LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM

Mr. Ivor Brown, dramatic critic, eesayist and novelist, is one of the latest writers to try to correct popular misconceptions about the relations between literature and journalism. In an article in the "Fortnightly Roview," after citing a number of famous writers who have graduated in journalism, he says:— "There is, fundamentally, no distinction between literature and journalism, except the temporal conditions of periodical appearance, and the material fact that one is printed with a cloth cover and tho other is bounded by n sheet of paper. People are apt to sneer at daily journaliem, partly because they confuse the well-considered work with mere gossip, partly because it is available for a penny or twopence. The tinobbery of juice is a very large and very discreditable element in the public opinion of this country. It seems to be regrettably true that if you give a person something for nothing or for a mere groat, he will take it for granted that the stun" is bad, or at least of no particular significance. Free education may be a eooial necessity, but the absence of a price is bad for education. Education laid on like gas or water, only cheaper, suggests to the million that school-going is simply a matter of routine, and the children are not sent to school as participants of a privilege, but simply got rid of with a little thankfulness that they will not bo getting in the way at homo OT running loose in the street. If children had to bring their pennies the parents would bo far more likely to take an active if not an intelligent intercut in their mental progress. It is the name with newspapers. They arc so cheap that people look at them instead of rending them, and throw them under the railway carriage scat instead of carrying them homo to discuss a point that has been raised. Yet the amount of news and views expensively gathered and carefully sorted and sub-edited, of views covering the arts and sciences as well as politics, is stupendous. . . . The public should consider the serious newspaper as a stupendous piece of organisation, and not pass by any excellent writing it may contain as bargain basement stuff simply because it is sold at a bargain price."