Owen Marshall
August 21st 2011 07:47
Though Owen Marshall is one of New Zealand's most celebrated short story writers, I
haven't read many of his books...as with many NZ writers there's a tendency to the morose running through his work, a kind of gloom that overshadows the stories. After a while this makes reading rather drear. It must be something in the NZ psyche, I think, though occasionally we produce literature that's actually funny.
Anyway, here are a couple of quotes from his book, The Master of Big Jingles. The first quote comes from the title story:
There's no dichotomy of body and spirit when you're young. Adults see the body as an enemy, or a vehicle to be apprehensively maintained. There's just you, when you're young: flesh and spirit are indivisible. For all of us in youth, any failure in body was a failure of the spirit also.
The second quote is from a story called, Rosemary for Remembrance.
'I've reached an age at which the urge to meet new people has largely gone. The cause is in me rather than in others.' It was the growth of a cynicism of expectation, I suppose.
Anyway, here are a couple of quotes from his book, The Master of Big Jingles. The first quote comes from the title story:
There's no dichotomy of body and spirit when you're young. Adults see the body as an enemy, or a vehicle to be apprehensively maintained. There's just you, when you're young: flesh and spirit are indivisible. For all of us in youth, any failure in body was a failure of the spirit also.
The second quote is from a story called, Rosemary for Remembrance.
'I've reached an age at which the urge to meet new people has largely gone. The cause is in me rather than in others.' It was the growth of a cynicism of expectation, I suppose.
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