JOY IN LIFE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 800, 25 April 1910, Page 3

JOY IN LIFE

WHERE LITERATURE AND ART FAIL. GENERAL BOREDOM. "It is a strrfnge fact that in modem literature, and indeed in nearly all modern art, 'the joie de vivra is the rarest of all qualities," says the "Times," expressing at the same time the hope that Mr. Frohman in his Repertory Theatre would give us a touch of the joie de vivre.

"Those who want it have usually to seek it in plays that are. not literature," adds the "Times," "and even then it is tho actor who gives it to them, not the author. Indeed, wo do not expect the serious artist to have, or aUeast to express, any joie de vivre. Wo call him a serious artist just because he always is serious, and we can only take, him seriously if there is never a smile in .his art.

Great Artists Who Romp. '."Mr. Bernard Shaw is an exception. But many of his admirers only put up with his high spirits because they are supposed to be a kind of.disguised seriousness. They would nover consent to beliove.that . Mr.. Shaw romped for .the mere pleasure of romping. And yet in tlie past great artists of all kinds have romped for the pleasure of romping, and have communicated their own delight ■to the. world. ' Nearly all .the great composers have loved to, romp,, and none more than Beethoven, though lie is commonly regarded 'as tho most serious of artists i. and represented. as standing with bis arms folded, and gazing tragically at nothing, like Napoleon at St. Helena. '• •

. : i . "Shakespeare, again, loved to romp as much as Aristophanes himself. One might even say that his. nign spirits never failod him even in tragedy. His darkest moments, have the darkness of 1 storm rather, than of fog. . When evil : triumphs, it'is a clash of wills and not merely in a general paralysis of energy; and that is the reason 'why his comic scenes aro not incongruous in his tragedies.. There is the same kind of power and faith in both, the same sense that everything in' life is significant., and that this significance is best : revealed in passion and liiimour. Writers Without Faith. , "But most modern writers, and indeed most,..modern artists, seem for a time'to:',have: lost this kind of faith. They cannot -nerve themselves to see the significance, of everything. A vast deal; of life appears to them irrelevant, and, like dirt, mere matter' in the wrong place. They are prepared to endure it, perhaps, but not to enjoy it. Jf they can laugh at it at all, it is only .so that they may not Weep. Our satirists roduco things to an absurdity as drily as Enclid himself. They have not . even a,fierce .indignation. Thoy-seem to be reporting upon life as if it were a piece of machinery ; and their report is. to the offect that it was badly designed from the first, and has long been utterly out of repair. The only moral is .that it ought to. b© 'scrapped'; but unfortunately we, being. men an^'hot gods, are not 'in a'position .to scrap it. 1 Besides, being men, we love it with all. 'its faults of design, and we aro only depressed, when wo. hear, that' we are wrong to love it. i. _"It is no use to tell a man that ho ®??Ould cut his head off because it is not like the'head of a Greek god. Yet our modern serious artists aro always! telling lis that kind of thing, and they, do ..not. even seem to take , any pleasure in telling it. There is not even the delight of mischief in .them.They rub , 0 : off the. gingerbread from a sense of duty, and then they tell us that the gingerbread is not worth catnig. They exhort us to see things as they are; then represent them as not :Wortli seeing. They tear the .voil away only to show that there is nothing behind it. ■ If this ,is so indeed, what is the use of serious art If , there is no' significance m the truth, why tell it? let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. That is the true moral to be drawn from;.much' of our serious,.art;' n. ls wonder that many clraw it and prefer,musical comedy.' v Art and Our Joy in .Ufa; "For the fact remains that we have not lost our'joy of' life, however: little we can express it in our art. And that we cannot express it in our art is one reason, and perhaps the chief, why art has so little . hold on us. For art that does not express v the joy of lifo in some way with some exultation of laughter or tears, is not art at all, and, in sacri-ficing-everything to truth, tells a lie. ( y}° painter whose . only aim is • r T I S m : , ]oaves out of ' h> s picture, just that element which could make it interesting namely, the expression of us own interest in reality. It is useless.to.attempt to represent what you do not care for, just as.it would be useless .to attempt m .music to express what you do. not feel; General boredom is not a subject' for any kintl of art, any more than it is one for conversation. The man who is always bored or exasperated should not try to .express.himself in artj'-'ho should retire to a resting cure and not como but until he feels interested, in something. But it is unlikely that the modern artist really -has less joy of life than the rest or us. -In every age there are artistic conventions) some bad and some good ; a ' KeM e of the joy of lifo is an artistic convention of our tjmo. Too Serious. Probably it eomes\from taking the process of art a little too seriously, lhe artist feels bound nowadays to insist upon the fact that ho* is an artist and works for the sake of his art, not to please the public. He'is apt to be a kind of aesthetic' puritan, and to assume that whatever gives pleasure must to had. Sometimes he even assumes that what gives pain must bo good. ' In fact, ho is too conscious altogether 1 of his relations with the public. He is shy and it is this shyness that keeps tho joy of life out of his art, just as it keeps the joy of life out of conversation.

"No _ man can talk at his ease to peoplo lie dislikes; and 110 artist can work at his ease for a public ho despises. Ho is on his guax3 "against them, expecting them to laugh at him, assuming that, they cannot understand him. But- all artist must bo never on Jus guard. He must tell, not only tho truth but the. whole truth about himself, and tell it without knowing that he is doing so. He must suppress no more than ho must feign. "Tlin whole course of modern life is against this kind of spontaneity. Wo are no more trained to ko artfets than trained to bo actors, and wo all suffer from our luel; of the power to express ourselves. It is not wonderful, therefore, thflt the artist, when he tries I t« «xpress himsolf, docs s» awkwardly anS grimly. Wo cannot bl;im« him; but w« need not 'assume that his grimnocs vrorM him t# l>o a » 'artist, «r that all art must 'Ji* grin. Rather w« shenld «nsourag» liim to ba more at his eas« with himself and his public, in tha hope that in tinu be may enjoy himself more and so ljive more pleasure to nr.'' Sir H. Beorbohm Tree's View. Sir 11. Beerbolim Treo, writing to the "Times," said:; — "Many will bo grateful to you for tho-outspoken articlo in tho 'Times' of to-day on ' Art and the Joy of Life.' Of courso, every great artist has his any of life, though it is often obscured

by self-consciousness. Is not this selfconsciousness largely due to a false respect for tbe painstaking pessimism of modera criticism? Earnestness uninformed by humour is the enemy of seriousness. '■. ■

, 'If there is one thing more deadly than religious puritahism, it is irreligious p'uritanism. The Greeks and the Elizabethans, who were joyous peoples, loved great tragedies. To-day we are shocked by CEdipus and revel in drab misery. All forms of art should be respected. If the study. of smells is interesting it should- be remembered that perfumes, too, liave their uses. If we prefer the passing phase we should bo tolerant, to the eternal. It "is well that wo should bo reminded that in tho drama, as in- other arts, Jaeger is not the only /wear, nor crape the- sole panaolio."