CERTAIN MODERN NOVELS REVOLT ME
A Reader to The Editor
The Girl's Own Annual (1926)
Question
Certain modern novels revolt me; some because they are Unpleasant; others, because of their Horrors. Yet I am told these Books are Works of Art, and the last word in Literature. Ought I to train myself to appreciate them?
The Editor Answers
Certainly not! If you have been endowed with a fine sensitive nature which recoils from unnecassary dirt and nastiness, be thankful for this, and on no account let that instinct become blunted, for it is God-given.
Of recent years the books dealing with horrors and gloom, immorality and loose living have amounted to a positive plague. We know that atrocities and vice and villainy exist, and that certain persons have to keep track of these things for the protection and welfare of the community at large, just as medical men will investigate loathsome diseases in order to benefit humanity. But it is not necessary for the average woman to steep her mind in such topics, if her business in life does not call for specialisation on these matters. Much less is it desirable for her to absorb them in the guise of fiction - which is generally supposed to be recreational reading.
It is futile to argue that such books are vital because they deal with the facts of life; so do sewers, but it doesn't follow that their atmosphere is beneficial or to be recommended!
As to these decadent books being "the last word" in this type of literature, one only wishes they were! But, alas, such fiction is easy to write, and so long as the public can be induced to consider them the acme of Art, there will be more to follow!
In regard to the Russian novels you name, these are the product of tainted minds, and a state of uncivilisation which, in some of its phases, is more degraded than untaught savagery. And though they serve as grim commentaries which are to some extent explanatory of the present condition of Russia, they are not helpful in any other direction. Why clog your brain with such depraved stuff?
A clean mind has a definite connection with a healthy body, and still more closely is it linked with a healthy soul.
The writers who produce these harmful books are either suffering from a diseased temperament, or they are deliberately offering the public diseased products in order to make money. If you value the health of your mind avoid all such mental and spiritual poison.