Life, 1921-10-13 · page 29 of 34
Life — October 13, 1921 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical poem by Arthur Guiterman mocks American intellectual inferiority and slavish admiration of British and European writers. The speaker expresses contempt for American homegrown authors (Walpole, Wells, Burke, Dunsany, Chesterton), dismissing their work as lacking the "cultured touch of Britain." The satire targets American literary culture itself—the snobbish belief that only imported, foreign writers deserve respect, while domestic talent is "pallid, weak, aborted." Guiterman ridicules this backwards attitude: Americans dismiss their own authors as worthless while desperately seeking approval from British "demi-gods" and European critics, metaphorically "cringing and humbly kissing their gaiters." The poem argues Americans have lost taste for quality (including Slavonic works), rejected their own moral and artistic worth, and accepted the false premise that "the first-class stuff is all imported." It's a scathing critique of American cultural self-doubt and anglophilia among the literati.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
mn SE ew ose lly, nee The Literary Snob Letters? Lord Dunsany—G._K. Chesterton— Hugh Walpole—Thomas Burke—voyageurs in a New World of letters—From the prospec- tus of an American magazine. blighters! Why, what have they to do with “Letters”? We'll beg some scraps of foreign writers With hat in hand before our betters. oO" home-bred authors? Huh! the Would Walpoie, Wells, or Burke be willing? Dunsany, Chesterton, or Shorter? (There’s something fine about a Shilling, There’s something low about a Quarter.) No, here there’s nothing decent written In drama, humor, verse. or fable; We lack the cultured touch of Britain. (We love a transatlantic label!) We've lost our taste for things Slavonic (For fads will change, old altars vanish) ; But here’s a Book!—a moral tonic! A monumental work in Spanish! And will they let us view their faces, These demi-gods, and hear them preaching And praise their baldest commonplaces ?— We need an awful lot of teaching! Perchance these critics great and solemn Whose flame we may, with years, in- herit, Will tell us—say, in half-a-column,— What Native shows a trace of merit. But, oh, the manly souls among them!— How these must loathe the adulators Who snatch at every word that’s flung them, Who cringe and humbly kiss their gaiters! Their thoughts are vivid, grand, majestic, While ours are pallid, weak, aborted ; There is no worth in things domestic, The first-class stuff is all imported! Arthur Guiterman. Lire’s Fresh Air Fund _Lire's Fres Arr Fup has been in opera- tion for the past thirty-four years. In that i s expended $191,130.33 and has given ht in the country to 41,505 poor city Contributions, which are acknowledged eks after, their receipt, e payable to Lire’s Fresn Air Dy and sent to $98 Madison Avenue, New Tn memory ‘of my’ mother, fall Stcne, Santa Rosa, Cal. C. Blaisdell, Portsmouth, N.” # R. D. Morris, Dayton. O Ciiford 1 We Pe Mrs. orris, WwW. “Mackay, Warren, Pa Mrs. Wm, H. Downey, New York $22,367.04 The Specza/ Kodaks HILE every pho- tographic conve- nience practical in a pocket camera is incor- porated in the Special Kodaks, the feature that immediately stamps them as cameras of a superior sort is their lens and shutter equipment. The Lens: The Kodak Anastigmat lens /.6.3 is Eastman- made from formula to finish. It has the speed that you want sometimes, and the qualities of flatness of field and definition (sharpness) that you want always. The Kodak Anastigmat /.6.3 is the lens for better pictures. The Shutter: A full-jeweled watch is accurate to the second. The Kodamatic shutter, Eastman-made through- out, is accurate to 1/200 of a second. With automatic exposures as fast as 1/200 of a second and intermediate speeds down to % second as well as time and ‘‘bulb’’ action, any amateur is equipped for any picture in the hand camera field. The Specta/ Kodaks equipped as above range in price from $50.00 up. At your dealer's EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY ROCHESTER, N. Y., The Kodak City SOAP The Aristocrat of fine Jollet Soaps Atall ers = department stores 27 comicbooks.com