Forum With My Heart: the Jungle's Lonely Voice

Eleven – “Novelism: The-Newness-of-the-Old” (for: Deborah Guzzi, my poetess-commentator) … & the argument continues … That nothing new exists of itself in Nature is now a widely reputed view. Nothing is new but for the very thought of its novelty! Yet, the Newness-of-the-Old, an idea which I call Novelism, permeates the entire horizon of the anti-novel ferment of our Age of Fashion. It is true that Nature is full of repetitions; Creative Repetitions, of course! If not History would have died repeating the same tales. However, it isn’t true that Nature is so reluctant in giving us new things. We would rather contend that through her seeming change-less fixtures, Nature shows her constant dynamism. Yes, all these fixtures, the endemic sufferings of her staticism, celebrate her novelty in endless forms. O, think of them: of all the activities of the Mortal star, Man; of his crafts: those apparent webs of his genial faculties that applaud him as the Genius of Creation – what is so old & traditional but our ordinances of Sleep & Wake, Work & Feed, & other vigilant demands of our cultures? & what isn’t tempered with our spirit of fashionism in such cultural voices? Nature may, then, be afraid of innovation & be accused of abject conservatism, only by those who are lazy to follow her rhythmic changes. Everywhere these rhythmic drums beat so loudly! When we think of the joyous travails of the Sun; of the virginous reputation of the Moon; of the crudity of the beast; of the swift & endless voyage of moving waters into Seas & Oceans; of the swift slippery driving styles of the Fish; of the Sky laughing at the endurant soils of our Earth; of the Seasons in their equilibrium songs; of the ever-happy & singing Birds – what notes of dynamisms we hear! & in neglecting such notes, aren’t we heading for a dance of the heroic pessimism? While we consciously neglect the novelties in a society by demanding for a kind of novelty, aren’t we adding to the Crises of Nature? – but, Nature’s personality can’t be forced to possess unnatural garments that we extend! Then, let Ideas possess the Society, not Individuals! Ideas lead to newness, although, ideas are created by men; men go out of the Stage more swiftly than their ideas. If the Idea rules the Setting rather than the Voice of Man, then Novelism, the-Newness-of-the-Old, would thrive; & thriving, she could bear her drivers, the men of ideas, along the paths of Innovation! (… & the argument continues)