Rumblings on the Lakeshore
August 24th, 2007 by Editors
Many people have been kindly linking to this site over the past couple of days. But Jay Lake has gone one better. He has created an award controversy for us to link to. “The unbearable wankery of awards” isn’t a very encouraging title for us, but actually Jay was just using that as a hook to discuss the value (or lack thereof) of awards. There’s not a lot in the way of passion over there as yet, but one or two good points are being made, and at least one we have plans to come back to in the coming weeks.
Update: Neil Williamson also weighs in on the “are awards worthwhile” debate. He says:
So my complaint, generally, if I really have one, is that when it comes down to a public show of hands, the public involved could try a bit harder, get more involved, read outside of their comfort zones just a little.
That would be nice, but we, bookish people that we are would just be happy if book awards encouraged people to read more books. (And movie awards encouraged more people to watch movies and so on.)
What a great blog! Thank you for putting this together.
If you weigh the good with the bad, I’d have to say the awards lean far more towards the good. The intent is to recognize writers for their good work. Sure they get political, but that is human (monkey – as Jay Lake puts it ) nature. We need to rise up, try to look past that negitive aspect, support each other, and enjoy the party!
[...] Dragon and an impressive list of awards and award-resources, they’ve also just posted a link to author Jay Lake’s defense of the existence of these awards. I should probably clarify that my [...]
Now I wish I’d seen the Williamson link before my initial reaction, that’s a really good post which I’ll need more time than I can sneak in at work to properly respond to.