The
question is not whether they offend a critical and cultured mind,
but whether they produce an inspiring effect upon any kind of mind.
Then too his form constantly collapses, as though he had no fixed
scheme in his mind. There are many poems which begin with an ample
sweep, and suddenly crumble to pieces, as though he were merely
tired of them.
Then again there seem to me to be some simply coarse, obscene,
unpleasant passages, not of relentless realism but of dull
inquisitiveness. They do not attract or impress; they do not
provide a contrast or an emphasis. They simply lie, like piles of
filth, in rooms designed for human habitation. If it is argued that
art may use any materials, I can only fall back upon my belief that
such passages are as instinctively repulsive to the artistic sense
as strong-smelling cheeses stacked in a library! There is no moral
or ethical law against such a practice; but the aesthetic conscience
of humanity instinctively condemns it. When I examine the
literature which has inspired and attracted the minds of humanity,
whether trained or untrained, I find that they avoid this hideous
intrusion of nastiness; and I am inclined to infer that writers who
introduce such episodes, and readers who like them, have some other
impulse in view, which is neither the sense of beauty nor the
perception of art. But if Whitman, or anyone else, can convert the
world to call this art, and to enjoy it as art, then he will prove
that he understands the law of preference better than I do.
Pages:
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77