Oh, please. Kindly don't talk down to the fellow writer. And kindly don't demonize genre fiction.
I didn't. I merely stated a fact-based opinion. Pulitzers do not get awarded to "genre" writers. I'm not putting down genre writing at all, and I'm sorry it came across that way to you. I like all three of the writers I cited. Bradbury, in particular, is one of my gods. Along with Rex Stout, Philip K. Dick, A.E. Van Vogt, Tony Hillerman, Ursula LeGuin, and numerous others.
Everyone knows Pulitzer winners are books with Deep Social Meaning that Make Us Think. I prefer books that tell a good story without bashing me over the head about its Theme! Importance! Social Commentary!
Not all the Pulitzers I've read/tried to read are pretentious.
To Kill a Mockingbird especially comes to mind. Terrific book. I had no idea it won the Pulitzer. But most of them--and I do try to keep up on what's winning awards--
.
I want depressing, socially conscious writing, I'll read the newspaper. When I spend $8-$15 for a book, I want a writer who'll entertain or scare or amuse or move me while telling a rollicking good story.
No one has to share my tastes in literature. I prefer beach read genre fiction, which happens to be what I write. Some people prefer deep, thoughtful books with meaning.
Oh, please. Kindly don't talk down to the fellow writer. And kindly don't demonize non-genre fiction. I read that, too. As for "deep, thoughtful books with meaning", the "genre" authors I just cited above have produced many such. Go read
Fahrenheit-451, The Man in the High Castle, or
Slan.
I also clearly made the point that Pulitzers in Literature have been awarded to some real stinkos over the years. Here's the list, however, (
http://almaz.com/pulitzer/) and without commenting on the past decade or so (things I haven't read) it includes a fair amount of older stuff of great merit that continues in print. In addition to those already cited in this thread, examples include:
The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Laughing Boy, Oliver LaFarge
The Way West, A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty
There is a tendency for the Pulitzer to get awarded to a famous writer not previously honored, and sometimes, as in the Faulkner novel I mentioned, not for a very good book. Willa Cather won for
One of Ours, a syrupy post WWI novel that might be the worst thing she ever produced. Happily, she wrote many far better books.
Any year now I expect John Irving will win a Pulitzer, and I think his best stuff (
The Water-Method Man, The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider Rules) dates from 20-40 years ago. Irving's mentor Kurt Vonnegut, one of the giants of American literature over the last half of the 20th century, never won. Neither did Joseph Heller. Nor Carson McCullers.
Nor will anyone perceived of as strictly a "genre" writer. Fortunately there are Hugos and Nebulas and Edgars and other awards that cater to genre specialties.
I hereby announce the establishment of the Blacbird Prize in Fiction. Blacbirds are limited to writers for whom the primary residence is in the United States, and deserving works which have not won a Pulitzer. To make up for lost time, an initial set of works from the previous century is announced:
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The October Country, Ray Bradbury
Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The Professor's House, Willa Cather
Everything that Rises Must Converge, Flannery O'Connor
The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter Van Tilburg Clark
The Water-Method Man, John Irving
Light in August, William Faulkner
Paris Trout, Pete Dexter
Sombrero Fallout, Richard Brautigan
The World of Null-A, A.E. Van Vogt
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin
Native Son, Richard Wright
Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
City, Clifford Simak
Mildred Pierce, James M. Cain
The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon, Raymond Chandler
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
caw
