M. H. HOLCROFT'S WRITING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 395, 17 January 1947, Page 5

M. H. HOLCROFT'S WRITING

Sir,-It is healthy that M. H. Holcroft’s books should receive discussion, for we have passed the important stage where we have ceased to be emigrant Englishmen and can boldly assert ourselves as New Zealanders. Personally, I stand by the criticisms already made, while regretting the confusion that results from the omissions inevitable in letters. Mr. Holcroft deserves due credit for sincerely tackling a complex task, and the value of some passages in his books will be readily accepted. At the same time it appears necessary that his underlying theses should be challenged, for the way he points out to our writers is a blind alley. If there have been authors and poets whose powers wax and wane to a "biological rhythm" or who consider themselves the instruments of supernatural forces, there are insufficient grounds for a "natural law" of temperament or of mysticism, Creative writing surely has its roots in life itself, in the passion and compulsion of human experience. Divorce our writers from life, and what have we? A culture interpreting New Zealand must be bound up with our people. The subjective contemplations of the individual mind will be poor nourishment indeed. In my opinion Mr. Holcroft is too far adrift from the current of life in our young country to enter into the spirit of it. He fails to perceive the positive

. qualities in our character and our customs; or to view them with the balancing factor we call humour. (Note for J. Williams: humour is something broader than making people laugh). An exazgerated geographical myth, embraced by other writers also, serves to erect into "universal truths," whatsare merely the whims of a few. Agreed, we ere influenced by our natural surroundings; but we have a distorted mirror if we minimise such other items as history, economics, and social relations. Although, as P.O.C. points out, much of it has been said before, Mr. Holcroft has certainly dealt with his theme more comprehensively than others. Does that make him right? Hard thinking is not necessarily correct thinking. If it were, all philosophers would agree-and do they? Conflict of ideas will help us forward, provided always that their inspiration is fed from the life of our people.

ELSIE

LOCKE

(Christchurch).