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Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 20, No. 3. April 12, 1956

[Letter from J. Sadlier to Salient Vol. 20, No. 3. April 12, 1956]

Dear Sir,

As we all know, intellectual snobbery is already extremely widespread in this College. In the past, Salient seems to have steered pretty well clear of this type of nonsense. However, in this respect I should like to make some criticism of the article in the issue of March 29, covering the meeting of the Literary Society held on March 19.

The article concerned was apparently written by one of those sorry people who think that anyone else who claims to understand "The Wasteland" is a liar, and who pretend to confuse any musician since Monteverdi with Louts Armstrong, and any verse since 1922 with the Kolynos song.

The section to which I take particular exception is, to quote, "Mme. Dronke . . . read Rilke and Hopkins. The audience . . . appreciated this intensely, earnestly. They had heard of Hopkins." This implication of ignorance and insincerity on the part of the audience is unjustified and completely objectionable.

Finally, the article as a whole is, in its general tone, nothing but clever-clever, would-be-smartly-cynical froufrou; to quote again: "Then came James K. Baxter, looking more like nobody but James K. Baxter than anybody you would imagine," . . . Hell !

I am, etc.,

J. Sadleir.