For
one thing, nearly all the characters are thin." He said it with the
flicker of a smile--"One does not find American screen actors in
that condition. Do your people care enough about the life of art to
take a risk of starving for it?"
Now, as a matter of fact, we had at that time several millions of
people out of work in America, and many of them starving. There must
be some intellectuals among them, I suggested; and the critic
replied: "They must have starved for so long that they have got used
to it, and can enjoy it--or at any rate can enjoy turning it into
art. Is not that the final test of great art, that it has been
smelted in the fires of suffering? All the great spiritual movements
of humanity began in that way; take primitive Christianity, for
example. But you Americans have taken Christ, the carpenter--"
I laughed. It happened that at this moment we were passing St.
Bartholomew's Church, a great brown-stone structure standing at the
corner of the park. I waved my hand towards it. "In there," I said,
"over the altar, you may see Christ, the carpenter, dressed up in
exquisite robes of white and amethyst, set up as a stained glass
window ornament.
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