My New Literary Movement

I’m in the process of launching a literary movement that we’ll awkwardly call the “Pre-Sidneyans” or something as ironically self-defeating as that. Only it won’t be post-modern, apart from coming after the modern.

And it won’t be post-human, apart from coming after the destruction of humanity. It’s fundamental idea is that art should imitate, not some particular action or person, but the harmony of the cosmos. In other words, every poem should be a microcosm in itself, something like Tolkien’s Silmarrilion.

From this article, which you should read if you care about literature and culture (or other attempts to love our neighbor wisely), I get the impression that Eliot and Dryden might be sympathetic.

The only qualification I’ll make is this: we Pre-Sidneyans will aggressively resist either the prodigality of romanticism or the elder brotherliness of the neoclassicists. It’s all about giving expression to that unsearchable thing hidden away in the deep parts of a man that only his spirit has access to. That takes the courage of the prodigal and the discipline of the elder combined with the faithful devotion of the father.

That’s my artistic theory as well as I’ve been able to figure it out. Now go read a more intelligent article by Jeffrey Hart.