Listen up, kids! Serious stuff is going down. Not only do we have a Booker Prize winner for 2009, but the Nobel Laureate for Literature for the year was also just announced! Oh, you didn't hear about it? Yeah, neither did I. And I actually enjoy literature, so that's super embarrassing. I should be all over this! I mean, I eventually hear about the Nobel Laureate prize and pick up the book at Barnes and Noble, think about buying it, but inevitably make my way over to the Classics section. However, I have never heard of the Man Booker Prize and it's apparently like the Oscars of the book world. Nothing to scoff at. So, here I go again with another contemporary issue, why aren't these things being covered in the news? Why don't these awards have some absurd ceremony with Joey Fatone and Lisa Rinna annoyingly interviewing the attendees prior to the ceremony on a big red carpet? I know the answer to this question: people just don't give a rat's ass about good books that are being acknowledged.
The point here is that there are good books being published, but they are hard to find behind that giant Twilight display that no doubt plagues many bookstores. I am guilty of turning my back on contemporary literature because of my frustrations with it. But, perhaps contemporary literature is not bad at all. Perhaps I should point my anger towards the publishing industry for not only allowing sub-pars to be published, but to feverishly push for them. Publishers have strayed from their initial use, which I have always thought to be putting out good works for the world to see and appreciate. Now it seems the key is to make money and pander to a lower IQ, rather than maybe increase a person's intelligence and thinking capability.
I felt I needed to acknowledge the fact that there are great books being published today and these books are being recognized within the larger literary community, but it seems that such a community has become too high brow for the rest of us to even recognize or know about. So, in the end: are these books truly being recognized for their literary achievements?
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Well, I guess there are a number of literature awards, nobel being all over the world, booker is english, and there are prizes in canada, france, ireland and i am sure other countries for their top fiction. We also have other prizes in the states. I read a bit about this particular Nobel winner in literature, and I don't think i will want to read her work, though I am sure it will be highlighted. you can read about these awards regularly in the NYTIMES, and the sunday times book review.
ReplyDeleteI agree that outside the information outlets of literature of the literary intelligencia that you mention, it's sometimes difficult to find this type of news. You do have to dig for it.
ReplyDeleteIf the Booker Prize, the Nobel Laureate for Literature, ET AL had Facebook Pages, more people might find out about them. I imagine certain large public libraries also include this kind of information in their 'reader services' pages. Gathering information about all the major literature awards would make a nifty bibliography, er I mean webpage.
You should name those who were awarded and give 'em a little more much-deserved press!
ReplyDeleteI've spent some time in the UK and was always impressed by the fact that there was a great deal of hoopla about the Booker Award. They televised the night of the awards and had a great deal of a build-up:interviews with those on the short list, speculation by guest hosts--as much excitement as our Academy Awards but with uglier awardees. The Brits are readers and appreciate intellectual types as much as they do eccentrics. That would never happen here in our post-literate, sports obsessed culture.
ReplyDeleteBut what about the books they choose! I also think that the Brit comments sort of identify with a small strata of british society, the one that runs the government own tv station!
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. It's troubling that popular US news pays little or no attention to literary prizes in favor of pop celebrity awards, which are not only fleeting but also inane. But bookishness is no longer a popular culture virture. In fact, outside of mass market fluff (like TWILIGHT or THE DA VINCI CODE), "serious" reading is taking a major dive.
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