rhodes. Pictures
by Eleanor M. Hubbard. Chicago:
Albert Whitman ft Co.
Indian children at home. ,
JUST TOM. By Bertha Marllda
Rhode*. Picture* by Eleanor M.
Hubbard. Chicago: Albert Whit
man & Co.
Boy sets lost and make* friends
with the police.
ENGINE COMPANY NO. 35. By
Bertha Marllda Rhodes. Pictures
by Eleanor M. Hubbard. Chicago:
Albert Whitman * Co.
Fireman and their brave dog Felix.
EAGLE RANCH. By Bertha Marllda
Rhode*. Picture* by Eleanor M.
Hubbard. Chicago: Albert Whit
man Co.
Cowboys with folden hearts.
FLAG TO THE FRONT. By Bertha
Marllda Rhode*. Pictures by Elea
nor M. Hubbard. Chicago: Albert
Whitman ft Co.
Boys dad girls being pUriotts.
The Public Library
Erasmus of Rotterdam died
400 years ago on July 12 (.some
authorities give July 11). He
lived in an age of transition
singularly like our own, when the
forces of progress and reaction battled
for the control of the world as it was
then known. His influence as one of
the greatest humanists of all time has
lived into the present. It is fitting,
therefore, that a rereading of his life
and works should commemorate the
anniversary of his death. The Public
Library presents a list of his works in
the library’s collection and a number
of biographies and critical studies by
scholars of today and yesterday.
HIS WORKS.
COLLOQUIES CONCERNING MEN,
MANNERS AND THINGS, by De
siderius Erasmus; translated by N.
Bailey and ed. by E. Johnson, 3 v.
n.d. Y.Erl6c.
THE COMPLAINT OP PEACE, by De
siderius Erasmus; tr. from the Latin
A.D. 1559; ed. by Alexander Grieve.
1917. GQErl6E.
IN PRAISE OP POLLY; Life of Eras
mus, and His Epistle Addressed to
Sir Thomas More, by Desiderius
Erasmus. 1900. Y .Erl 81.
SELECT COLLOQUIES, by Desiderius
Erasmus; ed. by Merrick Whitcomb.
1902. Y.arfls.
SELECTIONS PROM ERASMUS,
Principally From His Epistles, by P.
S. Allen. 1908. E.Erl5al.
Latin text, with vocabulary.
Biographies and Criticism.
THE AGE OP ERASMUS; Lectures
Delivered in the Universities of Ox
ford and London, by P. S Allen.
1914. Erl5all.
“The final effect of the book is to
leave the reader not only with a
lively picture of the period, but also
with a distinct impression of the per
sonality of some who assisted at the
new birth of learning.”
ERASMUS, by E. P. H. Capey. 1902.
E.ErlSc.
“He not only did more than any
other man toward the revival of let
ters, but he has left both religion and
philosophy under endless obligations
as the restorer of good sense.”
ERASMUS, by Marcus Dods. (In
i
Dcxls: Erasmus. 1892. p.1-67).
Y.D667. Y.C127U.
He stands between the ancient and
modern world as a kind of gentleman
usher, selecting with unerring Instinct
such writers as were worthy of Immor
tality, redeeming them from the ob
scurity to which a non-reading world
had consigned them and Introducing
them as free from soil as he could
make them to the world which dates
from the invention of printing.''
ERASMUS, His Life and Character as
Shown In His Correspondence and
Works, by R. B. Drummond. 2 v.
1873. E.Erl5d.
The author hoped “to extend the in
terest In a man whose life has valu
able lessons for our own times, and
who, Indeed, may be said, in many re
spects, to belong to this age rather
than to his own."
DESIDERIU8 ERA8MUS OP ROT
TERDAM. by Ephraim Bnerton.
1899. E^rlbe.
The function of Dr. Iknerton’s book
Is “to deal with Erasmus as a factor
In the Protestant Reformation of the
sixteenth century."
LIFE AND LETTERS OP ERASMUS,
by J. A. Proude. 1912. £.Erl5f.
“The character and thoughts of an
extraordinary man at the most ex
citing period of modern history.”
ERASMUS, by Christopher Hollis.
1933. EJErlSho.
“Carefully analysing his subject in
the light of historical document and
searching for sources of character
traits In his writings and correspond
ence, the author goes beyond the cold
image of the usual biographies and,
penetrating the Inner sanctuary, tries
to unravel the mystery of the man.”
ERASMUS, by J. Huizinga. 1924.
E.Erl5h. »
"A biographical study of Erasmus,
with a critical discussion of his works.
The book is also an analysis of his
mind and character and of his place
in the great religious and Intellectual
controversies of his day.”
UPS, CHARACTER AND INFLU
ENCE OP DESIDERIU8 ERAS
MUS OF ROTTERDAM, Derived
From a Study of His Works and
Correspondence, by J. J. Mangan.
> v. 1137. EErl5m
"It is indispensable for those who
would understand afresh a truly great
servant of the public good"—S. P.
Oadman.
THE OXFORD REFORMERS, by
Frederic Sebohm. 1914. E.98e37.
Studies of Oolet, More and Kaamus.
IRASMU8; A Study of HU Uf«,
Ideals and Place In History, by Pre
served Smith. 1923. E.Xrlfe.
"If Erasmus is here mote fortunate
than he has yet been in the hands of
biographer, he owes his good fortune
in part * * * to the fact that Pre
served Smith belongs with the few hu
man beings who at once appreciate
Erasmus and understand further.”—
Carl Van Doren.
DE8IDERIU8 ERASMUS, Concerning
the Aim and Method of Education,
by W. H. Woodward. 1904.
IK.WS72.
"To inquirers into the origin of mod
ern culture and to students of the his
tory of education generally this book
will prove invaluable.”—R. X. Hughs*.
ERASMUS OP ROTERDAM, by Ste
fan Zweig; trana. by Eden and
Cedar Paul. 1994. EJBrlSz.
"Under Zwelg's magic pen Erasmus
leapt Into vital existence”—Percy
Hutchison.
IN THE MAGAZINES
"Glamor,” Not Films, Rated as Hollywood’s
Chief Commodity—Hillaire Belloc Scans
Art Under the European Dictators.
By M. C. R.
HE July issue of Stage comes to
hand with a very considerable
proportion of lta pages de
voted to the movies. What,
asks Leonard Hall, in a leading ar
ticle, Is the chief export of Holly
wood? Moat of us, he remarks, Im
agine it to be motion pictures. But
we are mistaken. The greatest Hol
lywood Industry is the manufacture
of “glamour."
“Glamour," says Mr. Hall, "in the
mad or movie sense, is that quality
which can make mountains of screen
appeal out of molehills of mere pret
tinass or leas.” And, be adds, “It is
manufactured just as certainly as Is
the quack of Donald Duck.”
“This presumptuous and gratui
tous Improving on the handiwork of
the Almighty," writes Mr. Hall, “has
been going on since the dawn of
David Wark Griffith, but only in the
past decade has it risen to a major art
and Industry.
• I date it exactly. In tact,
from She arrival of Greta Garbo in
these unfriendly shores. * * * In my
belief, the somnolent Scandinavian
was the first baby doll to be glamoilzed
in the modern Hollywood sense and
she remains to this day the out
standing product of the art.”
Miss Garbo, he says, was downright
homely when she first became a sub
ject for the superlmpoeitlon of screen
charm. What that has made her is
history. But, according to Mr. Hall,
the famous Sphinx keeps her "glam
our” strictly a business matter.
“While she is busy at her trade.”
ha remarka, “it is applied every day,
like kalsomlne to a hen house. The
moment they let her out of the cor
rall, however, and she scuds off to
Scandinavia as Gussie Berger or Susie
Gluts, she lets herself go all at once—
dresses like an unemployed taxi driver
and allows her face and hair to re
turn plumb to nature. As a result,
the Garbo of the screen and the
Greta of New York look like badly
matched twins. There is a faint fam
ily resemblance and no more.”
THE same periodical carries an ar
1 tide by Hilaire Belloc called “The
Totalitarian State and the Arts.” It
is. says Mr Belloc, an answer to Vin
cent Sheean.
After examining the question from
both sides, Mr. Belloc comes to the
conclusion that “despotic governments
will soon prove to be of the most
varied kind. Despotism will not make
for a universal type; quite the other
way. It will make for very differ
ent results Indeed according to the
despots themselves and the material
they work on.”
He then compares the state of the
arts in the various countries now
undej despotisms—Germany. Italy
and Russia. He approves of the Ital
ian encouragement of artistic enter
prise. particularly in architecture.
“Modern Italian building Is mi
jectic.” he writes, “and modem plan
ning in Italy of cities and their ap
poaches ia admirable." But in Ger
many he finds “public works is de
plorable. It builds fine, great roads
which necessitate fine, great bridges,
and the bridges are as ugly os sin. It
pits up huge buildings which are eye
sores, and when it ventures upon ini
tialing a dramatic expression—such
as the Hindenburg funeral—It lapses
Into ridiculous melodrama. • • * ’
Judging Russia by pictures, he con
tinues, “it seems to reveal In the of
fensive, and if it has produced any
drama worth seeing, I can only say
that we have had no echo In the rest
of Europe.”
Mr. Belloc concludes that a despot
ism guided by fine taste and having
for Its policy the rewarding of artists
“may rescue societies of other political
types from artistic chaos." Which is
perhaps exactly what one would expect
Mr. Belloc to conclude.
I
JOHN DOS PASSOS publishes this
week a chapter of his forthcoming
novel in the New Republic. He calls
it “The Campers at Kitty Hawk,"
and, obviously it would be about the
early efforts of the Wright brothers.
It Is effective writing, sometimes poe
try, but usually prose. Here is a
aample.
“The Wrights' big problem was to
find a place secluded enough to carry
cm their experiments without being the
horse laugh of the countryside. Then
they had no money to spend;
“they were practical mechanics;
when they needed anything they built
it themselves.
They hit cm Kitty Hawk,
“on the great dunes and sandy
banks that stretch south toward Hat
ter as seaward of Albemarle Sound,
“a vast stretch of seabeach
“empty except for coastguard sta
tions, a few flshemen's shacks and the
swarms of mosquitoes and the ticks
and chiggers In the crabgrass behind
the dunes
•mu u^iuwu Mic guiis ana swoop
ing terns. In the evening flshawks and
cranes flapping across the saltm&rshes,
occasionally eagles
"that the Wright brothers followed
soaring with their eyes.
"as Leonardo watched them centu
ries before
"straining his sharp eyes to appre
hend
"the laws of flight.”
It is pretty good.
'J'HE New Republic also carries a
piece on the motion pictures of
the Louis-Schmeling light, the author
U Otis Ferguson.
"There is nothing on the screen this
week,” he writes—"threre is nothing
anywhere this week that for implica
tions and sheer electric excitement
can come up to the pictures of the Joe
Louis-Max Schmeling light, run oil at
the Yankee Stadium in New York the
night of June IS as a foregone conclu
sion and i box cfflce flop. People had
stayed away In drives—from what,
turned out to be one of the fights of
the century. But in any event, it is
here now in pictures. . .
And he goes on: "The picture tells
a more accurate story than could be
got from even the first row of ringside
seats. . . .
"In the picture you can see the
biding restraint *nd driving power of
arms and shoulders, tlie bodies weav
ing, surging, braced. You can see in
perfect focus the deadly precision of
Joe Louis, weighing 198 pounds and
moving like 140; also his one-two
three routine—a left to the body, fol
lowed through by some powerful flex
oi the shoulder into a left hook to the
head, and the right coming in through
the opening—bam! You can see in
slow motion every step and blow fol
lowing the first blow to stagger this
fighting turrent, the long-range salvo
against the bones forward of his left
ear, which sent the Brown Bomber
scuttling off backward in queer little
half circles on his heels, and Schme
ling moving up on him in a fury of at
tack and Louis melting under these
blows like butter, seeking cover where
there was none, blown wide open with
a left, and seeing, tn the slow motion,
to hang there for seconds as the right
came in like a train of cars, bouncing
him on the canvas.”
And ao on—a very enthralling piece
of movie sports writing.
JIEYWOOD BROUN, in hi* weekly
piece in the Nation, sums up the
recent Democratic Convention as fol
lows:
“Only two things were exciting. One
was the platform, and Roosevelt wrote
that, and the other was the speech at
Franklin Field, and that was Roose
velt's also. Concerning both the speech
and the platform, it may be said that
they deal In generalities, but a gen
eral statement may at times be far
stronger than a specific one. Take, for
instance, the plank on,a possible con
stitutional amendment. This Is so
loosely drawn that It gives the Presi
dent power to take any stand he
pleases. I do not expect to see PrAik
lln D. Roosevelt advocating the curb
ing of the Supreme Court by direct
congressional action. And yet if he
did so, he could hardly be accused of
jumping oft t£e platform.”
Mr. Broun goes on to say, however,
that the President “is still a long way
from accepting a Socialist state. . . .**
0
by RUSSELL MOORE
Juat Published—the book
of embarrassing questions
and answers of which the
Washington Star says; “As .
effective a book against
Roosevelt politics as has
yet appeared-for what bet
ter weapon is there than - 1
laughter?” At bookstores 50c
DOUBLEDAY, DORAN