Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
It is upon this basis of an organized criticism and of a well-taught and
cherished language that the English literature of the Twentieth Century,
the literature of analysis and research, and the literature of creative
imagination, has to stand. Upon such a basis it becomes possible to
consider the practicability of the endowment of general literature.
For to that at last we come. I submit that it is only by the payment of
authors, and if necessary their endowment in a spacious manner, and in
particular by the entire separation of the rewards of writing from the
accidents of the book market, that the function of literature can be
adequately discharged in the modern state. The laws of supply and demand
break down altogether in this case. We have to devise some means of
sustaining those who discharge this necessary public function in the
progressive state.
There are several general propositions in this matter that it may be
worth while to state at this point. The first is that both scientific
generalization and literature proper have been and are and must continue
to be the product of a quite exceptionally heterogeneous aggregation of
persons. They are persons of the most various temperaments, of the most
varied lop-sidedness, of the most various special gifts, and the most
various social origins, having only this in common, the ability to add
to the current of the world’s thought. They are not to be dealt with
as though they were a class of persons all of exceptional general
intelligence, of exceptional strength of character, or of exceptional
sanity. To do that, would be to hand over literature from the man of
genius to the man of talent. A single method of selection, help, honour,
and payment, measurement by one general standard cannot, therefore, be
accepted as a solution. There must not be any one single central body,
any authoritative single control, for such a body or authority would
inevitably develop a “character” in its activity and greet with especial
favour (or with especial disfavour) certain types. In this case, at any
rate, organization is not centralization, and it is also not uniformity.
The proposition may indeed be thrown out that the principle of Many
Channels (a principle involving the repudiation both of the monarchical
and the democratic idea) is an essential one to go upon in all questions
of honour and promotion in the modern state. And not only Many Channels,
but Many Methods. Whatever the value of that as a universally valuable
proposition, it certainly applies here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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