Paul Beatty Has Become The First Us Author To Win The Man Booker Prize

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/28/man-booker-prize-longlist-is-a-disappointment-for-diversity-2016

We must congratulate Paul Beatty for winning the Man Booker Prize, but is the quest for diversity in writing really necessary?

[Bazile]

:-)

[jackthehat]

Well done, Paul Beatty.

There is no quest for diversity in writing, there have always been brilliant writers aplenty......it is a quest for diversity in what the publishers are accepting and printing.

A book has to be published before it can be nominated for any sort of award.
And if the jury-panel is top-heavy (99%) with white judges there may well be an accidental bias against black writers.

[joggerjayne]

Surely the only quest should be for quality.

According to the MBP's own website:

"The Man Booker Prizes reward the finest in fiction, highlighting great books to readers."

It shouldn't be hijacked as a platform for some sort of diversity campaign.

[Prudie]

"Only three writers on the 13-strong list were people of colour". 3 out of 13 is about 23% which is much higher than than UK current spread. This will probably develop into a long argumentative thread but really what is she moaning about?
No the quest is unnecessary - it should go to the best book (according to the judges) irrelevant of who wrote it.

[youngmafbog]

Diversity to this person means discriminating against white men.

It's all nonsense of course but what do expect from the Grundian?

[joggerjayne]

Wouldn't it be patronizing to an author to include them just to balance up the diversity quota?

It would be tantamount to saying ... "You're the token black guy"

[anotheoldgit]

joggerjayne

/// It would be tantamount to saying ... "You're the token black guy" ///

And one can see it being enlarged on every day, black characters specifically placed in TV roles, news presenters, weather forecasters etc etc.

Obviously we will see these things, simply because we a multi racial country, but Indian/Asians are shown much less and Chinese only noticeable by their absence.

[New Judge]

Slightly off-topic, but I've never understood the need for arty-types to dish out prizes to each other. After all, you don't hear of accountants awarding a vase for this year's best example of double-entry book keeping, do you?

[Mamyalynne]

Not quite, but....


https://www.britishaccountancyawards.co.uk/

[agchristie]

I am a huge fan of the Booker Prize having obtained signed firsts of all bar 3 winners since the inaugural award in 1969 and predicted the unfancied winner on here a few months ago (did anyone get the 6/1 on offer??)

More than half the money staked was on Madeleine Thein with Deborah Levy also well-fancied.However,I had a strong feeling that Beatty would win and it had nothing to do with diversity.

When the longlist was released there was much surprise over some well established authors,including former winners like Julian Barnes,and double winner JM Coetzee who failed to make the shortlist as did the original favourite The North Water by Ian McGuire.

The author of the link is talking nonsense simple as that.The winner,who took seven years to write the book,won on merit.These days,writers have to bring something new as a medium whether it be structure, language etc.As the 1981 winner Salman Rushdie said,it is not enough to be an established writer anymore and of course the competition was opened up a few years ago to include US/Canadian authors etc.

I got my signed,lined and dated copy by Beatty before the announcement.It has already tripled in value :o)