Super Booker
Just what is the point of having a Booker-associated prize for the greatest living novelist?
It’s always seemed a little perplexing to me why it is such a big deal who wins these awards, since most of us know nothing about the judging panel, and presumably we normally think a recommendation or award is notable at least partly because we trust the authority of the people conferring it. Track record is another reason, of course, but the Booker doesn’t fare particularly well in that respect if you ask me; the list of nominations is often filled with works that are at best average. Perhaps though this is because the net is drawn insufficiently wide—and so maybe this award, being properly international rather than the Man Booker, which is restricted to the Commonwealth, is designed for this purpose.
The really strange thing about the award, though, is that it must be awarded to a living novelist. This effectively rules out the work of recent authors such as William Gaddis and WG Sebald, for the simple reason that they cannot be captured in the flash of an award ceremony. How ridiculous.
Anyway, I have hypocritically made some comments on the People’s Choice nominations, and made one of my own.
February 25th, 2005 at 10:13 am
yo brad
?† propos of awards, i think there needs to be an international award-making trust whose duty it is to give completely irrlevant awards to high-profile personages. e.g. Dear Steve Jobs, Congratulations! You have won the Foo Foo prize! This is an honor of which you should be particularly proud, considering that this year the competition included such greats as Ghandi, Newton, and that Indian guy from the Village People. Your award (one pink ballet tu tu) is included within. ENJOY!
Then you publish all the awards you have given on your blog, or an official website. It would be fun!
February 25th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
Let’s do it. The randomness and irrelevancy is essential—there is an inevitable logic to the various anti-awards going around (Ig Nobels, Razzies, etc.) that makes them all too obvious. You don’t want to make them sound too ridiculous though, as the ultimate triumph would be to have them start showing up on CVs, lists of accolades appended to announcements of their speeches, and so on.