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-making money-and their greed, and suffer the bte they them–
selves have thereby challenged. But Bowles's and Lowry's heroes
drift without will or desire, like lost children, in exotic places that
have every appearance of being under the spell of a wicked witch,
so deceitful, malicious, and inexplicable is everything that happens
there. These novels are fairy tales of evil. Here excessive speculation
over meanings has not only robbed the world of reality, but emptied
it of meaning.
Much more to the point, even if less spectacular than the op–
pressive symbolism of these novels, is for example Saul Bellow's com–
parable story, "Seize the Day." Its literary technique holds to the
theme and evolves its images from the theme.
It may be suggested that many young writers today are influ–
enced more than is good for either them or their work by critics
who have swallowed symbolism whole and who nourish their en–
thusiasm by providing symbolic interpretations of all past and present
literature without any sense of differences in style. This results in
a vicious circle of criticism and creative literature. The natural re–
lationship between the two is reversed and writers are made to go to
school to critics. In this way criticism acquires a concealed power
to lay down laws and determine the future. No such power rightfully
belongs to it. Let us maintain the separation of powers in literature
too. Let the critics be content with their judicial functions and let
them keep their hands off legislation.
(Translated from the German
by
Willard R. Trask)
