Hidden Heroes
OME time ago I read an article by a reviewer in one of the English papers. He was feeling very sorry for himself because nine out of every ten books he was sent to review were about crime or violence. He said that really it was beginning to warp his whole outlook on life. He had begun to feel that everybody was evil or capable of evil. There were moments, he declared, when as he looked across the breakfast table at the wife he adored, he had his
qualms of uneasiness. What did that sweet face conceal? What evil thought lay behind that calm brow? Actually, he wondered whether she was not feeling tired of him, wouldn't she be glad if he was out of the way? From that, it was only a step to wondering whether the coffee tasted quite right... . A little bitter, perhaps? They said that arsenic tasted Dee Fk
He was very amusing about it and then he went on to make an original suggestion. He said that he thought it would be a good thing if authors began to write from just the opposite angle. Why not have a book that was full of hidden virtues and carefully concealed heroes? Why not spend the whole 350 pages trying hard to unmask the hero instead of the villain? ... Well,
I think there’s a good deal in that idea of his. Perhaps we are all having rather a crime wave and it might be good for us to begin» chasing virtues instead. (Mrs. Mary Scott, "The Morning Spell: Find the Hero," 2YA, September 14.)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19400920.2.11.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 65, 20 September 1940, Page 6
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269Hidden Heroes New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 65, 20 September 1940, Page 6
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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