Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 10, August 18th, 1948
The Beds and the Literati
The Beds and the Literati
George Turner (M.A.), addressing a joint meeting of the Lit. Soc. and the Soc. Club on Tuesday, 11th August, was uncertain as to whether his aim should be "to convince the Literary Society that they needed some Socialism, or to beat some literature into the Socialists."
The materialist conception of history showed us that literature was like every aspect of history, ultimately determined by the socioeconomic" changes. Thus, although directly Socialist literature was still small in volume, nearly all current literature reflected the great political movements of our time. This gave the lie to the isolationist line of T. E. Hulme that the world of the mind was quite divorced from the world of life.
Mr. Turner referred to the pseudo-socialist intellectual poets of the 30's—Lewis, Spender. Auden and company. Not one of them was a Socialist's toe-nail; Socialism was then sufficiently remote for them to play round with it. Today its uncomfortable reality has exposed these "hollow men" by driving them openly into the camp of reaction.
A Socialist literature had to be in a language all the people could understand and appreciate. Many modern writers, he claimed, attempted to avoid the topic of man's social responsibilities.
Despite the small attendance, discussion was lively.