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Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Zadie Smith School of No Award

Think of what a bummer it must be to be nominated in a Pulitzer Prize category for which it is decided no one is good enough to win. (Come on, not even Jacob Appel?) Portfolio has an interesting commentary on the "no award" notation in the Editorial Writing Category of the Pulitzer this year.  Guess, Zadie's not the only one, though I doubt the Pulitzer will offer up an explanation.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Publishers and editors have been pushing slop on us for years. It stinks as bad as the "art" they push in the museums, especially the ones composed of rotting trash, bodily waste and sewage. It has been going on so long that all the other countries that can read English, and who used to look up to us, have adopted this outlook. Ergo, the collective minds of the western hemisphere at this juncture in time are basically warped and subject to constant bombardment of Evil. And nobody looks up to us because "us" is gone; we have been taken over by the Evil ones, they are the establishment. Any doubts? Talk to an old person before they're all dead. Watch an old movie. Or read an old book. Look at old pictures. Compare to now, the world outside you, and tell me what's better. These changes hit the arts the earliest. It's the little partridge in the mine, and it's dead. The stink is so bad that now even the establishement judges, who are all complicit, can't even work up the sluggish effort to pick one of their patsies for the prize. Yep. It's all a game, folks. As they say, "There's a war on for your mind." Wouldn't be surprised if they do away with the Pulitzer itself in time. Because who cares? Who really cares?

Steve said...

Let me see: were you by chance one of those earnest folks who carried an umbrella to the Impressionist exhibit and punched holes through the canvases?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for providing that real-life umbrella punching.

These words will endure.

Anonymous said...

I thought they used canaries in coal mines?

No, that was in the good ol' days. Now they use bald eagles and California condors.

z said...

This is surely proof that they have extremely high standards. Right? It's a genius tactical maneuver to pretend to high standards. If this catches on, the suspense at the Academy Awards isn't going to be who but whether.

Anonymous said...

winning a pulitzer is like having a dead goldfish -- stick around long enough, and it will happen. outside of journalists, nobody really cares. and for writers of books, a pulitzer is a nice award to win to boost sales, but wouldn't you rather win the national book award?

so if they didn't give out an award and you're a nominee, go out and have a beer and sulk, but for god's sake, don't take a bottle of quaaludes and drive a van into a brick wall.

the biggest difference between zadie smith and the pulizers is that the latter is for those with established careers -- if they pull the rug out from under you, at least you still have a job.

feh.