LITERARY FASHIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1921, Page 4

LITERARY FASHIONS.

(Sydney Morning Herald). Literary fashions change, but never have the fluctuations in public taste, been so many and chamelcon-like as in the years that have been passed since August, 1914. .Just before the war there was a boom in books. Production was comparatively cheap. Compulsory education had borne fruit in a generation of voracious if undiscriminating readers; the publishers catered for every conceivable interest. Hut on the outbreak of war all this activity was directed into a new channel. There was an insatiable demand for "war books’ ’of every sort. From the presses poured a flood of reprints, polemics, hastily-written works descriptive of the belligerent countries, treatises of strategy compiled for the amateur by the amateur, ambitious histories of the war, many of which predeceased the war, and a vast mass of heterogeneous stuff which reflected the hopes, the fears, and tlie preoccupations of the hour. Much of it was. of course, quite trivial and ephemeral, but it held the public for a time and served its purpose. Then the books of war at first, band began to some, the chronicles of the war correspondents, the impressions of the men who were fighting up and do"n the world, the artfully-disguised propaganda of the authorities. Some oi these had a distinct literary value, bill most of them have been forgotten. At the best they were vivid records o! tilings seen, but even such'tine books as Sir Philip Gibbs’ “Soul of the Mar,’ or .Mr .Masefield’s "Gallipoli,” suft'ei under disabilities of which the authors themselves ate iully conscious. During the war men could not write as the; would because o't the inevitable sup previous dictated by military or political necessity. And even if there bad been no limitation on their freedom Iht v were (and, for the matter of fact, still are) too near the war to see tin events of these crowded years in propel perspective. .Meanwhile the novelist: were having their innings, fn "Mi Britling,” Mr H. G. Wells lists described the apprehensions of the man of letters who wonders whether war will not deprive him of his market. Every one is engrossed in the realities of war: will anyone have any attention to span for the mimic alarums and excursions o! fiction? Mr Wells’s protagonist need not have worried. The habit of reading novels is too deeply rooted in the publh to be overthrown even by si war. Tin novelist had lost none of his appeal. Indeed, his'harvest was the richer be .cause restricted comminfications, econ omy. and a down oilier reasons prompt od people to stay at home whore in tin novel they found a diversion or an anodyne.

When the war was over we had wir books of a now type. The fog of wa lifted ; secrets were divulged : the grea; captains began to tell us how they wot the war, or lost it. as the case migli be. and attacked their colleagues wit 1 a cheerful disregard for appearances ibe echoes of their controversies instill to he heard, though less fondly 11 indciiluiig, ton l.udcndorlf, Tirpilz. kcihnuuin liolhvcg, were paid for tliei reminiscences slims that seemed faint lons until we remembered the depreciated value ol flic mark; and the German soldiers, sailors, and politicians proceeded to light a triangular duel that would have delighted Marryat’s heart blazing away til each other with vigott and impartiality. There were also the smaller fry, the histories of units, flu

accounts oi campaigns, the persona: experiences of members of the various forces. All these I lie public read for ; space, but it is surprising lioW soon tile .ei.eial interest in war books waned.

War v,as a hideous chapter in our lives: the tendency now appears to be to shrink from .oiytliing >!iat reminds nr ol it. A war book iias to be ol exceptional quality to enjoy any vogue. In other respects, too. there are indi talinns that popular taste lias changed. Many ly|)es of books with which we were familiar Ito fore the war have gone out ol fashion. The amiable individual ulm used t.<> spend the evening of a not very distinguished life in setting down bis recollections of the-things lie lias done and the people he lias known is seldom beard to-day. The traveller wlm gossiped about the commonplaces of journeys that never took him very far from the beaten track, is mute. Quite apart from these there seems to he a marked falling off in the amount of “serious” work now published as compared with light literature. The one exception T» in the field of sociology and economies : the problems and perplexities of our time are producing a rapidly-increasing library on these subjects. But the decrease in the more solid fare lias been accompanied by an extraordinary prolific output of fiction, and the disproportion is no doubt due to the conditions, of the track - . With costs at their present figure publishers cannot profitably publisr books which will have only a small circulation, and they favour

those that yield a rapid turnover. Moreover, in America the element of risk in a new novel has been reduced to a minimum. Its immediate popularity is assured by a process almost of force mjaeure. The nowest "stunt” of the great American distributing firms is to devote a week to the "boosting” of one author exclusively. There is a nationwide campaign. From millions oi hoardings the face of X gazes selfconsciously tit the passerby ; millions of posters extol his genius; in millions and millions of journals impassioned advertisements proclaim him the literary hero of all time. X has the monopoly of publicity; be is omnipresent, and there is no escaping him. But next week he is dethroned and V takes his place as the popular idol. The demi-god of yesterday is relegated to the obscurity of the “also ran;” all the fanfarade is for the glorification of Y until bis brief hour is over, and lie is superseded by Z. The stunned public presumably forms an X “complex” and buys the novel of the week. Whether its credulity will survive the presentation, in the course of a single year, of fifty-two writers, each combining the best qualities of Shakespeare, Milton and Homer, is another question.