For they
plunge directly into what might be called the adventures of the
American sub-consciousness.
It is the sub-consciousness that carries tradition into
literature. That curious reservoir where forgotten experiences lie
waiting in every man's mind, as vivid as on the day of first
impression, is the chief concern of psychologists nowadays. But it
has never yet had due recognition from literary criticism. If the
sub-consciousness is well stocked, a man writes truly, his
imagination is vibrant with human experience, he sets his own
humble observation against a background of all he has learned and
known and forgotten of civilization. If it is under-populated, if
he has done little, felt little, known little of the traditional
experiences of the intellect, he writes thinly. He can report what
he sees, but it is hard for him to create. It was Chaucer's rich
sub-consciousness that turned his simple little story of
Chauntecleer into a comment upon humanity. Other men had told that
story--and made it scarcely more than trivial. It is the
promptings of forgotten memories in the sub-consciousness that
give to a simple statement the force of old, unhappy things, that
keep thoughts true to experience, and test fancy by life.
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