By Don Marquis, in "Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers," 1916
Aren't the Russians marvelous people!We're been taking up Diaghileff in a serious way--our little group, you know-and really, he's wonderful!
Who else but Diaghileff could give those lovely Russians things the proper accent?
And accent--if you know what I mean-accent is everything!
Accent! Accent! What would art be without accent?
Accent is coming in--if you get what I mean --and what they call "punch" is going out. I always thought it was a frightfully vulgar sort of thing, anyhow--punch!
The thing I love about the Russians is their Orientalism.
You know there's an old saying that if you find a Russian you catch a Tartar . . . or something like that.
I'm sure that is wrong. . . . I get so mixed on quotations. But I always know where I can find them, if you know what I mean.
But the Russian verve isn't Oriental, is it?
Don't you just dote on verve?
That's what makes Bakst so fascinating, don't you think?--his verve!
Though they do say that the Russian operas don't analyze as well as the German or Italian ones--if you get what I mean.
Though for that matter, who analyzes them?
One may not know how to analyze an operate, and yet one may know what one likes!
I suppose there will be a frightful lot of imitations of Russian music and ballet now. Don't you just hate imitators?
One finds it everywhere--imitation! It's the sincerest flattery, they say. But that doesn't excuse it, do you think?
There's a girl--one of my friends, she says she is--who is trying to imitate me. My expressions, you know, and the way I walk and talk, and all that sort of thing.
She gets some of my superficial mannerisms . . . but she can't quite do my things as if they were her own, you know . . . there is where the accent comes in again!