AN EYE FOR FALLACIES
Sir--Since Mr. Louis Johnson has called me a sniper, and "sniper" is a word with sinister associations, I suppose he also has felt that his verse has been in the line of fire during the recent discussion on New Zealand poetry. I still contend that it is not fallacious to criticise-or shall we say "comment on"?-a book one has not read, basing one’s comments on the account given of the book by a reviewer. Actually, I had read The Facts of Life before I commented on it in my second letter, which
appeared in The Listener of August 6, I did not mention this explicitly, because I thought it would be obvious to the intelligent reader. I’m afraid I must decline the label "intellectual" which Mr. Johnson has fastened on me. Let me pass for a franc-tireur in the realm of intellectsniping calls for a precision that is not possible in newspaper correspondencea franc-tireur, moreover, who will not be deterred from his sharpshooting by the cries of poets lamenting the castigation of their literary offspring.
G.H.
D.
(Palmerston North),
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540910.2.12.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 790, 10 September 1954, Page 5
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183AN EYE FOR FALLACIES New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 790, 10 September 1954, Page 5
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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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