.

Contrasting the short story and the novel, and dwelling on the relative
coherence of the briefer form, I had occasion to state that the novel is
relatively incoherent in that much of its interest for a reader quite
permissibly may inhere in matter with little or no relation to the main
thread of the story. Of course, incoherence is not a point of the
technique of the novel. Incoherence is not a point of the technique of
anything, except of some of the ultra modern schools in music, painting,
and verse. The statement as to the incoherence of the novel was made
incidentally in developing the argument that the short story cannot be
incoherent because its brevity forbids that it present even its single
story-idea adequately and also set forth irrelevant matter. On the other
hand, the novel may set forth irrelevant matter because its length is
not only a greater but a more elastic quantity than that of the short
story; if the interruptions of the story are not too frequent and
sustained, the power of the story over a reader will not be lessened to
any appreciable extent. That is not to say that the novelist should seek
to interrupt himself.

A good many serious writers--so-called--choose to write the novel simply
because it does offer an opportunity for direct self-expression greater
than any afforded by briefer fiction. They are confined to fiction--may
they pardon the remark--because they have met, or feel that they will
meet, difficulty in finding a publisher for their various theories
stated as such; so they blithely write a novel, with insertions of
politics, religion, sociology, what not, and palm it off on the unhappy
public for a story. Of course such direct expression of one's opinions
is not self-expression through the medium of a work of art. It is only
choosing deliberately to do poor work for the sake of money or
notoriety or vanity. Writing the "problem novel" is not quite the same
thing. If a social problem, as the friction between capital and labor,
is utilized as the fundamental plot--or conflict-theme of a novel, a
good deal of personal opinion may be introduced by the author without
injury to the artistic coherence of the story. But it is well to
remember that the primary aim of fiction is to interest, an aim that can
be achieved most easily and most completely by telling a good story.
Propaganda is apt to be supremely dull anyway, and it is bound to seem
dull to one who is looking for a story and noth