Apparently the development is toward more action and less dialogue--more cinematograph, fewer words. Scenery will become less and less obvious--save, of course, where it is intended to be of first importance. In the theater of the future there will be less and less on the stage to interfere with the _play--of the spectator’s_ imagination. * * * * * There is a precisely parallel tendency in print--more action, fewer words; more suggestion, less description. The future novel will leave more and more to be supplied by the reader. Paragraphs, pages, whole chapters now deemed essential, will be omitted. In books such as histories, philosophical works, scientific treatises, &c., &c., the skill and art of the printer will be exhausted to make the page not only attractive but expressive--_readable at a glance_, instead of, as now, to make the volumes as forbidding as possible. The much-despised “yellow journal” of America has taught a valuable lesson in the _art of emphasis_, and its effect is seen not only in the make-up of newspapers but of periodicals, and will be felt in the make-up of books.[64] * * * * * In America the art of advertising has far outstripped the art of literature. The advertising pages of our periodicals are often more interesting and _always_ more _alive_ than the literary. A magazine devotes pages to an article or a story every line of which betrays the writer’s evident desire to write as _many words_ as possible. In the advertising pages, to every square inch, the minds not of one but of three or four experts have been concentrated upon the attempt to express an idea in as _few words_ as possible and in such a manner it will stand out and be read with a minimum of trouble. Why should not stories be told that way? Why should not all literature be written and printed that way? The proposition may seem a startling one, but the _tendency is_ that way. We find fault with our plays, our poetry, our fiction, our serious literature; we complain people prefer the _flashy_ periodical; well the word _flashy_ is doubly descriptive--it is commonly used to describe the _quality_ but it also measures _time_. * * * * * Meanwhile most of us underrate the intelligence of our readers and use more words than are necessary to carry our meanings. The Futurists themselves use an abundance of words in advocating their cause, though their examples of Futurist literature contain many lines and pages that are written in strict accordance with their theories. Marinette says in so many words, “Philosophy, science, politics, journalism, must still make use of the conventional syntax and punctuation; I am myself obliged to use them to explain my ideas.” * * * * *