tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post7640296403894906523..comments2024-01-26T20:41:02.065+13:00Comments on Quote Unquote: The last postStephen Stratfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426799380228308536noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-18663097926058995372010-04-12T20:59:59.354+12:002010-04-12T20:59:59.354+12:00Well, I've now read the short story in questio...Well, I've now read the short story in question: it is fucking tame, timid, awful insofar as the writing is concerned, and vicious in the revealed background.<br />If I was the writer - thank goodness I am not - I would try to work for something that was at least - at least- as one of the better than the worst of my best.<br />Stead has demeaned his reputation with this - thing.<br />Did he troll round his European friends for a postive vote? Who knows?<br /><br />Stead the writer - as far as I am concerned as a READER- died rather a long time ago. His ability as a critic - especially when it came to be a discerning critic about ANZ lit, inclusive of Maori lit - went west in the 1980s. He is sooo yesterday-man.Keri hnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-42665284367747676072010-04-12T18:00:54.071+12:002010-04-12T18:00:54.071+12:00David, you misunderstand. A story like that can...David, you misunderstand. A story like that can't get in the SST unless those who run the paper understand the significance of the story and the players involved. Several people could have written the story, though perhaps not with AH's verve.Mark Broatchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13158851955826342561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-24162066061113990712010-04-12T17:00:13.963+12:002010-04-12T17:00:13.963+12:00Very good, Melior and Paul.
Thank you, Keri. I di...Very good, Melior and Paul.<br /><br />Thank you, Keri. I did know that you had been a subscriber and it's very nice to see you here.Stephen Stratfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00426799380228308536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-57992155416923801432010-04-12T16:43:17.574+12:002010-04-12T16:43:17.574+12:00Or a statue.Or a statue.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08024440694895271805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-67024881483810150492010-04-12T16:34:08.808+12:002010-04-12T16:34:08.808+12:00And here is CK Stead himself, in the Sunday Times ...And here is CK Stead himself, in the Sunday Times in the UK: 'The reason I set this story in Croatia, rather than in New Zealand, was because everybody would have tried to work out who the characters were, and I didn’t want that.' <br /><br />In the Sunday Star-Times in NZ, Stead says 'this is - I mean every detail - this is a work of fiction'.<br /><br />There must be a Tui ad in this somewhere.Melior Farbronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-73352843178431495972010-04-12T16:14:32.083+12:002010-04-12T16:14:32.083+12:00"this blog 'is simply creating trouble am..."this blog 'is simply creating trouble among New Zealand writers'"<br /><br />I laughed long & loud at that comment. As if a certain hadnt been stirring for a considerable time...<br /><br />Stephen, while I did subscribe to "Quote Unquote"(the magazine), I didnt realise this blog existed. I am glad to have learned about it.Keri Hulmenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-61532682955326567132010-04-12T14:24:57.184+12:002010-04-12T14:24:57.184+12:00"You're fired" - funnily enough, tha..."You're fired" - funnily enough, that's what CK says too. He told the SST I should resign or be sacked from my job as a judge for this year's book awards, because this blog is "simply creating trouble among New Zealand writers".<br /><br />I wonder which writers he means? Him and who else?Stephen Stratfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00426799380228308536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-8028734599388007872010-04-12T01:24:56.491+12:002010-04-12T01:24:56.491+12:00Stephen, please stop upsetting people. New Zealand...Stephen, please stop upsetting people. New Zealand writing is NOT to be discussed.<br /><br />You're fired.Chad Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-13410592938921893372010-04-12T00:33:44.835+12:002010-04-12T00:33:44.835+12:00I don't want gratuitously to get into a "...I don't want gratuitously to get into a "me too" fest here, but I did buy many Quote Unquotes in the bookshop and still have copies.<br /><br />I'm not a great subscriber but I am a great browser and buy many magazines and books each week.<br /><br />I have every Metro from the first issue in May 1981 to about 2000 in some boxes somewhere, bought month by month before I started work for ACP nine years after Metro started and thus became able to get them free.<br /><br />I get the daily newspaper delivered and pay for it, still.<br /><br />Writing on paper means a lot to me, it is not "dead tree" irrelavancy. I like reading stuff on paper as much as I like reading stuff on the Net.David McLoughlinhttp://poneke.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-77444255986161640792010-04-11T22:13:50.335+12:002010-04-11T22:13:50.335+12:00Thank you, Paul, for your comments about the magaz...Thank you, Paul, for your comments about the magazine. I can't tell you how much that means to me.Stephen Stratfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00426799380228308536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-59088878704057972752010-04-11T21:59:01.350+12:002010-04-11T21:59:01.350+12:00It is a bit late now, I realise, but a couple of w...It is a bit late now, I realise, but a couple of weeks ago I took time off to read every copy of Quote/Unquote. It was a great magazine. Had I been in New Zealand at the time, I would have subscribed.<br /><br />I hope one day to compile <i>The Collected Literary Spats of C K Stead</i>. I have lost hope, however, of understanding them. They always seem to be based on imperfect recollections of something somebody may have said many years ago; that something always seems quite trivial. For reasons of their own, the literary left become quite incensed by the very mention of Stead's name. And so battle commences.<br /><br />The only good thing about all this is that periodically a newspaper takes interest in literature, or that the <i>Listener</i> resembles its old self for a couple of weeks.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08024440694895271805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-76625711912815757582010-04-11T19:47:53.669+12:002010-04-11T19:47:53.669+12:00I think you misunderstand me, Mark, and I apologis...I think you misunderstand me, Mark, and I apologise if I wasn't clear.<br /><br />Most journalists at the SST (or any other NZ media today) could not have written a story like that because they would not just have not known who CK Stead or Nigel Cox were, they also would not have been erudite enough to be looking at a blog like Stephen's.<br /><br />Anthony Hubbard is one of the few survivors with an institutional memory.<br /><br />I wasn't talking about the "up the chain" system of referring a contentious and potentially litigious story as far as the lawyers. I was referring to the joy that someone is still at that rag who knows enough to write about a delicious literary spat as this one.David McLoughlinhttp://poneke.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-62204206855572113192010-04-11T19:05:37.580+12:002010-04-11T19:05:37.580+12:00Sorry to disillusion you or your cynicism, David, ...Sorry to disillusion you or your cynicism, David, but a story like that has to go through several senior journalists to make it into the "rag".<br /><br />regards<br />Mark BroatchMark Broatchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13158851955826342561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-57718080406920007952010-04-11T17:41:16.336+12:002010-04-11T17:41:16.336+12:00Finlay must be very lonely now
Oops, Hubbard. For...<i>Finlay must be very lonely now</i><br /><br />Oops, Hubbard. For some reason I always mix them up.David McLoughlnhttp://poneke.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-74734802349298366682010-04-11T17:32:42.922+12:002010-04-11T17:32:42.922+12:00It was gratifying to see the story in the SST toda...It was gratifying to see the story in the SST today Stephen. When I saw the articles on your blog, I hoped someone would take it up. There are few working journalists today who would know who C K Stead is, let alone Nigel Cox. Finlay must be very lonely now, what with the rag being dominated by the likes of Jonathan Marshall.<br /><br />I once, for N&S, interviewed a woman very high up in the arts world in New Zealand. Someone told me later (it may even have been you) that "she studied under C K Stead."<br /><br />Every time I saw him at Robyn's and Warwick's Christmas parties after that, I always recalled that.David McLoughlinhttp://poneke.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-33785099747829361072010-04-11T12:39:20.521+12:002010-04-11T12:39:20.521+12:00Anthony Hubbard's story has a detail in which ...Anthony Hubbard's story has a detail in which Stead's wife turns up at Unity Books in Auckland to berate Cox for the Quote Unquote essay. That is almost the worst of it: Stead having, over decades as a critic, dished it out time and time again but clearly not able to take it.Bob Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-58425535297282584882010-04-11T10:46:53.409+12:002010-04-11T10:46:53.409+12:00Quite a story in today’s SST. That my reaction to ...Quite a story in today’s SST. That my reaction to ‘Last Season’s Man’ is an unsophisticated personal response will be clear from the quotations from my rather longer conversation with Anthony Hubbard. What won’t be clear is that I otherwise like and admire Karl and his work, and emailed my congratulations the moment I got news of his Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, but before I read the winning story.Fergus Barrowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-70240652077283722392010-04-08T13:57:24.253+12:002010-04-08T13:57:24.253+12:00'Anyway, I took the post down, not wishing to ...'Anyway, I took the post down, not wishing to cause any distress to the lit. execs or, indeed, to upset Karl unnecessarily.'<br /><br />Heh. I love that 'unnecessarily.'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-89370103369159770262010-04-06T22:31:06.327+12:002010-04-06T22:31:06.327+12:00Thank you, Rob, for having been a subscriber. It w...Thank you, Rob, for having been a subscriber. It was the subscribers who kept us going for four years. <br /><br />I met a lot of schoolteachers who said they loved the magazine and I always asked if they bought it or subscribed. Invariably they would say, "No, I read the free copy in the school library every month. It's really good."<br /><br />And when the magazine folded and people said what a shame and how great it had been, I always asked if they had bought it or subscribed. Invariably they would say... oh you get the idea.Stephen Stratfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00426799380228308536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-33959691754085015002010-04-06T17:32:27.270+12:002010-04-06T17:32:27.270+12:00I recall the original piece (yes, I was a subscrib...I recall the original piece (yes, I was a subscriber to Quote/Unquote) and as a detached observer I felt some of Cox's criticisms of Stead seemed guilty of the same faults he was accusing Stead of (playing the man and the ball; the sound of scores being settled, etc).Rob Hoskinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16781851818389502001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-44458194311914684102010-04-06T14:06:52.832+12:002010-04-06T14:06:52.832+12:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Dave Hilliernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2131514811483888026.post-59310225094141684582010-04-06T13:59:04.986+12:002010-04-06T13:59:04.986+12:00Thank you, Stephen. That is most illuminating.
I ...Thank you, Stephen. That is most illuminating.<br /><br />I am very glad I do not live in the world of NZ literature.Dave Hilliernoreply@blogger.com