Speaking of Percy, here is a piece I came across examining the notion that Percy’s NBA victory for The Moviegoer in 1962 was a fix.
What are prizes for, in the end? Sure, the culture machine needs them, publicity departments and the gaggle of blogs, but does literature? The glitzy rah-rah of the awards dinner, the indignation suffered on the losers’ behalf: None of it factors into the progression of tradition. What the Booker, Pulitzer, and National Book Awards pretend to accomplish—identifying which works of poetry and prose are superior—takes generations to work out . . .
manwithoutqualities 