NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE

Sir,-It amazes me that Frank Sargeson should be presented, as he was recently in The Listener, as New Zealand's foremost short-story writer, In fact, most of our modern New Zealand writers amaze me, Frankly I cannot understand them and, I feel sure, after making a number of enquiries, that the average person feels as I do. At first I put it down to my ignorance of literary affairs but, slowly, I have come to the conclusion that literature in New Zealand is a very snobby affair. Somehow a few

such as Frank Sargeson, J. C. Beaglehole, Anton Vogt, and their like have managed to get the front seats for themselves, and the public, sheep as they always are, have silently acquiesced-or just as silently ignored the whole thing and turned to outside literature. I’m not saying that Frank Sargeson is-or is not-New Zealand’s best short story writer. All I am saying is that if he is, then heaven help us! No wonder our writers get little support from the public. I am not saying, either, that some of our writers are not clever, What I object to in the main, I think, is their distorted viewpoint. They seem so determined to present the odd view, the odd character. I won’t go so far as to say that their characters are not life-like. In a lifetime of moving round New Zealand I have come across many queer characters, but I feel that the New Zealand

a i ee i scene is not made up of oddities, and is therefore definitely not fairly represented in their writings. Is there no writer who can present the present New Zealand scene without oddities, distortions of character and language, or too much introspection? I’d like to read something that would make me feel it was alive-something that would make me say, "That might have been me," or perhaps "How like my neighbour." I’d like to read a book whose people I should leave, on the last page. with great regret.

Actually I enjoy The Listener very much, and read it fairly thoroughly, but I feel that if we had fewer writers who strain for a clever effect, and more who write fiction that rings true and is normal, I should enjoy it still more,

W. F. R.

ATKINSON

(Uriti),

ANONYMOUS LETTERS Sir,-I would like to say in your columns how I despise the people who write to you anonymously. They apparently want the world to know their opinion but not their name. I feel especially strongly about this as twice friends have asked me if it was I who wrote certain letters. I think it would be a good idea if you did not publish letters unless the writers were willing to have their names in print also.

Y. K.

ROBERTS

(Lower Hutt),