Parable of the Perfectionist

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 367, 5 July 1946, Page 29

Parable of the Perfectionist

(By

PAUL H.

OEHSER

in "The New

Yorker )

HERE was once a man who was looking for something. He was a poet, and every few days he would write a poem, and every poem he wrote he thought was better than the previous one, and as he finished a new one, he threw the old one away. As a result, he never had more than one poem, By and by he gave up poetry and be--came a painter. Every picture he painted he thought was better than the one before. He liked each one of them unti! he had made a new one; then the previous one disgusted him, so he burned each picture as soon as he had another to replace it. This went on for many years, ariel one morning he woke up and discovered — that he was seventy-five years old. He said to himself, "Judas ‘priest! -I ought

to be having an exhibition of my work." So he rented a gallery and hung up his one painting and placed his’ one poem under a glass on a table near-by. Many people came to see, and one day he over: heard a famous critic say, "This man’s art is infinitely better than his poetry." At this he removed the poem and destroyed it. The next day he heard an. other critic say, "This painting is wondetpo it transcends even the artist hitmself." They found him the next morning with the gas turned on, his body slumped on the floor. The painting went for the rent of the gallery. After that it Hung for a dozen years or so in a dentist’s office in Manhattan. The dentist’s wife. however, did not like the picture and finally gave it to a rummage sale. There are many persons like that who do not appreciate art,