{"id":23312,"date":"2013-11-11T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T17:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=23312"},"modified":"2013-10-31T22:20:17","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T09:20:17","slug":"awesome-words-from-eleanor-catton-on-worth-and-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/11\/11\/awesome-words-from-eleanor-catton-on-worth-and-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Awesome Words From Eleanor Catton On “Worth” And “Value”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On October 17 I posted my congratulations <\/a>to Eleanor Catton, who was my immediate predecessor as writer-in-residence at the University of Canterbry,\u00a0 on winning the Booker Prize for The Luminaries<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I also said that I loved what I heard of Eleanor’s acceptance speech, where she spoke of “worth” and “value” — so much so that I am posting the relevant excerpt from the speech here. I hope it resonates for you as much as it did for me — but I feel her words speak eloquently for themselves so shall offer no further commentary:
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When I began writing The Luminaries, I was very much in the thrall of Lewis Hyde’s wonderful book, The Gift, as I still am.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And his conception of the creative enterprise as explored in that book was very important to me in how I came to understand the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, during the years of the gold rush.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The region is rich in two very different minerals, gold, prized by Europeans for its value, and greenstone or pounamu, prized by Maori for its worth.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Gold being pure currency, can only be bought and sold. Pounamu as a symbol of belonging and prestige, can only be given.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

An economy based on value, in Lewis Hyde’s conception, is not necessarily inferior to an economy based on worth, but the two must somehow be reconciled in the life of an artist who wishes to make a living by his or her gift, by his or her art.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I am very aware of the pressures upon contemporary publishing to make money and to remain competitive in a competitive world, and I know that it is no small thing that my primary publishers, Granta, here in London, and Victoria University Press in New Zealand, never once made these pressures known to me while I was writing this book.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I was free throughout to concern myself of questions not of value, but of worth.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This is all the more incredible to me because The Luminaries is and was from the very beginning, a publisher’s nightmare …<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I am extraordinarily fortunate to have found a home at these publishing houses and to have found friends and colleagues and people who have managed to strike an elegant balance between making art and making money.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

~ Eleanor Catton<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 17 I posted my congratulations to Eleanor Catton, who was my immediate predecessor as writer-in-residence at the University of Canterbry,\u00a0 on winning the Booker Prize for The Luminaries. I also said that I loved what I heard of Eleanor’s acceptance speech, where she spoke of “worth” and “value” — so much so that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23312"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23323,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312\/revisions\/23323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}