The Dehumanization of Art: And Other Essays on Art, Culture, and Literature by José Ortega y Gasset

Author:José Ortega y Gasset
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

DECLINE AND PERFECTION

The conditions so far mentioned merely define the level at which the novel begins; they mark the waterline, as it were, of its continent. In the following we shall be concerned with conditions that determine the higher or lower altitude of a work.

The stuff novels are made of may vary a good deal. It may consist in trite and hackneyed observations, such as an average man uses for the purpose of his existence; or it may contain experiences for which one must probe deep into the secrets of the soul. The quality of the detail is among the factors that decide the rank of a book. The great novelist, contemptuous of the surface features of his personages, dives down into their souls and returns, clutching in his hand the deep-sea pearl. But precisely for this reason the average reader does not understand him.

In the beginnings of the novel the difference between good novels and poor novels was not so great. As nothing had yet been said they all had to begin with saying the obvious. Today, in the great hour of the decline of the genre, good novels and poor ones differ very much indeed. Hence the opportunity of achieving the perfect work is excellent—though extremely precarious. For it would be rash to assume that the season of decline is unfavorable in every respect. Rather, the works of highest rank are likely to be products of the last hour when accumulated experience has utterly refined the artistic sensitivity. The decline of an artistic genre, like that of a race, affects but the average specimens.

This is one of the reasons why I believe—utterly pessimistic though I feel about the immediate future of the plastic arts and of politics, though not of science or of philosophy—that the novel is one of the few fields that may still yield illustrious fruits, more exquisite ones perhaps than were ever garnered in previous harvests. As a routine production, as an exploitable mine, the novel may be finished. The large veins, accessible to any diligent hand, are worked out. What remains are hidden deposits and perilous ventures into the depths where, perchance, the most precious crystals grow. But that is work for minds of rare distinction.

The last perfection, almost always the fruit of the last hour, has not yet been attained by the novel. Neither its form or structure nor its material has passed through the last crucibles. Regarding the material I find some reason for optimism in the following consideration.

The material proper of the novel is imaginary psychology. Imaginary psychology advances in unison with scientific psychology and psychological intuition which is used in daily life. Now, few things have progressed so much in Europe these last fifty years as the knowledge of the human soul. For the first time in history there exists a science of psychology, in its beginnings only, it is true, but even so without equal in former ages. Add to this a refined ability of divining our neighbor and analyzing our own inner life.

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