In Praise of Sane Readers

I praise the sanity of an increasing number of mature persons who are not reading the new novels and who are not going to the new plays.

Authors and critics often claim the liberty of offering to the reader or playgoer any felt or imagined experience, however shocking. One writer recently defended modern authors in their right to use violence, perversion and debasement in their work, and pointed out the use of like materials by Marlowe, Webster and Shakespeare. I believe he missed the point. For the man or woman reading in the living room, for the man and woman sitting side by side in the theater, the point is not the materials exploited, but the spirit in which the materials are used.

RR

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Robert Raynolds

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I praise the sanity of an increasing number of mature persons who are not reading the new novels and who are not going to the new plays.

Authors and critics often claim the liberty of offering to the reader or playgoer any felt or imagined experience, however shocking. One writer recently defended modern authors in their right to use violence, perversion and debasement in their work, and pointed out the use of like materials by Marlowe, Webster and Shakespeare. I believe he missed the point. For the man or woman reading in the living room, for the man and woman sitting side by side in the theater, the point is not the materials exploited, but the spirit in which the materials are used.