Randolph Bourne On Mencken

[alice wellintown]

Randolph Bourne
H. L. Mencken
Mr. Mencken gives the impression of an able mind so harried and
irritated by the philistinism of American life that it has not been
able to attain its full power. These more carefully worked-over
critical essays are, on the whole, less interesting and provocative
than the irresponsible comment he gives us in his magazine. How is it
that so robust a hater of uplift and puritanism becomes so fanatical a
crusader himself? One is forced to call Mr. Mencken a moralist, for
with him appraisement has constantly to stop while he tilts against
philistine critics and outrageous puritans. In order to show how good
a writer is, he must first show how deplorably fatuous, malicious or
ignorant are all those who dislike him. Such a proof is undoubtedly
the first impulse of any mind that cares deeply about artistic values.
But Mr. Mencken too often permits it to be his last, and wastes away
into a desert of invective. Yet he has all the raw material of the
good critic — moral freedom, a passion for ideas and for literary
beauty, vigor and pungency of phrase, considerable reference and
knowledge. Why have these intellectual qualities and possessions been
worked up only so partially into the finished attitude of criticism?
Has he not let himself be the victim of that paralyzing Demos against
which he so justly rages? As you follow his strident paragraphs, you
become a little sorry that there is not more of a contrast in tone
between his illumination of the brave, the free, and the beautiful,
and the peevish complaints of the superannuated critics of the old
school. When are we going to get anything critically curative done for
our generation, if our critical rebels are to spend their lives
cutting off hydra-heads of American stodginess?


http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/randolph-bourne-h-l-mencken