"TUSITALA" AND HIS TALES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 101, 30 May 1941, Page 4

"TUSITALA" AND HIS TALES

Sir,-A matter which puzzles us is why our "Tusitala," when he "tells his tales," does not appear to make a practice of giving out the names of the authors whose stories he reads. One would not dream of accusing "Tusitala" of discourtesy; and yet it does seem as if the least he could do would be to mention the source of his stories, if only as a gesture of courtesy to the authors, so there must be some very good reason or reasons for the omission. and it would

interest us to know them.-

PHULHAT

(Te Puke).

(‘‘Tusitala’"’ himself replies as follows:-‘‘Your correspondent asks why ‘Tusitala,’ when he tells his tales, does not make it a practice to give out the names of the authors. He can only reply that whenever the author’s name has any significance in the story itself, acknowledgment is made; but when the name adds nothing to the value of the story, it is omitted; e.g., many of O. Henry’s tales are so datestamped as to be almost unintelligible without mention of name, place and date. Similarly, ‘Saki’ wrote so many of his delightful fantasies with contemporary and topical interest that they need similar comment. On the other hand, literally scores of tales used are by writers very very old or very very new, whose names would mean little or nothing to the great majority of listeners. There is the final problem of wordeconomy in compressing the usual quart into a pint pot; stories of variable length into an invariable thirteen minutes or less. If there is any added listener-interest to be achieved by naming the author and circumstance, ‘Tusitala’ will be happy to do so.’’]