SHORT STORIES.
sir,-k. A. W. Smith condemns the modern short-story writer for his loyal portrayal of life as it is. He wants romantic make-believe. I fully under« stand and sympathise with his desireso does the bookseller, In any bookshop he can see rows and rows of Romance (true), Sentimentality (false), and
Nursery rhymes (authentic). As a New Zealand writer of short stories I would ask him: (a) How would he compete against the hundreds of women’s magazines imported which contain the same old plot of sentimental slush, the story of the Prince Charming and his beautiful Princess who lived happily ever after? (b) To whom would he sell his work? (c) How muck does he think he’d get for it? and (d) If I undertake to cease "revelling with thee Russians," and write (as I assuredly could) a string of modern: tales modelled on Hans Anderson or the Grimm Bros., will he pay the publisher, the distributor, and allowing’ 25 per cent profit to the retailer, take a chance on his judgment of a "seller" being correct? After all-why, does he imagine, do we write?
LEO
WATERS
(Christchurch).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 5
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188SHORT STORIES. New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 5
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