MAKING OUR OWN BOOKS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 43, 19 April 1940, Page 15

MAKING OUR OWN BOOKS

(From a broadcast by

John

Harris

at 4YA)

striking feature of the times to a New Zealander is the great increase of local publications. Whether this is due to the Centennial or to the fact that we are growing up as a people and developing a national life of our own I don’t know. Probably it is a combination of both. At any rate it is a fact. Books are being printed and published in New Zealand at a greater rate than ever before. Of course many of them are histories; national surveys, provincial histories, histories of particular cities and towns, histories of churches, of societies and of individuals. Never, I imagine, has any country so thoroughly recorded the events of its first hundred years existence. But they are by no I the world of books the most

means confined to historical studies. There are novels, short stories, works on economics and education and literature, and, of course, quantities of verse. It is impossible, in a monthly talk, to mention the majority of these new books even by name. All I can hope to do is to pick out for discussion some of the more interesting. I think you will agree that it is more valuable to examine a few in detail and with care than to reel off glib remarks about a multitude of titles. The writing and publication of a book is one thing. It is the main work. But it is incomplete in itself. Its purpose is only fulfilled when it has been read; and not only read, but discussed, examined and criticised. A book, like any other product of man’s hand and brain, is made for use, for social use, that is for use by other men. The measure of our interest and approval is the measure of its success. In the case of books, at any rate, it is a measure which cannot be estimated in terms of cash sales. And where, you may ask, does the book reviewer or critic come into this? He is surely a superfluous creature. He doesn’t have any hand in making the article, so what right has he to any say about the results? Why not leave it to the readers to form their. own conclusions? 4 The answer is that the reviewer is himself a reader, and it is useful to have some public expression of the readers’ opinion. Useful both for the author, who wants to know the reaction of readers to his work, and to the general public which is faced with more books. than it can possibly read and needs some indication to guide its choice. This is clear enough if we keep in mind what has already been suggested, that books have a social purpose to fulfil. The importance that society attaches to any of its products may be judged by the extent to which it examines and criticises, This applies equally to a motor-car, a football team, a new breed of sheep, a city transport system, a scientific discovery or a new novel. The critic, whether of sheep, of football, of motorcars, of transport systems, of science or of literature, exists in order to set dis- cussion going. His is not exactly the expression of public opinion. He can give only his own personal opinion, naturally enough when he is usually the first to examine the object concerned. He must, -however, if his criticism is to have any value, be able to examine it from the point of view of the purpose for which it is intended. That is, he must have standards of criticism. Take the case of a motor-car, In criticising a new model there are two main aspects to be considered. Firstly the requirements of the driver or user, secondly the technical possibilities of the motor industry. To the extent that the critic understands these two aspects his criticism makes a live contact between producer and consumer and so plays a useful part in continually raising the standard of production.