[Rabbit-proxy-announce] But whether you were gracious to people; or whether you were harsh to those

[Spitsberg Z. <de...@dt...>]

 conversation took place: "A work of art is only significant and
valuable when there are some serious social problems contained in its
central idea," said Kostya, looking wrathfully at Yartsev. "If there
is in the work a protest against serfdom, or the author takes up arms
against the vulgarity of aristocratic society, the work is significant
and valuable. The novels that are taken up with 'Ach!' and 'Och!' and
'she loved him, while he ceased to love her,' I tell you, are
worthless, and
damn them all, I say!" "I agree with you, Konstantin Ivanovitch," said
Yulia Sergeyevna. "One describes a love scene; another, a betrayal;
and the third, meeting again after separation. Are there no other
subjects? Why, there are many people sick, unhappy, harassed by
poverty, to whom reading all that must be distasteful." It was
disagreeable to Laptev to hear his wife, not yet twenty-two, speaking
so seriously and coldly about love. He understood why this was so. "If
poetry does not

solve questions

that seem so important," said Yartsev,
"you should turn to works on technical subjects, criminal law, or
finance, read scientific
pamphlets. What need is there to discuss in 'Romeo and Juliet,'
liberty of speech, or the disinfecting of prisons, instead of love,
when you can find all that in special articles and textbooks?" "That's
pushing it to the extreme," Kostya
interrupted. "We are not talking of giants like Shakespeare or Goethe;
we are talking of the hundreds of talented mediocre writers, who would
be infinitely more valuable if they would

let love alone, and would employ themselves in spreading knowledge and
humane ideas among the masses." Kish, lisping and speaking a little
through his nose, began telling
the story of a novel he ha