ART HANGOVER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 504, 18 February 1949, Page 5

ART HANGOVER

Sir,-In "Elixir with a Hangover" A. R. D. Fairburn doubts whether, because of their misbehaviour, artists should te ceive State aid, and thinks the money might be better #pent in providing help for young mothers, I am not worried about the young mothers and overworked housewives: they will mostly preserve their integrity and, in the course of time, reach a. state approaching real culture-especially if they are not side-tracked by an illusion that they ought to get busy acquiring someone else’s idea of culture on top of all their other duties. But I do not think A. R. D. Fairburn should give up his efforts on behalf of the artist. After months of reading about the duty of society to artists and about their idiosyncrasies, I have come to the conclusion that if the problem of the artist were solved another serious problem would be solved, My knowledge of this subject has been gained from recent articles in The Listener and from radio talks; I have deliberately thrown over my own views of them, gained through a lifetime of

reading, and take them:on their own valuation and that of their would-be ‘champions. From these sources it would appear that they have (in common with the criminal class) the conviction that the world owes them everything and that on the other hand they have no duty towards the rest of humanity (you should hear what they think of us, especially us New Zealanders). They have a tendency to lay blame at the door of others. I am a believer in inspiration. Inspiration must fall on receptive ground: not only that, the receiver of inspiration often cannot work out his inspiration if a sense of duty demands too much of his time or if thought for others is going to cramp his style. Inspiration therefore apparently finds it expedient to use the more talented members of a type who, when they are not talented, are such a weight on the community. We should be’ thankful for the artist as a release from something

worse,

GULLIBLE

‘Dunedin).

Sir,-A,. R. D. Fairburn is to be congratulated upon the fact that after much deliberation he has at last summoned up the courage to pen his thoughts regarding this "culture diffusion business." After all if one has something worth while to say, why should one sit "like Patience on a Monue

ment."

MRS.

JEAN WADDELL

SMITH

(Nelson)