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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 2; No. 6 April 26, 1939

What About Us?

What About Us?

When "Scrutiny"' vanished from the library shelves (why?) "The Criterion" remained the only really first-class literary magazine reaching V.U.C. Accordingly, for those interested in modern English. French and American literature, the loss of "The Criterion" is something of a disaster. The serious students of English cannot afford to neglect modern French and American work because at the top the three cultures meet. For example, two of the foremost figures in literature today, Eliot and Pound, were born in America, write considerably in French, and were greatly influenced by French authors. Therefore to those ignorant of French, the greatest English literature of the century may be not quite a closed book, but certainly a book with many leaves uncut. English criticism cannot, and does not, ignore French. Yet how many of our M.A.'s in languages know more than a line or two of Baudelaire and Verlaine, or have even heard of Rimbaud ("the greatest source of pure lyricism since Villon") or de Nerval, Corblere. Laforgue, Perse, Breton? A paper knife for these uncut leaves was provided by "The Criterion" and "Scrutiny"; we must have the latter bark and find a substitute for the former.

Better still, let us have a complete overhaul of our literary periodicals—we can afford only the best. We could toss out "L'Illustratlon" and "Les Annales." for example, and take the "Mercure do France" and "Etudes Anxlaises" instead, for the same price. The last-named recently had an article on contemporary N.Z. poetry—I wonder whether there is more than one copy of it in this country?

For our library, I suggest:

Transition New Verse
Scrutiny Mercure de France
Twentieth Century Verse
Etudes Anglaises
Life and Letters To-Day.

Why not? Most Honours students in English and French won't notice the difference: but those who, taking literature seriously, treat a degree with the contempt it deserves, will appreciate the change.

—H.W.G.