EXODUS XVI, 19-20
Sir,-Twice in the lgst year or so I have been spurred by something topical in The Listener to sit down at orice and dash off a would-be humorous letter, of ephemeral interest only, On each occasion I have immediately regrétted posting it and have been relieved to open the next three or four issues and find it not there. But on each occasion I have later been startled and horrified to find it subsequently disinterred and printed. Both of these letters have borne my initials, and the result is that my friends are now treating me as one.of these embarrassing people who wake up and give a sudden hoot of laughter. long after a joke has passed, and who then contribute a small piece of repartee (already contributed by someone else) when the conversation has long since moved on to other topics. i In your issue of January 11 (which reached me on January 7) there was an article called "After the Last War."-On January 8 I wrote and posted’ to you a letter called "Rehannibalitation" more or less relevant to this article. In‘ your issue of January 25 you printed a letter from someone else who made the same point as I did about "Caesar’s Third Punic War." In your issue of February 22, my own now thoroughly moth-eaten witticism appears. If you will refer back to a controversy on Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the end of 1944 you will find I met a similar fate there too. Now, sir, may I respectfully suggest that such letters should be treated like manna: those that cannot be used at once should be abandoned, and not held over until the worms have been at them, If difficulties of publication make it necessary for you to use them when they are in an advanced state of decomposition, would it not be possible to. append to them their date of writing-like those little cakes of yeast (if I may borrow a simile from another quickly perishable food) which bear an assurance that they have left the hands of their makers in fresh condition on such-and-such a day: of the month, which is a tactful way of saying that if the. consumer finds anything wrong with them it’s. because the middleman has been sitting on them.
D. F.
T.
(Auckland).
(Matthew XXVI, 41, second part.-Ed.)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460308.2.13.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 350, 8 March 1946, Page 5
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396EXODUS XVI, 19-20 New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 350, 8 March 1946, Page 5
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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