Wednesday, 02.13.08
A very Zadie contest
Katja Lenz/AFP Getty
Giosue Carducci, Henrik Pontoppidan, Giorgos Seferis, and Sully Prudhomme each won a Nobel gong for literature; Tolstoy, Borges, and Ibsen did not.
Zadie Smith's defense of high standards recalls V. S. Naipaul's tactic, when judging a weak field in a literary contest at Makerere University. He awarded only one prize, and called it Third Prize. Were the 850 Willesden entries really so bad? Having been spared reading them, I cannot know. What I do know is that prizes matter more than they should, and if their intent is to encourage good writing, incentivize greatness, and give bad writers kicks in the pants, then Smith's haughty dismissal has accomplished more than any actual prize would have.
Zadie's SnubSmith spurns 850 entries, and enjoins them not to assume that she is interested in reading "hundreds of jolly stories of multicultural life on the streets of North London." |
Hypocrite lecteurSunday Times arts editor Richard Brooks surveys the reactions and notes the prize money Smith herself has accepted in years past. |
Against cheerleadingDavid L. Ulin applauds Smith for resisting the trend of turning contests into popularity contests and literary love-ins. |
