Show jf i fi i fc 4 V tHE Jl REALM EAL OF LITERA LiTERATURE E f Critical Gamer Game r Stimulates I Thought It If a copy of or The Critical Game quId Uld be bo placed In tire hands hands' of 01 every j I book reviewer In the country W ir to say that the quality r ot of ti rk performed by the greater num- num ber would be vastly Improved Every lover o of ot good literature will find some- some 2 t tiling of ot Interest In the work This f volume lume contains ono one of ot the best t. t t ns of ot a good we have seen and c. c t cy then proceeds to prove his argument ariment arment ar- ar ment by excellent reviews of or the 1 work york of ot such notable authors as Joseph Joseph Jo Jo- seph Conrad William James Thomas Thonas Hardy Hard H. H G. G Wells and oth others rs Criticism Is one oDe form fonn of ot the game I of ot writing says Macy l It differs from other form only as w wilst differs I from poker and tennis from I gol golf The motives are the same the exercise of ot the players player's brain and muscles and the entertainment of the I spectators from whom If 11 the player be successful derives profit livelihood applause and fame ITS PURPOSE iThe The function of ot criticism at the present time and at all times Is the function of ot all literature to be wise witty eloquent Instructive humorous I original graceful beautiful provocative tire tive Irritating persuasive That Is It must possess some of ot the many merits that jat can be found In any type of utI literature lit ut- I It must In some way be good I writing With the exception of the poet and lecturer there thero is not a name considered by Mr fr Macy that does not enter his category cate- cate gory rory of ot sincere writers who have brought something new to literary thought He calls Tagore a faker In Inthe the be English sense of ot the word There Is much for thought In Inmany Inmany many sany of ot his paragraphs and sometimes some- some times the sting of ot the whip In speak speak- 17 U g of ot Tolstoy he sa says s 's We celebrate cele- cele brat brate Tolstoy in harmless little magane maga- maga lne ne articles and wear shirts woven by children American philanthropy steals with one hand and builds universities with the other We have no kings and andI I no no lO dukes by America is the sport of ot it lies abjectly prostrate before be- be fore a a. power-drunk power bourgeoisie And again later In the same chapi chapter chap- chap i ter tar We know all about anarchists I they live Ive in Paterson N. N J. J and In the I Imagination of ot Journalists home horpe sec- sec I and framers of ot immigration on laws laws In speaking of ot the work of William James he declares that philosophy t does not flourish by accident Men ren make snake it Therefore he holds that philosophy begins In the human mind And d is the history of ot the action of I mind on experience He says that James was from the very beginning a a. aI I of the human mind HAS IHAS CONVICTIONS Macy Maci flays lays many of ot the pedantic f credulous writers who have produced I j books about the works of ot Shakespeare He says lays One trouble with much Shakespearean scholarship lies in the assumption that everything that left Shakespeare's hand must have been 4 j perfect Why he probably used words I carelessly and did all or 1 With them as other geniuses do Why f should we assume that he always wrote a a. good line Some of hi his hig lines J i Are bad and It Is not necessary for Dr to knock out a couple couplet t of words or add a a. couple JUst to mal make e ea a line Una go metrically These scholars have a split spIlt vision In one note they treat Shakespeare like a god who I could not go eo wrong In th the next they I treat him like a sophomore versifier I whose lines Unes have to be corrected Macy is dynamic and arouses the ther I critical sense He has his convictions r arid and he makes no attempt to hide them I The he dominant theme of the book is isI I that literature Is to be enjoyed and andi i that at talk about literature Is of no value vanie t unless it Is la enjoyable unless it is Itself Mr Macy holds that a critic who who's Is ft only bIllY a critic seldom wins a conspicuous Cu ous position and that every man who plays with literature at all must be 1 I ambitious to succeed In s same form of or art art that may be called caned creative as distinct t from critical critical critical-a a distinction which since Arnold taught us our lesson les- les son eon we know does not exist He be believes be- be that a man who knows mows how to handle words In many ways is on the whole the best qualified to comment on the art of ot handling words In In short he advances the well- well founded theory that the function of the tho critic is to be readable to make literature of a sort He proves his point in an admirable and and- most Interesting in interesting interesting In- In way Boni and Liveright New York N N. T. T |