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The Blind Bow-Boy (1923) - Simon - 12-09-2025
In full agreement with George Barrow's remark that "nobody would call a book a novel if he could call it anything else," Mr. Van Vechten prefers to describe this work, the action of which passes in New York, 1922, and the hero of which is the god Eros, as "a cartoon for a stained-glass window." He begs his readers to imagine the attitudes of his characters, now sketched rudely in black and white, as they will appear when clothed in their final brilliant and luminous colors. The book is not "romantic" or "realistic." Assuredly it is not "fantasy" or "satire." The author has stated that his only purpose in creating THE BLIND-BOW BOY was to amuse.
The Blind-Bow Boy is a bit of a camp novel. Young Harold Prewett is summoned to see his estranged father. Having been raised by his Aunt Sadi since the time of his mother's death, his father was a virtual stranger. George Prewett has hired someone to teach Harold about the world. Paul (sometimes Paulet) Moody is tasked with introducing Harold to the world. Soon Harold starts attending parties and jazz clubs in Harlem and becomes acquainted with a number of interesting characters such as the eccentric Duke of Middlebottom and Zimbule, a circus performer. Campaspe's garden, which appears as the dustjacket and frontispiece image by Robert E. Locher, is in many ways the center of the story and is obviously the source of the novel's title.
Quote: A tidy best-seller of 1923, the story follows a young man's learning all about the Seven Lively Arts & Seven Deadly Sins. Sinclair Lewis called it "impertinent, subversive," and CVVs own Dad found it "depraved." (No wonder CVV left home as soon as he could). The packed funhouse includes socialite Campaspe Lorillard & husband Cupid; a saucy snake charmer from Coney Island; a futuristic music man named Bunny Hugg; and a monocled British aristo, the Duke of Middlebottom, who wears a sailor outfit and carries an umbrella.
Campaspe, a fond impression of CVVs close pal Mabel Dodge Luhan, who's also in CVVs Firecrackers and Peter Whiffle, conveys the feelings of the author in this modern dip into the Satyricon. Driving in her Rolls-Royce she tells a youth who doesn't know who or what he is, "Conform externally with the world's demands and you will get anything you desire in life." Using the framework of farce, CVV makes a serious point : it takes bravery to defy the tyranny of convention. You'll never be bored if surrounded by those who are "individual enough to comport themselves with some eccentricity, not to say perversity." Campaspe prizes people with imagination, like the man, as reported in the NYT, who had devoted years to the engraving of the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. Then he went blind and later insane. What does it mean? Therein lies the charm. It does not mean anything.