On brackets, awards, etc

I tweeted this yesterday:

Of course Criminal’s getting demolished in the NPR poll against TAL. Other people’s opinions are everything that’s wrong with everything.

— Adam Lipkin (@Tsalmoth) March 17, 2015

That was a reference to the annual Public Radio Bracket Madness, in which Criminal -- which is a ridiculously under-appreciated masterpiece -- is matched against the powerhouse of This American Life and solidly getting its ass kicked. That's because the voting is a straight-up popularity contest, and unlike college basketball, upsets just aren't likely to happen here.

It's something I've been thinking about since the Grammys (which I didn't watch, since the list of better things to do ends up being like one of Perry Cox's rants), and the hullabaloo over Kanye being upset that Beck won an award instead of Beyonce.

With a few exceptions, awards of any sort serve as vehicles for the industry in question to either promote itself, or to reward their own.

There's nothing wrong with any of this. All industries have internal rewards, and most have outreach programs as well. If you make the movie that most pleases other moviemakers*, why shouldn't you get an award from them (see most Oscar winners)? And if you make one that makes a fuckton of money, why not get an award for that, too (People's Choice, MTV Movie Award, etc).

This applies across the board, whether it's the industry, critics, or the public. Hell, there's a 20th-Century Art Bracket going on right now in which one of Marc Chagall or Salvador Dali will fail to make it to the second round, in spite of both being better** than, say, either of Cornell or Modigliani (and artists like Vasarely, George Segal, and Agam aren't even on the list).

It applies, yes, to the Hugos and Nebulas (both of which suffer every bit as much as the Oscars from campaigning), although I do occasionally discover something new and worthwhile in the novella categories as a result.

And sure, there are exceptions, often juried ones. The Shirley Jackson Awards consistently turn up hard-to-find works that are worthwhile. The National Book Awards tend to have interesting finalists. World Fantasy is hit-or-miss, but when they hit, they hit big (and when they miss, Song of Kali stays in print forever). And the mystery awards (particularly the Edgars) tend to turn up some superior stuff (note that Ben Winters's Last Policeman series received an Edgar for the first book before finally getting some Dick recognition*** for the second in the series). But these are exceptions.

I'll repeat, since people love to get touchy about awards, that there's nothing wrong with this. Awards make people money. Therefore, people might want to win awards. Nothing wrong with wanting it or campaigning for it, and nothing wrong with an industry giving out awards to help their own (assuming that the rising tide lifts all boats).

But as a consumer, I really, truly, could give a flying fuck about awards. I pay attention in case I can learn about something new, but for the most part, my reactions are either "meh, so that was nominated/won," (and there may never be a year as predictable and, as a result, as dull as the 2015 Oscars on this front****). When something or someone I love wins an award, it validates the award, not the winner.

My point being, while I understand Kanye being upset, no one thinks that Beck is magically a better artist because he's got a(nother) gold statuette, and no one thinks the less of Beyonce because she has one less gold statuette

*I loved Birdman (I called it pretty much a perfect movie, and while I admit I wrote that in the afterglow of the experience, I do stand by what I said). But Hollywood loves movies about moviemakers. Three of the last four best picture Oscars have gone to films about movie making.

**If you're one of the people bothered by the lack of "I think" or "in my opinion" throughout this piece (a false and borderline trollish wank I'm seeing too often these days, especially on Twitter), get over it. Any junior high rhetoric teacher will note that words like that undercut arguments, and that anyone with decent reading comprehension can identify opinions.

***Yes, I could have phrased this differently. But why in the world would I have wanted to?

****The exclusion of Selma on the nomination front was huge, but after that, I don't know of anyone who lost their Oscar pool for the Big Six.

On brackets, awards, etc

I tweeted this yesterday:

Of course Criminal’s getting demolished in the NPR poll against TAL. Other people’s opinions are everything that’s wrong with everything.

— Adam Lipkin (@Tsalmoth) March 17, 2015

That was a reference to the annual Public Radio Bracket Madness, in which Criminal -- which is a ridiculously under-appreciated masterpiece -- is matched against the powerhouse of This American Life and solidly getting its ass kicked. That's because the voting is a straight-up popularity contest, and unlike college basketball, upsets just aren't likely to happen here.

It's something I've been thinking about since the Grammys (which I didn't watch, since the list of better things to do ends up being like one of Perry Cox's rants), and the hullabaloo over Kanye being upset that Beck won an award instead of Beyonce.

With a few exceptions, awards of any sort serve as vehicles for the industry in question to either promote itself, or to reward their own.

There's nothing wrong with any of this. All industries have internal rewards, and most have outreach programs as well. If you make the movie that most pleases other moviemakers*, why shouldn't you get an award from them (see most Oscar winners)? And if you make one that makes a fuckton of money, why not get an award for that, too (People's Choice, MTV Movie Award, etc).

This applies across the board, whether it's the industry, critics, or the public. Hell, there's a 20th-Century Art Bracket going on right now in which one of Marc Chagall or Salvador Dali will fail to make it to the second round, in spite of both being better** than, say, either of Cornell or Modigliani (and artists like Vasarely, George Segal, and Agam aren't even on the list).

It applies, yes, to the Hugos and Nebulas (both of which suffer every bit as much as the Oscars from campaigning), although I do occasionally discover something new and worthwhile in the novella categories as a result.

And sure, there are exceptions, often juried ones. The Shirley Jackson Awards consistently turn up hard-to-find works that are worthwhile. The National Book Awards tend to have interesting finalists. World Fantasy is hit-or-miss, but when they hit, they hit big (and when they miss, Song of Kali stays in print forever). And the mystery awards (particularly the Edgars) tend to turn up some superior stuff (note that Ben Winters's Last Policeman series received an Edgar for the first book before finally getting some Dick recognition*** for the second in the series). But these are exceptions.

I'll repeat, since people love to get touchy about awards, that there's nothing wrong with this. Awards make people money. Therefore, people might want to win awards. Nothing wrong with wanting it or campaigning for it, and nothing wrong with an industry giving out awards to help their own (assuming that the rising tide lifts all boats).

But as a consumer, I really, truly, could give a flying fuck about awards. I pay attention in case I can learn about something new, but for the most part, my reactions are either "meh, so that was nominated/won," (and there may never be a year as predictable and, as a result, as dull as the 2015 Oscars on this front****). When something or someone I love wins an award, it validates the award, not the winner.

My point being, while I understand Kanye being upset, no one thinks that Beck is magically a better artist because he's got a(nother) gold statuette, and no one thinks the less of Beyonce because she has one less gold statuette

*I loved Birdman (I called it pretty much a perfect movie, and while I admit I wrote that in the afterglow of the experience, I do stand by what I said). But Hollywood loves movies about moviemakers. Three of the last four best picture Oscars have gone to films about movie making.

**If you're one of the people bothered by the lack of "I think" or "in my opinion" throughout this piece (a false and borderline trollish wank I'm seeing too often these days, especially on Twitter), get over it. Any junior high rhetoric teacher will note that words like that undercut arguments, and that anyone with decent reading comprehension can identify opinions.

***Yes, I could have phrased this differently. But why in the world would I have wanted to?

****The exclusion of Selma on the nomination front was huge, but after that, I don't know of anyone who lost their Oscar pool for the Big Six.