Creative Artist

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 669, 2 May 1952, Page 11

Creative Artist

"HE services broadcasting can render to New Zealand writing are indicated by the recent first publication of important poems on the radio and the commissioning of occasional verse. A further.

avenue was opened up by a 1YC talk from Frank Sargeson on writing a novel. This admirable session showed that Mr. Sargeson is prepared to give to a radio script the same kind of attention he gives to his short stories. His avoidance of literary jargon, and his simplicity of statement made for easy listening; I received the same deceptive impression of effortlessness as his writing gives. Despite the inevitable "I," there was no direct or implied egotism here; although Mr. Sargeson spoke of his own problems and development, the effect was to lead us to a general consideration of the nature of the creative artist. This is, I think, the most direct presentation Mr. Sargeson has yet made of his writing "philosophy." It was not unprovocative; his analogy between a child making mud-pies and the absorbed artist suggested to me conclusions, other than the ones he drew from it. But it was an absorbing, and very human, talk. I hope we hear more like it; yet I doubt whether we have many writers who would have as much to say as lucidly as Frank Sargeson.