REALISM AND THE NOVEL
213
this reminder, to establish probability of a kind. Thus the tension can
either
be
lowered, as in the ordinary social novel, or played on, as in
the ordinary personal novel. Either result is a departure from real–
ism, in the sense that I am offering. For realism is precisely this living
tension, achieved in a communicable form. Whether this is seen as a
problem of the individual
in
society, or as a problem of the offered
description and the known description, the creative challenge is
similar. The achievement of realism is a continual achievement of
balance, and the ordinary absence of balance,
in
the forms of the
contemporary novel, can be seen as both a warning and a challenge.
It is certain that any effort to achieve a contemporary balance will
be complex and difficult, but the effort is necessary, a new realism
is necessary,
if
we are to remain creative.
