WRITERS AS PHONOGRAPHS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 9

WRITERS AS PHONOGRAPHS.

:"'■';' Chapel and church have a good deal.to ■do with the workings of! the minds of, our ■ two novelists, because they, are busy show- ;. .ing; how'to. disregard "tbe3L. J Never ;in English fiction has a well-brought-up girl bo complacently discarded £ne i religious. ■! Bide as .Marjorie 'in j Mr, 'Wells's.'. latest : "Marriage," r .when\dealing, jvith .that topic; All :.the' .modern",indifference'■,'.( to every-: thing their forefathers value ig tho' key-' aoto;to the' attitude of-the characters' of . ,■ these" .their-.; ripest. . .Tho * negative interactive''' \"wio"hutzt es", ,is .'all;overtheirstony.";-;,They. are far,too. . 'clever to;;deny;' l;hcy, simply portray; tho contemporary ■. negation ■. of- tho ' crowd. Their'ideal is to.get bnj theypnt senti,,mentality ."where their predecessors .put emotion. 'You feci they are the'product ■: of -the halfpenny press adapted.to fiction. Arid .from this we reach'another analogy . to. the 'contemporary-press in their works,' . namely;- its ~ Mr., -Bernard • Shaw in; "Getting jlMarried",,' abandoned dramatic action in ! ''brder- to'let all the ; .characters' fire; '• off) verbal ■. : pyrotechnics; Shich suited the.whim of .'their creator: jr. ; Wells goes one fnrther, ; fqr he makes, ' bis characters in pairs discuss each topic . in.; turn that is likely to cross the irresponsible brain of that accursed individual , ■ the-'{person with'.ideas." Ho handles. ■: his dialogue like a;Christy Minstrel intercourse; "developing' the theme (r which, was suggested.; by your morning ipaper. -In : :this he,is more crude and blatant than' ~ .Mr,;-Bennett, .for■•■he .stands': "as. ventrilo-: ; ; quist; between'; a cbnplo . of: wax ' figures. which .'appear to'ntter what; he believes . .people think;-: whereas the architectof the ■, Great Babylon Hotel .at least allows diV : bussions to be, initiated. by tie action of - his story.!'..- Both, howover, .connive por-. .: euasively; to. present in print, tho exact thoughts of their readers, and what they would like-.to talk, about: In fact, they . - articulate the "dumb" 'speechlessness -oftheir nublic. ■',' People no' longer want to - "say. "How like So-and-So". when reading a .novel,'but. "that's exactly what I have ' been'thinking,'' which means they, have : a Ugh opinion of Messrs.' Wells and Ben;:nett.as'the,phpnpgranhsof their own unspoken thoughts which werenol formulated into phrases.—"Oxford and' Cambridge Review.">;-'/;.''.•:'■/ : - : w-'/:'. :; .