SYMBOLISM AND THE
NO . __
341
Symbolism becomes questionable when themes concerning mo–
dern man and his dilemma in a world full of facts and problems are
represented in novels composed in the technique of all-dominating
symbolism. The result is a discrepancy between theme and technique,
for the symbolist has neither sympathy nor patience with the nature
of facts and their consequences for man. Writers like Truman Capote,
Frederick Buechner, or Jean Stafford escape the dangers of this dis–
crepancy by sublimating contemporary history into a personal
es–
sence, depriving it of almost any import. At best they can show
contemporary problems as reflected in .a mentality which takes refuge
in symbols. The case is different with symbolists like Paul Bowles
and Malcolm Lowry. In such novels as
The Sheltering Sky
or
Under
the Volcano
these writers attempt to use the technique of symbolism
in portraying the destiny of politically conscious characters thoroughly
aware of contemporary events. Their theme is the failure and final
disintegration of the highly civilized mentality of Europeans or
Am–
ericans; but they do not attempt to evolve their symbols from the
reality that is inseparable from the theme; instead, they prefer to take
them from some colorful exotic setting. Or rather, they make the
entire exotic setting a symbol for the mental state of their heroes.
In consequence, they have to transport their heroes to the exotic
setting where image-symbols adequate to their problems flourish,
to North Africa or to Mexico. But this procedure results not only
in negating the causal connection between symbol and meaning, it
actually inverts their relationship. Since the image-symbols of disin–
tegration are to be found only in exotic countries, these unfortunate
occidentals have to go where they can perish both in reality and
symbolically, but under circumstances that bring about their down–
fall only in the transcendent meaning of the symbol and exclude the
realm of causality. The true causes remain unrepresented, just as the
world that formed these characters is pushed aside with the symbolist's
typical disregard for the factual and characteristic.
Contrary to the widely held opinion, this marks not the high
point but the dead end of symbolic fiction. For the sober medium
of prose remains bound to the solidity of the world of realities. Its
most significant subject matter is m:m as a spiritual being condi–
tioned by material reality. Dismissing this objective in favor of pure
subjectivity is something that only lyric poetry can risk with impunity.
Conrad's colonials who perish in the tropics follow their profession
