Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 7, No. 10 October 4, 1944

[Introduction]

It it not without diffidence that I am reviewing "Spike" for "Salient"; the only too apparent weaknesses of the magazine this year are a reflection not merely on the editors, but on the college itself. Only those students who contributed to "Spike" are in a position to complain of the weakness shown.

The cover is unambitious but not offensive, the printing by Caxton is good and unostentatious—although the minor defect of three obvious misprints indicates lack of care.

A disappointing feature of this year's Spike is the derivative nature of most of the contributions, particularly the prose. With regard to the verse it is perhaps remarkable that over half the entries that reached print were translations. As one contributor points out, translation is an art, but in this case I cannot but feel that the lack of original thought is an indication of the failure of the editors to stimulate students to think out and write of problems with which they are familiar.

True, it is notorious that in any college publication the contributions of the friends of the editor are likely to be in evidence and that is largely the fault of everyone else: but it seems to me that until this fault is overcome the publications of our college will suffer. Spike, 1944, does not go beyond the Arts facutly—perhaps not even beyond the realm of "pure literature" and to my mind this parochialism is no happy indication of success. On looking through Spikes of the past three years I find there a more representative selection of material from different facets of college life and viewpoints, from which I must conclude that editors of previous years have either had no friends and so have accepted contributions from the hoi polloi or else that they have had a wide circle of acquaintances who have submitted material. There is the unhappy suggestion in this year's Spike that "outsiders also ran."

Of the photos there appear to have been two worth printing and certainly "Radiographer" is a beautiful bit of work.