Out of the gutters and sewers of human existence has come a generation of writers, mostly working-class, who were never taught any better because their parents knew no better, who take delight in using filthy language or telling dirty stories. They reproduce in literature and drama the only kind of society--quite a low kind--which they know. There are unpleasant necessities connected with animal bodies, such as that of excretion. The proper way to deal with them is taught in private to properly brought-up children. They are not openly referred to in public among adults with the slightest claim to manners. Yet these novelists and playwrights, who degrade the name of artist, constantly use in literature words which pollute it by their coarseness, vulgarity, and ugliness, or oaths which "take the name of God in vain." Restraint, refinement, and good form are personal qualities unknown to these writers. They claim to make transcripts from life. But to picture the lowest levels of life serves no good purpose, only bad ones.
-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture > Chapter 1 : Appreciation > # 230
