| Show it ii Is because we axe are aware of sex T that hat we wish to understand it by PROF JOHN ERSKINE columbia university I 1 explain the large amount of recent literature dealing with sex sax by this conviction of our time that wo we ought to understand ourselves and our passions but very little of this literature seems to me to have bave much value either for life or for art the novelists who exploit sex usually fail to explain it they really exploit the physical aspects of it as though it were a new discovery and needed advertising of course it is just because bebau se we are all aware of sex as an external aspect of life that wo we wish to understand it to liyo on better terms with it the books therefore which merely record sexual attitude whether or not they are considered indecent become pretty tiresome to a reader who wants to get on in his hia knowledge of human nature and these books also offend for the most part tho the finer sensibilities of men what may fairly be called their poetic sensibilities they are willingto willing to admit like the centaur poet in the novel that wo we are half ani mal atlease at least but they know by experience that in moments of lovo love we are also half balf god and no discussion of this twofold nature of ours will satisfy which exa examines mines only the animal in us |
