This has been summarized once for all in his description of what Mr. W. L. George calls a "sincere" novel: "There would be as many scenes in the bedroom as in the drawing-room, probably more, given that human beings spend more time in the former than the latter apartment."
There is nothing sincere in that definition except its nasty flavour; the lust1 it suggests. The actual effect, if not the intention, is a quick shock to our natural instincts.
Any possible value it might appear to possess at first sight, as a serious argument, has been lost by the insincere reason given. Mr. George himself is far too good an artist not to know that real life is not measured by length of hours. Crises are, nearly always, swift. Too often, a character is lost or won in a moment; we grow old in a night; gain the happiness of a lifetime by the right word. [25]How many a man is bound to "spend more time" over his ledger2 than beside his lady!
This weak reasoning gives the realists away. They are so set on the letter of truth as to deny its spirit. Aiming at exact photographic reproduction of life, they lose all sense of proportion and real values, hiding the wood in the trees. Whether or not the material facts be true, the reality is false, the proportions misplaced, the picture out of focus.
In practice, moreover, they do select no less arbitrarily than the romantic Victorians. In their view, "one can only get at most women's minds through their bodies."
But Mr. George has only expressed one reason for his contention3; even if that be seriously intended. The argument really means that, often, if not always, the most vital moments of our life are spent in the bedroom; a half-truth more dangerous and misleading than a lie.
What the word "bedroom" in this sentence honestly stands for is obviously something quite real; but it does not reveal or test character, and can never in any way complete a true picture of life. The accidents of expression are not truth itself.
In a recent drama of temperament4 called [26]Enter Madame, the author's mere5 instinct for stage-effects has, as it were by accident, provided an illustration that proves our point. The hero of this spontaneous and light-hearted drama is attracted by two women of whom one largely appeals to his passions (though not his lust); and the other appears to possess what modernists would call the "tame" comforting qualities of a "good" wife. He chooses passion in the end, following his love off the stage, into a bedroom. In this scene we have the whole truth; no added sincerity6 in the presentment, no shade of character the most minute, would have been added by opening that door. The emotional decision was the reality.
To the realist the play would probably seem a square fight between wife and mistress—with the inevitable7 result!
But, in actual fact, almost every detail went to confound the new morality. The passionate8 woman was the hero's wife, whom he had just divorced—to achieve domesticity. She did not exclusively depend upon the physical appeal; though it was used to bring him back. They had a thousand other, more subtle, points of sympathy and mutual9 attraction, despite the exasperating10 petty irritations11 [27]of life, which she would not allow to wreck12 their love. On the other hand, it was not any fixed13 aversion to marriage, any weakness in the bond itself, that caused her rival's failure. She simply was not, when—as it were—put to the test, his spiritual mate. For him, she was the wrong woman.
Most certainly this play was not inspired by any conscious theories on life or art. A straightforward14, workmanlike picture of everyday people; its very lack of intention made it the more convincing. The author had no axe15 to grind.
As in life, we saw that the best feelings of an ordinary decent sort of man are expressed, as his ultimate happiness is secured, by 'putting up with his wife's tantrums for love of her dear self.' That is, by some kind of self-control about the small things of life for the sake of the big; an instinctive16 knowledge of values or sense of proportion; mutual accommodation, and self-expression in self-sacrifice. He would not rush away from her for a change or new experience, to that placid17 domesticity which, because he had missed it, he—for a moment—supposed would prove ideal.
Nevertheless, it is absolutely clear that his [28]decision does not establish the superiority of passion-storms over carpet slippers18. He chose between two women, not between two modes of life: a matter of temperament, and the man's individual, permanent feeling. Though married, he had not—as he too hastily imagined—fallen "out of" love.
Life is distorted to-day by the orgy of crude passion in most second-rate fiction, of which Mr. Evan Morgan's Trial by Ordeal19 is an extreme case. Unfortunately such novelists have the smart air of being absolutely at home all over the world, without really knowing their way about anywhere.
The leading lady of this brightly variegated20 human manure-heap is a "vampire21, like a sea-breeze, like the noise of a waterfall at night"; her familiar ally is a discreet22 "sort of lady dressmaker, whose sons, numbering almost equally with her lovers, had forced her to take to a genteel trade." It is a picture of life among "bolsters23 with the temperaments24 of wood-lice; . . . among talented women, gifted women, immoral25 women."
Here Miss Hazell O'Neill "netted a half-blind poet, whom she took out and dusted on bright days and holidays." Him she ultimately left, as part of her luggage, to a landlady26 [29]in Jersey27; and proceeded to "smash a sculptor28 with his own statue."
Caught at last by "romance," falling in love with a man who wondered—"would she be more trouble than she was worth"; this determined29 young woman "leapt up and began undressing . . . plunged30 into the water"; so that "the momentary31 glance he had of her naked beauty, the excitement, overcame him."
The hero, in his "first affair" with "the daughter of a very respectable God-fearing parson," carefully taught her the new ideals of "free love, free conscience, free everything . . . hoping himself to reap the fruit of his labours." Submitting, however, to the "ceremonial" of marriage, he was caught in his own trap. She was now "enlightened," and "dreading32 suddenly the binding33 nature of the service," ran away, at the eleventh hour, with another man.
Afterwards "she came back ill, very ill, and he left her to sink or swim." Such is the chivalry34 of free love; that ultimately drove her to become "a horrible, decadent35, drug-maniac."
Of his "spiritual" union with another, we read: "Both were exhausted36, the emotions [30]of the soul had overpowered them, they fell fainting against the cool grey stone, and there, like a burning picture of all the romances there have been since the beginning of time, they leant in the twilight37."
By all means call a spade a spade; but do not imagine that all life is spades. To insist upon bedroom scenes in fiction or drama, and all the nakedness of phrase such a conception of art implies, does, and must, often suggest the sly and coarse innuendo38. It is the same with all excess of emphasis on physical detail. When Mr. D. H. Lawrence dwells on the feverish39 symptoms (mainly skin-deep) of his lovers, describes their breasts and loins, he is—actually—playing with the obscene.
The reticence40 we demand is not based on any pretence41 that our bodies are unclean, on any conventional association between mere words and thoughts.
A nude42 painting may be supremely43, spiritually, beautiful: it may be lewd44: but it is not, as many would now declare, more real because of its nudity.
Can we honestly say that the increasing undress on stage or in daily life provokes more deep, true and sincere feeling, reveals more of a girl's or a woman's real and best [31]self? We know it does not. It distracts our thoughts from the woman herself to memories of purely45 animal and gross experience, tempts46 us to lower depths. It matters not, in the book or in the play, that innocence47 prevail. I have heard men, for example, when the curtain fell at The Sign of the Cross, chuckling48 over the public attack on a girl's body (though it failed), with gay plans for vile49 conquests.
Obviously, there can be no fixed verbal rule. To say that no writer may use certain words or describe certain actions and things; no playwright50 may paint certain scenes; would be to "speak as a fool." Each case must be determined by its inner spiritual truth.
In one sense our selection of phrase must be a matter of taste and good feeling; in another, it comes from our artistic51 instinct. What I maintain, and have tried to show, is that modern novels are, too often, both poisonous and untrue to life because their choice of words and, indeed, their whole picture of life, is dominated by a false view: that, if only your figures are naked they must be true, that our bodies cannot lie. In angry revolt against the half-truths of the [32]past, they snatch at the other half and swear it is the whole.
Let the writer be sure that he cares only for truth; and loyalty52 to his vision will give him the right, clean thoughts and words.
Let the reader trust to his own natural instincts. Almost certainly, if a phrase or thought either shock or suggest the unclean, it is itself—as then used—unclean, false to life and nature; and also bad art. If you are told that the first slight shock, prick53 of the conscience, impulse to shrink away, is false hypocrisy54, do not believe it.
Nearly always the most inexperienced youth feels straight. Once the poison is drunk and you have let yourself go with the injected delirium55, you will have lost the power to see and feel for yourself.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
lust
|
|
| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
ledger
|
|
| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
contention
|
|
| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
temperament
|
|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
sincerity
|
|
| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
exasperating
|
|
| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
irritations
|
|
| n.激怒( irritation的名词复数 )；恼怒；生气；令人恼火的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
straightforward
|
|
| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
axe
|
|
| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
instinctive
|
|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
placid
|
|
| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
slippers
|
|
| n. 拖鞋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
ordeal
|
|
| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
variegated
|
|
| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
vampire
|
|
| n.吸血鬼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
discreet
|
|
| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
bolsters
|
|
| n.长枕( bolster的名词复数 )；垫子；衬垫；支持物v.支持( bolster的第三人称单数 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
temperaments
|
|
| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
immoral
|
|
| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
landlady
|
|
| n.女房东，女地主 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
jersey
|
|
| n.运动衫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
sculptor
|
|
| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
momentary
|
|
| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
dreading
|
|
| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
binding
|
|
| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
chivalry
|
|
| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
decadent
|
|
| adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
innuendo
|
|
| n.暗指，讽刺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
feverish
|
|
| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
reticence
|
|
| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
pretence
|
|
| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
nude
|
|
| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
supremely
|
|
| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
lewd
|
|
| adj.淫荡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
tempts
|
|
| v.引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 )；使想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
chuckling
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
vile
|
|
| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
playwright
|
|
| n.剧作家，编写剧本的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
artistic
|
|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
prick
|
|
| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
hypocrisy
|
|
| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
delirium
|
|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |