THE NEW GENERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18465, 28 January 1922, Page 17

THE NEW GENERATION

ARNOLD BENNETT’S VIEWS. Mr Arnold Bennett, the" novelist, writing in the Sunday Pictorial of the “New Generation,” says: ■ “Tho new generation—l mean the generation which in 1914 was just old enough oo fight, nurse, or otherwise serve in the war—probably shows a more striking change from the one before it than any generation has shown for at least two centuries. A change in mind, spirit, and manner ! “Tho change of manner, of course, irritates a largo number of persons, who are shocked because the world continues to go round after they have begun to suffer from rheumatism and baldiiess. The changes of mind and spirit, however, are more important. “As regards mind, the latest generation is better educated, more cultivated, Jess hypocritical, more courageous, .more honest, less ‘stuffy ’ than its predecessor; and in all these respects has marvellously improved on its predecessor's predecessors. Further, it has completed a sort of revolution in the relations of the sexes, which aforetime* were regulated by a system of conventions, < shams, and pretences that can only be described as poisonous. . “As regards the spirit, the latest generation has rediscovered, or is rediscovering, the great secrets —lost since the Elizabethan age—that the chief thing in life is to feel that you are fully alive, that life oughtn’t to be a straight line, but a series of ups and downs, that continual repression is a tragic absurdity, that dullness is a social crime, that the present is quite as important as the future, and that moments of ecstasy are the finest moments and the summits of existence.” SIR PHILIP GIBBS AND THE NEW YOUNG. Sir Philip Gibbs in his new book, ‘The Hope of Europe” (Heincmann, 15s net) gives this picture of the “New Young” in the Smart, 6'et: “They dress loudly and talk loudly in a nasal way. The young men are singularly lacking in good manners. They sprawl in the presence of their womenfolk. Their idea of gallantry is horseplay with pretty girls. They puff cigarette smoke into the faces of their dancing partners and play the giddy goat in public places. It is they who crowd into public dancing rooms with girls expensively dressed, but not expensively educated. ... f “The girls themselves, in this particular set, are a curious compound of feminine artificiality and tomboy simplicity. They paint their lips, wear hideous littlo frocks and openwork stockings, but they will drive a motor car through tho thickest traffic without turning a hair, and box a boy’s ears if his ‘ cheek ’ gets too much on their nerves. They are self-oossessed, bad mannered, vulgar young people, supremely indifferent to public opinion. . . .” And yet, as Sir Philip shows, there is great work to be done; “The youth of the new world that is coming need have no fear that peace will rob it of romance, and adventure. The rebuilding of that old world upon the ruins of the old will be adventure enough to last, let us say, a thousand years from now.”