SUBURBAN VALUES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 667, 18 April 1952, Page 5

SUBURBAN VALUES

Sir.-May I suggest to "Westcliff" (Radio Review, March 21) that the indictment against "suburban values" should be dropped? This sweeping generalisation is silly enough in England, but still sillier here, where} géographically and socially, a larger proportion of the people are suburban and class distinctions are so much less rigid.- The "materialistic" and-so-on .values that "Westcliff" lists are found in every sec-

tion of society, from city flats to remote farmhouses, A trim suburban"street may be thick with intelligentsia; there is a well-known one in Wellington. Moreover, persons of low intéllécfual or aesthetic tastes often have "qualities necessary to the health of society that are by no means always found in the writer or the artist. ; As for the possibility of a New Zealand Galsworthy arising, he will not come unless there is a large body of inferior work from which he can spring. This persistent hoping for genius in our letters is natural enough up to a point, but the danger is that we Shall ignore the teaching of all literatures; that great work comes out of a ruck, the compost that nourishes the flower. What we need is more men and women writing novels -a lot more, and novels of all kindsmore encouragement for the sécond-rate, and less talk about prospects,- Also, the first job of a novelist is*mot to be a social studies student, but, to tell a story. I quite cheerfully subscribe myself

SUBURBIA

(Wellington).