That might have happened in the romantic decades of the early
nineteenth century; but our English literary tradition was a
saving influence which kept us from _gaucherie_, even if it set limits
upon our strength. Our expectation, so I think, is in the slowly
mounting level of the vast bourgeois literature that fills not
excellently, but certainly not discreditably, our books
and magazines. There, and not in coteries, is our school of
writing. When originality wearies of stereotypes and conventions,
when energy and ability force the editorial hand, and appeal to
the desire of Americans to know themselves, we shall begin a new
era in American literature. Our problem is not chiefly to expose
and attack and discredit the flat conventionality of popular
writing. It is rather to crack the smooth and monotonous surface
and stir the fire beneath it, until the lava of new and true
imaginings can pour through. And this is, historically, the
probable course of evolution. It was the Elizabethan fashion. The
popular forms took life and fire then. The advice of the
classicists, who wished to ignore the crude drama beloved of the
public, was not heeded; it will not be heeded now.
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