Look out London, the ‘Mericans are a-coming

Is it the end of the Man Booker or a fresh start?

I first wrote this for Allison & Busby's blog page - see link above - but I wanted to post it here as well because it so nicely ties into some of the books I've been reading lately.

Often considered a rather staid and sensible prize compared to others of its ilk, the Man Booker Prize has a reputation as a defender of British and Commonwealth writing. Different to its fellow literary prizes, the criteria was simply that the novel be written in the English language by a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Yet overshadowing this year’s shortlist is the latest news: that from 2014 America will be competing against Commonwealth entrants.

The award has brought worldwide acclaim to bookshelf names such as Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin 2000), Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day 1989), two-time winner Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall 2009 and Bring up the Bodies 2012) and even the divisive Salman Rushdie, who was relatively unknown before his novel Midnight’s Children won the award in 1981.

Thinking about it, therefore, it seems hardly a surprise that this years Man Booker Prize has both controversy and scepticism stalking alongside it.  

Although quibbles have arisen, such as the brevity of Colm Toibin’s one hundred and one paged novel, The Testament of Mary, which seems to rankle Will Gompertz. The focus lies on how many authors, from Melvyn Bragg to A.S. Byatt, feel that changing the rules of the Man Booker Prize, to make it a ‘truly international award’ as planned, directly undermines the writers it has historically supported.

Some, like A.S. Byatt fear that too many entrants will overwhelm judges and mean that hundreds of manuscripts and entrants will be passed over without due consideration; others believe that it’s a risk worth taking, a commercially rooted decision that will benefit the prestige and reception of the award and help them to compete against other international prizes. However, the most pressing concern remains that the American market cannot helpbut to dominate the long and short list simply because of the quantity of their entrants. This fear is only exacerbated by the shortlisted Lowlands by Jhumpa Lahiri, accused of being an American novel rather than Bengali, and for some, epitomising the way US literature will impugn the one-time bulwark of British and Commonwealth writers.

 So is this the end of the Man Booker, as Guardian blogger, Philip Hensher, puts it? Or is this a fresh start for the Prize who received incredible backlash when Mantel’s sequel to Wolf Hall won last year? Should we be wary of who might be nominated next year? Or should we be excited at the possibility of a wider intake? These are questions to keep in mind as the announcement for the 2013 winner approaches and also queries to think over when you next pluck a Man Booker long or shortlist from the shelf.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
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Boats against the current: Originality vs. Gatsby

Boats against the current: Originality vs. Gatsby

Google search Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Once you’ve scrolled passed IMBD and Amazon, the photos of a rather dashing Leo DiCaprio and the mighty Wikipedia, you’ll come to an area of the internet known and loved by many a student. Starting with Sparknotes, you have come to essay territory – prime ground for feckless scholars crawling home at 4am, planning to start their midterm assignments due the next day.

There are hundreds of books on the subject of The Great Gatsby, from A-Level editions to Sarah Fitzgerald’s new book, Careless People. There are study guides, synopses, online downloads and free essays. All of which are available from novelguides, scribd, antiessay, dreamessays, 123helpme and a thousand blogs determined that there’s something new to say about F. Scott and his most favoured novel.

But what if they’re wrong? Is it possible that everything about The Great Gatsby has already been said?

Early this morning I received an email informing me that a recent study at Harvard University concluded that when discussing or writing about the themes and symbols of the great American novel, there is little to nothing original left to say. In fact, it’s almost impossible to hand in an essay on either subject without being flagged for plagiarism because of the plethora of articles and essays now existing on those exact topics. No longer can essayists wax lyrical on how the glimmering, green light at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock transform into the whimsical symbol of the American Dream. Nor can they speculate freely on how Dr T.J Eckleburg and his fading gaze represent the death of Christian faith and a loss of moral certitude. It seems they might as well pluck an old article from the shelf and scratch out the words they dislike in order to create an almost new text to submit.

Ok… so maybe I’m rushing ahead of myself.

As it turned out, after reading about this study and raising the question of whether The Great Gatsby might finally be removed from curricula, I discovered that my source was the WishWashington Post. Not exactly The Washington Post as I mistakenly first thought.  And perhaps this means we need not fear that Fitzgerald’s classic will be soon be retiring or that every time you mention ‘West Egg’ and  the ‘Valley of Ashes’ you’ll be called up on charges of plagiarism.

But there is still a good question raised – how much can readers speculate before a novel is tired of interpretation? And where is the space for originality in an environment populated by readily available opinions on the exact same topics? I’m not sure that there’s one answer to this question – so I put it to you: what do you think?

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
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