Philippa Stevenson: Riff Raff tale needs telling for posterity

Riff Raff is now the newest - and stiffest - butler in town but as the razzle dazzle of Friday night's celebratory bash fades, there is only one way to ensure the strange tale of his Hamilton origins lives on.

It will have to be written - in prose, maybe, or poetry or song.

Without some storytelling, the sculptured tribute to Richard O'Brien, creator of Riff Raff and The Rocky Horror Show, is destined to become just more street furniture - another perch for the birds.

But put the prancing Transylvanian in a work of homegrown fiction, or give him a local lyrical mention, and he could live on for many generations.

After all, who would know Ulysses if not for Homer, or recall any number of figures briefly significant on the world stage if not for the historians who pinned them forever to a page.

So, it's as important to O'Brien, Hamilton and the $125,000 statue's sponsors that the city has a growing literary scene as it is that Weta Workshop was up to immortalising Riff Raff in bronze.

Hamilton author Beryl Fletcher is thrilled by what she describes as writing's "ferment at community, grassroots level". She's also pleased to see the way writers are increasingly reflecting the distinct nature of their own city, town or district.

"When I was growing up you had to be a white bloke living in London to write literature," the 62-year-old said.

In the changing literary landscape, a growing number of writers are now throwing off a cultural cringe to write about local things.

 

Fletcher tells the story of a visiting Indian academic who wanted to see Raglan because it had featured in one of her books. The lecturer, from New Delhi, stood on Raglan's black sand, threw her arms wide and rapturously declared the scene before her "so exotic".

A son of Hamilton, Frank Sargeson, is considered the father of New Zealand literature for introducing the rhythms and idiom of our everyday speech to literature, and influencing a generation of younger writers.

Sargeson has only just begun to be hailed in his birthplace. There is now an annual memorial lecture in his name, and Waikato University opera composer David Griffiths has been given permission by Sargeson's estate to produce three short operas based on three of his stories.

One of the writers Sargeson mentored, Alec Pickard, whose first volume of short stories was published in 1947 under the pseudonym A. P. Gaskell, has lived in Hamilton since 1960. Pickard is in his 90s and frail but his wife, Judy, said his sharp mind still offered up any literary quotation she might search for.

She would like any further honouring of Sargeson's legacy by the city to be something that encourages writers, such as a place to write.

Other moves are afoot, though, to rediscover and celebrate Hamilton's literary past and to encourage present-day writers.

A four-day literary festival is being planned by the Hamilton Community Arts Council to coincide with February's Garden Festival.

It will be a promising sign for Hamilton writers such as Fletcher, who often field disparaging comments from out-of-towners about what's thought to be the city's lack of literary life.

The number of writers, including well-known literary figures, with whom the city can claim an association surprises even those steeped in New Zealand literature. Sargeson Trust chairwoman and publisher Christine Cole Catley has just published Golden Weather, an anthology of past and present North Shore writers. But when it comes to Hamilton she is stumped after naming Sargeson and Pickard.

A long list, however, includes Fletcher, best-selling sci-fi author Russell Kirkpatrick, doctor/poet Glenn Colquhoun, who worked at Waikato Hospital, author and playwright Vincent O'Sullivan, who lectured at Waikato University, historian Michael King, MP-turned-author Marilyn Waring, recent Waikato University writers in residence Kate Camp and Anna Jackson, Hamilton-born authors Bruce Stewart and Murray Edmond, and a slew of children's book writers, including Fleur Beale, Alison Robertson, Gretchen Brassington and Jenny Hessell.

The city can also boast an early and influential publishing house - the now defunct Paul's Book Arcade, once considered by two prominent British publishers to be one of the 14 best bookshops in the world.

Blackwood and Janet Paul published about 200 titles between 1945 and 1964 with some of the country's best-recognised writers, such as Sargeson, Keith Sinclair, C. K. Stead, Dan Davin, Charles Brasch and M. K. Joseph, getting their first recognition under the imprint of the shop's name.

The only evidence of the shop now is its original black and white tiles in the entrance to Victoria St cafe Metropolis.

But there's probably no better place to muse over Hamilton's literary past and future. It's just a prance to the left from Riff Raff.

* Email Philippa Stevenson