A Conference of Writers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 621, 25 May 1951, Page 4

A Conference of Writers

REPORT on the Writers’ A Conference, printed on page 7, will make the absentees wish they had been present, if only because they must realise that they have missed an interesting occasion. It may be harder for them to decide if the occasion was valuable. Writers in the mass are possibly no more formidable than people in any other occupation; but they are likely to be more talkative, and some of them are so deeply immersed in themselves that they become impatient listeners. Further, as our Christchurch reporter explains, the generations look at one another across a gulf in understanding as well as in years. The young and the elderly have grown up in separate worlds, and although they may accept the same values they express them ‘differently. It is not unusual for writers of different ages to be out of sympathy. with one another. Younger men are adventurous in the treatment of ideas and language. Older writers have had time in which to fix thay beliefs, to discover limitations, and to develop styles which cannot be changed. Yet it would be deplorable if a gap between the generations were accepted complacently in New Zealand letters. Writers can never afford to relax into that comfortable state of mind which allows older people to watch the efforts of the young with the sort of benevolent and slightly amused interest that is given to puppies at play. Youth may be the season of extravagance; but it is also the time of bright vision, and it is no accident that some of the greatest poetry has been written by men under thirty. The writer who remains young in spirit, no matter what his physical age may be, is always able to understand what youth is saying: he finds in it a renewal of his own thought and feeling. Similarly, the writer who is still trying to find his place in letters must take what he can from his elders. Indeed, he often takes more than

he knows, even when he imagines himself to be a complete iconoclast. Ideas examined at the conference have been influential in New Zealand. There would have been no discussion, and no foundations for new thought, if earlier writers had been without their vision, Literature is not a structure which can be taken to pieces and rebuilt; it is a living growth, and much of its strength comes from intercourse: between the present and the past. The Christchurch conference may have few practical results. A proposal to form a "writers’ union" should be received doubtfully. It seems probable that our writers will keep the individualism which makes them prefer the floating group-hardening into coteriesto the common front. The nature of their work demands a freedom of thought and action which leaves them restless under external discipline. Other proposals may seem less important when they are examined outside the conference room. The meeting had values which are better left to personal expression. It permitted writers, widely different in age and outlook,» to discuss their common problems. Most of these problems were probably found to belong to the life and work of the artist in any free environment. Nevertheless, the fact that they could be discussed from so many different points of view is in itself an indication of progress in letters. On no previous occasion have our writers been so numerous that they could. be separated into clearly-defined groups. They have come together, have met and argued, and have gone away with new ideas or with fewer prejudices. The results may be noticed in the tone of new writing-above all, perhaps, in the tone of criticism, strengthened by wider understanding of what it is that writers have had to do, and are trying to do today, in their colonial society.