Prime Minister’s Suitor Shifts From Macro Affairs to Micro.
Love, they say, does not make the world go round. Therefore, in 2008, as debit recedes into credit, Richard Meros,
author of “this decade's runaway underground publishing hit” (NZ Listener, August 2, 2008), is faced with issues more
pressing than young love – he has to pay the rent.
While, the beneficiary industry may take care of his base needs, Meros now must woo another benefactor, he must bat his
eyelids and smile coyly all in the attempt to attract the attention of Creative New Zealand.
“It's simple to get on the dole or the sickness benefit,” Meros contends.
“But for those really keen on fiduciary buoyancy, the grand prize sin qua non, is a grant from Creative New Zealand.”
Yet the task proved a true challenge, as the institute’s fickle gaze scanned its suitors and settled elsewhere.
“As I struggled to accept the platitudes of rejection I realised that my time would have been better spent writing an
actual book rather than accruing the sample pages and other assorted minutiae required by a funding agency,” Meros
explains.
“As I stacked the screeds of rejection letters to be ceremonially burnt I realised that maybe, after-all, I had written
a book. And so I christened it Beggars and Choosers: The Complete Written Correspondence Between Richard Meros and Creative New Zealand Volume One.”
But why would anyone be interested in reading such an esoteric collection of failures?
James Marr, editorial supervisor at Wellington's Lawrence & Gibson Publishing Collective believes Meros' latest is more than a final resting place for erstwhile filing-cabinet
fodder.
“These [applications] are not simply letters,” he affirms.
“They are a statement on the human condition, where ethos and pathos tangle with Meros.”
Each application that makes up Beggars and Choosers features ten pages on a diverse range of topics. Throughout the two-year process, Meros tries his hand at writing on
killer cannibal hippies, while later he looks at the struggles of a young liberal coming to terms with his conservative
nature. He even grapples with penning a guidebook to the myriad of threats facing a refugee seeking to settle in
Wellington.
Unifying this compendium is the story behind these writings, via the re-printing of both Meros’ application letters and
the responses from CNZ, which bookend each application. In turn, readers will be met with a cliff-hanger ending that
sees Meros finally facing up to his shortcomings, and laying his soul, along with the project, at the feet of the CNZ
administrators.
Beggars and Choosers will be launched on Friday September 12, at Downstage Theatre, Wellington. The release will also mark the homecoming of
the adaptation of Meros' first book, On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as a Young Lover, a one-man play that sold out at BATS theatre earlier this year and has since toured nationally to rapturous acclaim.
ENDS