Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1928, Page 4

FILM' AND THEATRE.

“What has the film done, from the beginning of its infantile career, hut imitate tho faults of tho theatre? Has it set out to create its own conventions? Not at nil. It has borrowed, borrowed, borrowed —and always borrowed trash. All tho outworn gestures of tho stage appear before (us, like so many threadbare garments, waving on tho soroon. The stage is over emphatic; tho screen is melodramatic. Tho stage is romantic; the screen is preposterous. The stage exploits tho private personality of its players; the screen becomes a positive welter of exhibitionism. Tho stage leaves little enough to tho imagination; but the screen will not allow-us even to imagine a. man going upstairs without showing a picture of him in the act. Tho stage is conscious of the dull-witted thousands to whom it must appeal; the screen is haunted by the dread of stupid millions. The stage seeks tho greatest common measure of intelligence; tho screen goes straight for tlr lowest common denominator. The stage is timid; tho screen is hysterical. Tho stage is compromising; tho screen is cowardly. The stago is commercial, tawdry, vain; the screen is sordid, vulgar, arrogant. . .’’—Ashley Jukes, in his book, “The World to Play With.’’

PRIZE-GIVING. “ Theorists argue against tho prize system because of the danger of exalting a means into an end; they show that it produces the pot-hunter and mark-getter; they wax eloquent in their charge that examinations can never ho regarded ns oxaet tests, and that a prize, therefore, is always awarded with some injustice; they sometimes talk on a lofty plane where prizes seem to be gross and tilings, unworthy of the high mission of education which pursues knowledge for its own sake, and where tho pupil is sufficiently rewarded by the consciousness of duty well done. It would fie easy to produce a case against prizegiving in schools, and there is not a teacher who does not know all the arguments that might be brought forward. Tho interesting point is that, in spite rif all these reasons, the glory of tho annual speech-day is little diminished.”—“ A Correspondent” in tiie “Times Educational Supplement.”

STOCK EXCHANGE ADVICE. “ The buoyancy of markets and the growth of speculation,” writes Aiderman A. Emil Davies, L.C.C., in the “ New Statesman,” “ among wider circles of the population had led to the introduction in most of the newspapers of snappy notes to investors, which ill turn has added fuel to the flame of speculation. It will be interesting to see what happens now that tho tide lias turned. It is easy to acquire a reputation as a financial tipster while markets are rising, hut a very different tiling when the opposite tendency sets in ; and it will he noticed that while financial writers generally make recommendations for purchase, they practically never advise sales, with the occasional exception of some swindle that has already been exposed and that no sensible person would dream of going in for.”

THE TEACHING CHURCH. “ . . . There is no manner of reason why every Christian should not ho just as competent to formulate and defend his religious beliefs as that same man is to formulate and defend his opinions about Art or Political Economy or International Politics. Tliat porhausis iiiot a very high standard to sot.' But it is rising every year; and my pica is that the standard of intellectual competence in Religion must rise with it if disaster is to be avoided. We cannot all he experts ; there will always lie vast areas of detailed study which most of us must leave to others; but we can all make ourselves competent to form an intelligent judgment upon questions in which we are really interested.”—The Bishop of Manchester, in “The Teaching Church.”

THE IDEAL BOOK SHOP. “ I like to play with my vision of a book shop that is not a hook shop, hut a 100m — a parlour—a lounge. Call it what you will, you will gather whift I mean,” writes Mr G. 11. Grubb in the

“ Glasgow Herald.” “ The place I dream of is such that I should find it difficult to leave, let alone pass. It would hold me up as I approached. No sirens, could have for mo such an appeal as this dream hook-place of mine. There would he chairs of comfort beyond the ken of man; carpets that hold my feet; lights that make my eyes shine; flowers that speak in accents that would beguile even the aroma of the roses of Eden ; and around me—books: just subtly and cunningly arrayed. Books, whoso velvet voices just hid me take them. Who could refrain? I hardly dare speak the word of buying. There would lie no hard, metallic cash register there making sure of the assistants’ honesty—just as if I would question it! No.' no. The hook must he purchasd—hut quietly. There must he no arrogant handing of money to the bookseller: it must he passed to the master of books in a cultured, even a delicate manner, that would fit my hook shop of the future. Such a place would he a true haven of refuge. Book's have a right to a proper home, where they may offer their genius.” WHERE THE POET SERVES. “ Most of us are wordless in the presence of any surprising revelation of natural beauty,” says a writer in the “Glasgow Herald.” “But we feel none i the less, and if all the purple and silver and gold of words were at our command, and all the jewellery of phrase which genius lavishes or spares at will, we would probably scatter it with artless prodigality in lain attempts to parallel the extravagance of Nature. Not being so gifted, we can only stand and gaze. But to meet our needs, in steps the poet and puts his words upon our lips; and months or years after, when the morn-| ing scene we have looked upon has long since faded from recollection, a stanza in a printed hook will hriir/ it hack, and in the very piidst of whitest winter we can he carried in imagination to forgotten shores and see again what we saw years ago—massed purple and silvery cloud overhanging a shadowy, sunlit sea, darkgreen at the horizon where cloud meats water.”

THE PARASITE BAB. “If a parasite gains access to a new country without its own parasites it is obviously in a very advantageous position, of which it nmv make full and fop] use, ami similarly the multip’iention of a host on an unprecedented scale may give parasites a chance to increase I’cyond the controlling powers of the secondary parasites. The plain remedy is to encourage or introduce the parasites of the parasite.” - “The Lancet.”

“ LET IT I.IE GENTLE.” “It is the peculiar privilege of the architect, ’■ said Captain Duff-Copper, 31. P., in a speech reported in the “Liverpool Post,” “that at the spina time he can satisfy the simplest needs of men by giving them houses to live in, and Ims a chance of replying to t neir * highest aspirations by giving them something beautiful to look upon, The painter must have considerable doubts, in looking round his crowded studio, whether his canvases were ' nt

bettor before lie interfered with them. But the architect lias one consolation: when tho house is finished, although ho may not lio sure whether it is a tiling iff beauty or an eye-sore, lie can feel tliat it will cover somebody’s head and help to keen the rain out. Tho bad work of a poet or a painter need siffeet nobody but himself, but people have got to see tiie work of a bad architect, whether they like it or not.”