M. H. HOLCROFT'S WRITINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 399, 14 February 1947, Page 19

M. H. HOLCROFT'S WRITINGS

Sir-In reply to Elsie Locke, I would say that whether we concur with or take except.on to the theses developed in Encircling Seas on Rhythmic Compulsion, it is not a definition of what an author should write about, but a description of the way in which M. H. Holcroft believes the creat.ve mood operates. Mr. Holcroft may not agree with the main trends of thought and life in New Zealand, but his writing is steeped in a knowledge of our situation.

No one would give more whole-hearted support to the assertion that "Creative wr.ting surely has its roots in life," than the author of Timeless World. Consider, for example, how he writes in the essay on Auriel contained in that volume: "He was unmarried. Children of his own might have added stability and a healthy contact with the world... Meditation on the sweetness of childhood needs the interruption from the voice of fancy, lusty and actual." In another essay we find him deeply concerned because from the abundant material of Public Works camps no novel or collection of stories has issued. I think, however, that Elsie Locke’s criticism spr.ngs from a different source. She herself is in harmony with currents of thought in New Zealand to which Mr. Holcroft is opposed-where he would modify she would accept. It is a mistake, though, to identify any one current of thought and feeling with the total life of a country, and a further error to attack an author for a supposed failing which bears little relation to the evidence at hand, No writer can simultaneously possess an entirely catholic sympathy and integrity. Where Mr. Holcroft’s ideas and sympath'es end, there we may suppose, Elsie Locke’s begin; but for my part I more deeply share in those of the

former.

J.

S.

(Hororata).

(We are sorry to close this interesting discussion, but cannot give it further space. Elsie Locke, who started it, may however reply briefly if she wishes.-Ed.).