Today's longread comes from another blog called Letters of Note, which posts letters of historical significance. My roommate Gabe brought this one to my attention and for good reason. As you can read, it is a letter from Sinclair Lewis turning down the Pulitzer Prize. His argument about the institution of the Pulitzer and how it could affect the understanding and appreciation of writing seems both remarkably selfless and forward-thinking.
"All prizes, like all titles, are dangerous" by Sinclair Lewis
Published on Letters of Note, September 28, 2012. Originally written May 26, 1926.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/09/all-prizes-like-all-titles-are-dangerous.html
Eric
I've been thinking about this problem with awards/titles a lot since starting to work with independent writers and musicians at my job.
ReplyDeleteAmazon allows musicians and writers to self-publish their work on amazon.com - making it available to millions of people instantly.
So, positively, thousands and thousands of books and cd's are now out there on the market for consumers.
Now when I'm looking for the next book to read, I get paralyzed by the choices. I default to looking at reviews, awards, and titles to decide which one to read/listen to.
But because I agree with Lewis - that accepting any type of award or title is making yourself subservient to that institution and its values - I find myself in a conundrum when looking to fill my personal library.
I'm wondering if anyone has found a good way to sift through all the books/music out there now without relying on institutions/awards/publishers/etc. telling us what to consume.
-Lucy
I used to rely a lot on online reviews that were posted (for books, restaurants, etc.), but I read something recently that talked about the persistent fraud in many of those reviews. Fro example, promoters of a product/restaurant/etc. will just flood a site like Yelp or Amazon with positive reviews (or will flood competitors with negative reviews). Google and others are trying to weed these out, but it is a difficult process.
ReplyDeleteBut the spirit behind those recommendations was valuable, and since I have less trust in mostly-anonymous reviews on the internet, I am more trusting in reviews from people I actually know. That is especially true if I know someone shares similar taste in food/music/books/etc. Trust your friends!
Eric
Yeah, I agree.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking about ways to introduce new ways of ranking books/music on amazon that could be available to more people (even if their friends have bad taste) :)
Really interesting article, in the elevator this morning I saw the McArthur genius grants were awarded and thought "I wonder who actually makes that decision?" Recently i've often begun to wonder about the people that actually make decisions, for example when Lake Michigan is closed for pollution is that a scientific based or "gut" feeling? As my work allows me to make more company decisions that then become binding I've begun to realize the completely arbitrary nature of so many decisions that impact masses of people. In today's world where (as Lucy says) people often need to go by awards/recommendations it can be very dangerous. For instance when a partisan group with an official title makes a finding that is clearly ridiculous many people will blindly accept it because a group gave an award or made a statement.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to Lucy's question and a bit of a commentary on the above, how to avoid falling victim or being completely guided by awards/recommendations. As someone that reads a large amount of books on topics ranging from business to history to fiction I believe I have significant experience in doing this. First, find people who you trust their judgement. However, just because you trust the judgement don't blindly follow. When someone gives a recommendation ask why. I have found many good books, and I feel avoided other bad ones, by asking friends then diving into what they enjoyed. Also, there can be come awards that are in fact relevant and can be used as a guide post but not necessarily the end decision maker. Let those awards/public recommendations guide you to a beginning list you can then work from. Once you have found a book use that topic to look for others and then choose between them. Look at who the author is, if it is a catholic priest writing about the catholic church that gives you an idea on the tone. Understand what the author wants from that book and if it aligns with what you want. When i prepare to read a historical book I will go through 3-8 different summaries and reviews to get a feel for what will likely be the best. I tend to want an unbiased book or perhaps an book that is even biased in the direction i don't agree with (why read something if all it does is re-enforce your world view). Hopefully that is helpful...
Yes - very helpful way to think about how powerful it is to listen to individual's favorite books (friends, bloggers, etc) and asking questions that further the general (and boring) question of 'what's your favorite...' leads to building a rich, diverse personal library. I'm getting an image of collecting other people's passions into this huge spiderweb of ideas and new paths to go down when finding your own interests.
ReplyDeleteIt's also a good point you make about reading outside of your 'comfort zone'. Good to remember when there are so many choices that fall into the 'comfortable to read' zone and don't push against your worldview.
What's a book you've read recently that was way outside your worldview? How did you come across it?
The clearest example is the book I read on the Catholic Church, I decided I wanted to better understand where they come from and reviewed a number of options. It seemed most all would have very slanted views (for example one chose to not mention the crusades) so i decided to go with one that looked like it was slanted only slightly towards "pro-church" and was written by a priest. It certainly put a vastly different twist on the reading but it made me think as opposed to simply reading something bashing the church. This search was entirely online.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is recently I was speaking with a friend about books they like and he asked if i liked WWII reading which as it turns out is a topic of extreme interest. He then suggested "winds of war" which is outside my zone in that i shy away fiction unless it is compelling (if you want that talk to Karin Suni she has been amazing and picked the last 10 fiction books i've read). I quizzed him fairly extensively and he said it was historic fiction that almost paraded as non-fiction. After reading the reviews on line I got the same vibe and decided to give it a shot. at almost 900 pages you've got to be careful.
Good luck on the WWII book. You'll have to let me know what you think once you finish it! And it is good to remember when picking up those 900 pagers: we're only on this earth for so long and there are only so many books we can read:)
ReplyDeleteExcellent commentary. The point about the Genius Awards and wondering how they can become distorted reminded me of Jonah Lehrer. A year ago, he probably would have been a strong contender to win an award like that. Now he's a disgraced academic. Awards of that nature can become very self-referential, and as Lewis notes, dangerous. I think that's why it's also so awesome that he was willing to turn down the award and why it's interesting that he is the only person to have ever done so.
ReplyDeleteEric