there is nothing that I know of to match the flood of university journals which have been irrigating the newstands in recent months. Undaunted by rising costs and a high death-rate, new journals with an unexpected level of seriousness and technical proficiency have continued to flow through. One can only suspect that, given the present state of confusion in the Labour Party, a good deal of the political energy which, say, in the ’30s would have been channelled directly into a political cause or movement, is now finding expression in the printed word.
University journals characteristically suffer from three dangers. The first is that of cost. I suspect that, in spite of the air of confidence which these new publications distill, costs are the largest skeleton in the closet. The second danger is that of parochialism. Student publications are, necessarily, parasitic. But the very same qualities which make them an attractive proposition to fellow students, tend to make them unsaleable elsewhere. The third danger is triviality. It is difficult, given the intervention of examinations, the exasperated queries of tutors and the threeyear turnover, to demand a high and continuous level of seriousness. But there is no necessary compulsion to sink to the depths either. This is largely a question of editorial foresight. If the journal has no connection at all with any important stream of life in the university, but exists simply because some aspiring litterateur wants to play magazines, then undoubtedly they will find themselves scraping up bits of gossip from coffee parties, being smart and knowing about visiting speakers, and penning portraits of colourful local enfants terribles, for the sake of something to say.