Literary Activity at Victoria University College 1947-19511
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NEW Z_EALAND STUD IE S THE FIRST PLACARD OF THE ARMADILLAN ABSOLUTISTS Literary activity at Victoria University College 1947-1951 1 STEPHEN HAMILTON 1947, leading members of the club II became the first New Zealand stu dents to be arrested for street pro T THE START of the 1946 test after they marched through YCLOSTYLED AND STAPLED, A academic year enrolrnents at central Wellington to demonstrate C there were no more than five Wellington's Victoria University against Dutch military action in issues of Broadsheet, of from nine to College were swollen by an estimated Indonesia. twelve pages each.' The first 700 returning servicemen eager to In the midst of all this political number opens with an editorial by take advantage of the newly insti ferment there were also stirrings of a Oliver in which he sets out the tuted rehabilitation schemes. Many of literary nature. In late 1947, in a straightforward objectives of the these men- older, more experienced report in the Students' Association's Society and its magazine. The and more mature than their younger annual review on the activity of the official publications of the Students' counterparts at the college- brought College's revived Literary Society, Association, Spike and Salient, are with them political idealism and a mention was made of the establish seen as lacking critical content, a fervent hope that the mistakes of the ment of three study groups; on New deficiency the Society in tends to 1930s would not be repeated in the Zealand poetry, William Blake and correct. The recently founded post-war era. An Ex-Servicemen's Elizabethan drama 3 Members of the Landfall must also be figured into Society was soon formed, its 200 society included Pat Wilson, Bill Oliver's statement. As James members eager to distance them Oliver, Alistair Campbell, Eric Bertram commented in his 1954 selves from a proposal to set up a Schwirnrner, Lorna Clendon, Bill account of literary activity at VUC branch of the Returned Service Mabbitt, Cordon Orr, Harry Orsman, Victoria, this '"national" New men's Association2 A number of Elizabeth Entrican, Judith Wild, Zealand quarterly ... provided both these same 'rehabbers', including Ron Lorna Clendon and Geoffrey Datson. encouragement to young writers, Smith, Harold Dowrick, Jirn Winches Of these, Wilson, Oliver, Thomson, and a norm to vary against. '' ter, Dorian Saker, Harry Evison, and Campbell, Wild, Clendon and However, while there was certainly Alec McLeod, were also instrumental Schwimmer were chief among those a strong element of resistance and in forming the VUC Socialist Club. responsible for the production of the even literary subversion among This soon became active on a number society's Broadsheet, first published in those responsible for Broadsheet and of issues, from improving the tobacco May 1947, and it was largely through its successors, publication in the ration for returned servicemen to their efforts that that ephemeral highly regarded quarterly remained marching in opposition to compul publication was transformed into their most prized goal. Several soon sory military training. On 30 July Hilltop and then Arachne. had work accepted by Landfall's Vo/ 9 No 2 September 1999 N E \YI Z.E A L A N D 5 T U D I E S editor Charles Brasch, who, as will and second issues of Landfall, taking although Schwimmer disputes be seen, in turn encouraged them in issue with what he perceives as this)" on the New York poet Harry their efforts to publish their own Brasch's too simplistic and deter Roskolenko, citing him as 'one of little magazines. ministic view of the development of the chief precursors of the move The most significant contribu New Zealand culture. He recently ment of which this placard is an tion to the fi rst issue of Broadsheet is described the dispute as 'a quarrel expression,' and a poem by Pat a poem by Alistair Camp bell, 'Love with a mechanical view of causality Wilson (signed 'C.W.B.'), titled Poem IV,' part of an ongoing se which links supposed realia like the 'Homage to Roskolenko,'13 indicates quence of poems, of which more "landfall" of the British to New a tentative link between the Placard were to appear in the issue of Spike Zealand poetry as a necessary and and the Ern Malley hoax. for 1948 and in the first issue of sufficient determinant.'' Roskolenko, who styled himself Hilltop in April 1949. Campbell's The undated next issue of Broad 'first poet of the Apocalypse,'14 was only other contribution to Broad sheet- the third -carries the title stationed with the United States sheet, although there is some uncer First Placard of the Armadillan Abso Army in Sydney during the war. He tainty over the attribution, is an lutists and a cover illustration by was so impressed with the Malley untitled poem printed over the Alistair Campbell featuring a band poems that he arranged for three of initials 'C.A.S.' in the issue for June aged hand with hanging from it them to be published in a special 1948, that given the title First Plac what Campbelllater described as, in Australian issue of the New York ard of the Armadillan Absolutists. accordance with the title of the journal Voices. Max Harris, editor Neither of these poems have been issue, a miniature armadillo (al and publisher of the Malley poems republished. Pat Wilson contributed though, with its numerous small and of the periodical Angry Pen a poem to the first issue of Broad legs and obvious antennae, this guins, provided a commentary for sheet, and two poems to the final appears to be a common slater or Voices and advised Roskolenko on issue. Wilson also had at least some wood louse)' The drawing is ac selection, assisted by C. B. involvement in the writing of 'On companied by some deliberately Christensen of Meanjin Papers, the Necessity for a National Litera obscure, Pound-like lines penned by Cecily Crozier of Co mment, and R.G. ture,' published anonymously in the Bill Oliver: 'Only the shy return I Howarth of Southerly." Roskolenko first issue' After the dawn.' Ostensibly serious also had two volumes of poetry The second issue, dated August but in fact nothing less than a published in Australia, at least one 1947, opens with an editorial by Eric deliberate literary hoax, the Plac of which was familiar to Schwimmer. Born in Amsterdam in ard's announced intention was 'to Schwimmer.16 1923, he was living in Indonesia start a new "school" of poetry' Pat Wilson later recalled that with his parents at the start of the based on the premise that Schwimmer asked him to choose, Second World War. After arriving '(l]anguage is an absolute. What is more or less at random, the quota in New Zealand with his family in stated in poetry is stated for all time tions used in the Roskoj_enko article 1940, he graduated from Victoria in the only possible termsq0 The from a selection initially made by with a BA in ClassicS-in 1948 before poems of the brilliant Australian Schwimmer. Wilson also recalls that going on to a career as an anthro literary fraud, Ern Malley, pub his 'Homage to Roskolenko' was pologist both here and in Canada. lished in 1944, were prefaced by w ritten at Schwimmer's request: His interest in European and par similar gnomic utterances. The {/t] has no connection whatsoever ticularly French existentialist litera Malley hoax had been discussed in with its (Erik's) title. It's not in any ture and his concern with theory, an article in Spike later in the same sense a 'hmnage' addressed to unusual at the time, gave him some year, signed simply 'Triad'11 someone, real or imaginary; it is standing as 'the intellectual of the The inclusion of an article by merely a piece of what I used to ca ll group'.' In his Broadsheet editorial 'S.E.H.' (identified by Bill Oliver 'a tmospheri cs,' written in a sort of Schwimmer responds to the first and Pat Wilson as Eric Schwimmer 6 Vo/ 9 No 2 September 1999 N E W <:._E A L A N D 5 T U 0 I E 5 doggerel, and almost completely what had gone before. Other contri Douglas Stew art. meaningless although it reads~ butions were composed in similar The colophon to the issue an sense. ways.20 Apparently, several people nounced that it was 'Printed and not in on the joke took the Placard Wilson also rightly points out Published by the Victoria University seriously. The next issue of Broad that the fact that Roskolenko was a College Literary Society, July 17th, sheet opened with an editorial titled real poet makes: 1948.'21 'An Explanation,' probably written The final number of Broadsheet 'the Placard not an Ern Malley type by Eric Schwimmer, which begins appeared the following month and hoax but th e~ of one .. by declaring that '[t]he Armadillans was sold arourill the college for 'Ern Malley' didn't in fact exist, but are quite unpenitent', before going sixpence. It opened with an un he sounded like someone who did; on to defend the work in the Plac signed editorial which stated in part by contrast 'Harry Roskolenko' ard. This fo urth issue also carries a that Broadsheet 'exists because sounded ... like some one who number of poems, including two by people write for us and we like didn't exist.' 17 Brian Bell, and an appropriately printing their work.' Despite the ironic review by 'O.D.' of the first Schwimmer cannot now recall ingenuous na lure of this statement, issue of Bookie, the affectionate precisely why Roskolenko played it is possible to detect in the pages satire on Book written and published such an important part in the issue.