Lust for Life
FELT somewhat rebuked for the close attention I hed just given Green for Danger, when I heard A. R. D. Fairburn’s remarks (in the following Mind Your I’s and Q’s session) on the lust for death which in the human species runs a close second to the lust for life. That, said Mr. Fairburn, is why: people still
go to war, get themselves killed in road accidents, read thrillers, and listen to crime serials. But I prefer to think of all these as manifestations of the lust for life, since to look on death, even the several-times-removed-death of the character in the thriller, makes one increasingly conscious of one’s own aliveness, and the more able (and willing) to put up with the inconveniences of the state. Green for Danger in addition to its sudden and extremely vocal deaths has the advantage of a hospital background (operating theatre, hissing steriliser, clink of instruments, the muffled command through the mask) which is quite sufficient to cold-foot the audience even without the murders, Then there is Inspector Cockerill, whose comments are as lacking in taste if not in bite as Stanley Holloway’s gravedigger. My only regret is that I am permitted to surrender myself to this caddish but fascinating entertainment for only half-an-hour at a time-lI should prefer a three-hour orgy and get the thing out of my system.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19481203.2.20.1.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 493, 3 December 1948, Page 9
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229Lust for Life New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 493, 3 December 1948, Page 9
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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.
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