Eleanor Catton, another ungrateful, leeching “arts” wanker:

A_270614HOSDSBOOK1_620x310 ‘The Taxpayers’ Union says Kiwis have done more than enough to support under-fire author Eleanor Catton, who received upward of $50,000 in funding over the last few years.
…Taxpayers’ Union executive director Jordan Williams obtained the figures after comments by Catton at the Jaipur Literary Festival in India last week about her treatment by New Zealanders after her global success with second novel The Luminaries…’
Update: ‘Eleanor Catton describes ‘culture of fear and hysteria’…’ bawaaahahaha! It’s those eeevil right-wingers, apparently.

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38 Responses to Eleanor Catton, another ungrateful, leeching “arts” wanker:

  1. mawm says:

    Any of these so-called “artistes” who receive public money to produce a book or a film, for example, should be required to pay a portion/percentage of the royalties earned from such work to those who sponsored him/her. Peter Jackson very easily comes to mind. If I bought shares in a start-up company I would get a return for my money if they did actually turn out a profit and likewise so should the tax payer. I’m tired of these precious writers or actors, or whoever, that expect special treatment and, despite displaying obvious contradictory evidence, think they are ever so knowledgable about “social justice”.

    I love this guy’s essays. This about an especially precious and earnest actress.
    http://cambriandissenters.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/emma-thompson-dump-syrian-refugees-in.html

  2. KG says:

    From the link:
    “Why these celebrities have chosen Syria in particular and not one of the scores of other civil wars around the world that are displacing millions of people requires an explanation.”

    It’s simply the cause de jour, innit?

    • mawm says:

      Hopefully they’ll replace the “Palestinians” who have been at the top of the totem pole for nigh on 80 years. :twisted:

      • john says:

        Mawm, nothing will replace the “Palestinians”at the top of the liberals’ hierarchy of victimhood. Their place is assured in the longrunning campaign to delegitimise the State of Israel.

  3. KG says:

    The fact that they don’t repay the money indicates to me a lack of principles and an utter lack of shame. :evil:

    • mawm says:

      ….and entitlement. :evil:

    • Cadwallader says:

      If it earns $$$$ then it isn’t art to these pompous taxpayer funded parasites. Hence they require the ongoing largesse of the serfdom of taxation to allow them to spew more pompous garbage. Ungrateful stupid bint!

  4. Wombat says:

    http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/01/29/horrors-of-fatal-sydney-siege-revealed.html

    At least now we can put this “not really a terror attack” bullshit to bed.

  5. Lara says:

    It’s a tract of a book. The Man Booker prize is a PC wasteland anyway, no fast paced and exciting, well written book would ever even get nominated. Catton is such a pain, and so ungrateful. Has she ever had a real job at all? Give the prize to somone like Grisham, who actually can tell a story and tell it well!

    • The Gantt Guy says:

      Give the prize to someone like Francis Porretto, or Oswald Bastable, who can write novels that don’t merely repeat ProgLib shibboleths!

      • KG says:

        Damn right, Gantt. :grin:
        Odd, isn’t it, how both of them can hold down demanding jobs, raise kids, keep a marriage going and still write sans grants?

  6. Darin says:

    She’s a writer?Okay five subject college ruled spiral bound notebook $2.65 ,12 #2 lead pencils with erasers $1.19 at the local Walmart.

    I think five years worth of writing could be financed for $50,the grant money was obviously mis-spent.

  7. Ronbo says:

    In this day and age no author needs a cent to publish – It’s a freebee from Kindle to publish an ebook on the Internet.

    I think you have to cut Kindle in on a percentage of the profits, which for certain authors would be zero. :mrgreen:

  8. Flashman says:

    By definition a professional writer is exactly like a commercial business – self-supporting, and if that venture fails you find yourself alternative employment.

    However an “artist” is a creative hobbiest either self-funded through private means (e.g. a trust/retirement fund or a paying day job) or a lifestyler like Catton who latch onto the taxpayer’s teat and whose primary skill is knowing how to dig deep into the alphabet soup bucket of “arts grants”.

    • KG says:

      Exactly. Perhaps I should apply for an arts grant to fund my:
      ‘Research into the interface between aural/visual sculpture and the rural environment’ ?
      ( ie playing with PVC downpipes and culvert pipes)

      • Oswald Bastable says:

        You would have no problem getting funding – IF you had an arts degree.

        The snobbery in the various arts circles is appalling. I was shunned because ( shock, horror!) I published an ebook. Apparently, that is not a proper book, thus I’m not a proper author.
        The ones who think that can only dream of having my download count :mrgreen:

        • KG says:

          nononnonono Oswald! You don’t get it.
          Proper writers are supposed to live off the taxpayer tit, and if their opaque, stylised drivel fails to sell, well, that’s because the peasants who fund them have no appreciation of Real Art.
          In fact I’ve seen the lack of sales used as “proof” of a novel’s artistic merit. Go figure… http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_wacko.gif
          (and I’d rather stick needles in my eyes than study for an “arts” “degree” )

          • KG says:

            The vituperation aimed at Bryce Courtenay by the arts establishment was very, very telling.
            How dare a mere capitalist ad man write so many best-selling novels, without a skerrick of stolen money to support him?
            http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_mail.gif

    • Oswald Bastable says:

      Yep, one of the best artists I know uses his talent for painting to do signwriting to pay the bills.
      He will also paint houses and do interior decorating. His pictures are done in his down time.

  9. Michael in Nelson says:

    I saw her verbal garbage in a news item a couple of days ago. Hence my comment on the Clementine Ford thread.

    • KG says:

      I see her greenie/socialist proclivities are beginning to show, Michael.
      Funny, how arts parasites are socialists yet so comfortable with stealing money from the productive.

      • Michael in Nelson says:

        I remember the squeals of anguish when the Nelson City Council was debating cutting its arts funding. Being artists, they don’t think they should have to be good enough to pay their own way through the marketplace.

        • KG says:

          Councils have no bloody business spending ratepayer’s cash on arts funding. :evil: The bastards should have been flogged out of town for theft in the first place, for doing it.

          • Oswald Bastable says:

            http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_good.gif

          • Cadwallader says:

            Councils exist to provide shit pipes and foot paths not arty farty galleries, sports stadia or street theatre/sculptures which nobody gives a stuff about. The typical councillor wants to “make a difference” to his/her egos and to my wallet.

        • Flashman says:

          Yup – met more than a few of those Nelson Bays and Takaka arts wankers.

          Able-bodied, self-referenced “artists” in that part of NZ are often WINZ dolers or ACC bludgers (with the obligatory bad backs) and an avid taste for dak and Liquortown specials.

  10. mawm says:

    “the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast and published in New Zealand this week”.

    Poor little petal. :twisted:

  11. KG says:

    Ern Malley:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern_Malley
    So much for the “arts” establishment. :twisted:

    Wabbit knew Max Harris quite well……he (Harris) used to own an Adelaide bookstore. (name dropping, here)

  12. mistress mara says:

    Catton is a self-important, petulant, hypocritical feminist undeserving of the time I spent typing this.

  13. Lara says:

    What does Oswald actually write? Has he tried a publisher? Not ala Frank Sargeson or Frame? Just wondered..

  14. Warren Tooley says:

    I think she needs to have her head examined. She should be taking a look at what she has received from the government and give a fair amount back, and not complain, about us hardworking taxpayers.

  15. Lara says:

    Thanks!! Good on him.