A 1911 essay by T. E. Hulme,
"Romanticism and Classicism" —
"There is a general tendency to think that verse means
little else than the expression of unsatisfied emotion.
People say: 'But how can you have verse without sentiment?'
You see what it is: the prospect alarms them. A classical revival
to them would mean the prospect of an arid desert and the death
of poetry as they understand it, and could only come to fill the gap
caused by that death. Exactly why this dry classical spirit should
have a positive and legitimate necessity to express itself in poetry
is utterly inconceivable to them."
A 1961 reaction against Hulme,
"Against Dryness" —
"Against the consolations of form, the clean crystalline
work, the simplified fantasy-myth, we must pit the
destructive power of the now so unfashionable naturalistic
idea of character.
Real people are destructive of myth, contingency is
destructive of fantasy and opens the way for imagination."
— Iris Murdoch, January 1961
Opening the Way —
For instances of character and imagination,
see this journal on February 8 and February 9.
See also the previous post and . . .
Academics may prefer "The Eureka Manifesto" —
From the MANIFESTO link in the Breakthrough Prize page above —
Our Mission . . . Should We Choose to Accept It
