And with good reason. Just take a look at the judges. These people look like the judging committee of a village fete. Can anybody say ‘White upper middle class conspiracy theory’.
The rumour is that the Booker Prize rewards the best literary fiction. What utter arse. If it did I would still loathe it, but my hatred would be irrational. The Booker is a clarion call of cultural elitism and I do not exaggerate when I say I would be happy to see all involved horrificaly mutilated and left for dead. (OK, I exagerate. But only slightly).
The Guardianista’s are speculating who will make the longlist. I’m going to join them by specualting about who defintely won’t be on the longlist…
M John Harrison, Iain Banks, John Courtenay Grimwood, China Mievile, Ian McDonald, Charles Stross, Alan Moore, oh soddit this could be a really, really long list…
…lets just say whatever wins it will almost certainly represent the antithesis of everything I find wonderful in the written word.
I’ve often noticed that there seems to be a glass ceiling in the arts for non-oxbridge graduates. They are apparently pretty good universities, but it’s still depressing.
Yep, its a class issue.
I hate the Booker too…for raising expectations…recently read past winners Amsterdam and The Sea…pleasant enough…but wildly overrated…not sure about ‘a class’ thing…you British are so hung up on class…more like a personality thing…certainly not a quality thing…
Most often these days the criticism I read of the Booker Prize is that it’s too populist and not highbrow (or ‘elitist’) enough, so it’s interesting to read an opposing view.
I don’t carry a particular torch for the prize, though I do quite like the whole horse-race aspect of it. I’ve disliked or been unable to finish several winners. Having said that there are some absolutely terrific books which have been given a dose of publicity by the prize, either from winning or being shortlisted, many of which I may not have read otherwise – like The Remains of the Day, Disgrace, The Master, I’ll Go to Bed at Noon and many others.