WINNING WAYS ~ ("Alice thought the whole thing very absurd" )

A rabbit-hole, of sorts. This one unintentionally stumbled down after reading some posts about a recent debacle among fans of science fiction and the Hugo Awards. It seems that there has been a disruptive faction afoot, criticising nominations and the modern sci-fi genre, mainly because of the allegorical nature (usually leaning leftward politically) of stories and embedded messages, and - rather silly this - book covers which do not truly represent the nature of the novel inside (it was ever thus, wasn't it?) See here, and at the links provided there.

After reading a couple of threads of comment on these matters, I came to the conclusion that it's pretty silly to designate what is good, better, best among any kind of writings, art, music, acting etc. Taste is always subjective. End of story. Or is it?

Competition in itself is a healthy part of human nature - heck, human nature is, I suppose, the product of competition: evolution. Competitive spirit, in different measure, in different spheres of life, lies within us all. Astrologers might put this down to a reflection of planet Mars in our nature. Ancient Greeks valued the competitive spirit, honoured it in their Olympic Games, a tradition to which we still cling. That kind of competition seems to me to be a more reasonable deal - there really are winners there - indisputable winners.

"Sport, a healthy body and the competitive spirit were a large part of Greek education and so it is hardly surprising that organised athletic competitions would at some point be created, as they had been in the earlier Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations." (See HERE)

The Greeks had a word for it (didn't they always?) Thumos.
Wikipedia -

Thumos (also commonly spelled "thymos"; Greek: θύμος) is a Greek word expressing the concept of "spiritedness" (as in "spirited stallion" or "spirited debate"). The word indicates a physical association with breath or blood. The word is also used to express the human desire for recognition.

(There's also a good piece on Thumos at Classical Wisdom )


"The human desire for recognition", is a driving force of the competitive urge. Now...dragging this back into the 20th and 21st centuries, returning to consider all those Awards ceremonies like the Hugo Awards, all literary prizes and awards in the world of the arts in general.

James English's book, The Economy of Prestige relates to this topic, and is described at Amazon:

"This is a book about one of the great untold stories of modern cultural life: the remarkable ascendancy of prizes in literature and the arts. Such prizes and the competitions they crown are almost as old as the arts themselves, but their number and power--and their consequences for society and culture at large--have expanded to an unprecedented degree in our day. In a wide-ranging overview of this phenomenon, James F. English documents the dramatic rise of the awards industry and its complex role within what he describes as an economy of cultural prestige................... In the wild proliferation of prizes, English finds a key to transformations in the cultural field as a whole. And in the specific workings of prizes, their elaborate mechanics of nomination and election, presentation and acceptance, sponsorship, publicity, and scandal, he uncovers evidence of the new arrangements and relationships that have refigured that field. "

One reviewer there observed:

He [James English] reminds us of the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland, who cries, 'Everybody has won, and all must have prizes'...English dissects the dishy politics and tawdry tricks, but the author is after much bigger intellectual game. He wants to understand how the awards-biz carries our cultural currency, creating our shared investments in what is art...The Economy of Prestige is rich fare for anybody who has ever been trapped at an awards banquet. It ought to win a prize. (Karen R. Long Cleveland Plain Dealer 2005-11-13)

For a reminder about Alice and the Dodo.

That brought me nicely back to the rabbit-hole entrance from which I set out, and the thought that often accompanies such investigations: instead of "cherchez la femme", in this case it's "cherchez le dosh!" Follow the money!