NEW ROADS, NEW ROUTES
B
(startled):
W)lere did you learn that?
S: It's in Joyce somewhere, I think.
B: Or Sartre, perhaps. But let's return to our muttons, and look
at them from another angle.
If
experiment isn't originality, might it
not have something to do with novelty? "The greater part of the work,"
says Mr. Laughlin of his selections, "is so richly original that it cannot
be
strictly classified; we do not possess the terms or the perspective."
Well, I amused myself yesterday by classifying everything in the book,
with varying degrees of strictness and any old terms and perspectives, the
older the better. Here are the results:
I, Prose. A, Fiction.
1,
autobiographical:
Lowry-love in wartime;
Nin-dreamlife of girlhood; Miller-man versus city; Goodman, Kerner,
Schwartz-Jewish family life. 2,
fantastic-symbolic-philosophic:
Good–
man-utopia; Abel-ironic self-analysis; O'Reilly, Clark, Patchen–
satiric fantasy; Barnes, Saroyan-the predicament of man. 3,
social sig–
nificance:
Georg Mann-political satire; Jones, Kaplan, Berryman–
minority problems. 4,
epic:
R. P. Warren-slice of life in the Bible Belt.
B, Drama.
Tennessee Williams-atmospheric, Chekhovian; M. P. Hut–
chins-psychological, closet.
C, Documentary.
The American scene in
words and photographs: Wright Morris; Agee and Evans.
D, Criticism.
Jolas-romantic manifesto; Tyler-art as social expression.
II, Poetry.
1,
philosophic:
W. C. Williams, Pound, Rexroth,
Schwartz. 2.
religious:
Villa. 3,
satiric:
Ford, Wheelwright, Cummings.
4,
lyric at large
(momentary insight, description, passion, intimation, etc.):
W. C. Williams, Schwartz, Villa, Wheelwright, Cummings, M. Moore,
Rukeyser, 0. Williams, S. Greenberg, Jarrell, Patchen, Rodman, Boyle,
Miles, Tyler, Laughlin, Shapiro.
-Which takes care of them all except Stein. She has two pieces
here that look like a play and a short story, but the resemblance
is
doubtless coincidental. Need we devise new terms for one writer out of
forty?
S: Not unless they're better than the old ones.
B: But what would you do with better ones?-Well, so much
for terms. Now let's take a look down some old perspectives. How
about Leaders-and-Followers? Should an experimentalist follow any–
body, and if so, how far? H emingway, Joyce, Eliot, Auden are writ large
all over this sort of book. Is this the independence of the pioneer?
Naturally, he may try out other people's trails, but is that what makes
him
a pioneer? Then there's the Professional-and-Amateur, or Crafts–
man-and-Dabbler perspective. It's odd how many of the "unusual"
short stories in these anthologies seem to be fiction by accident. "The
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