Wednesday, October 17, 2007

More from the journalistic hyperbole dept

Rediff on Anne Enright’s Booker win:
The little-known author's award has come as a shock to India as the country was pinning its hopes on Indra Sinha's Animal People, a novel about the Bhopal gas tragedy...
Really, if a competitive-award announcement (with all its vagaries) should come as a “shock” to anyone, one would think it would be Lloyd Jones or Ian McEwan, who were the betting favourites. But what to do, after Kiran Desai’s win last year the Booker is right up there with the Oscar nominations as an opportunity for "India" to “pin its hopes” on something. Or for high-strung writers to claim that’s the case.

10 comments:

  1. Hey, shouldn't you be heading to a bookstore AT ONCE to post a hundred words on the Booker winner ASAP??? I thought that's what you bloggers do constantly -- rush to add your uninteresting two bits to that mass of language before other bloggers do. Don't worry about being anything but qualified to comment on the book (looking through your blog, I see it hasn't stopped you in the past). Go, at least 12 people desperately await your comments on Enright's novel. Rush. Chop Chop

    PS: OOOOOOOOh, 'vagaries' -- a big word for someone from Delhi!!!

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  2. My review on the comment above:

    The honesty of the above mass of language is admirable, and it is evident that this inspired piece of work is the result of inhaling toxic fumes for hours in a traffic jam, presumably not in Delhi.

    - Fellow blogger who's going to shrivel up and die in front of her computer screen. Thought I might as well go down fighting for my rights. Aage badho Jabberwock, hum tumhaare saath hain.

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  3. Anon: heh heh, thanks for this! Rest assured it will headline my "favourite comments of the year" list for 2007. (Previous editions here and here.)

    Deepti: let's not feed the trolls TOO much - only enough that they stay alive.

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  4. hey jai, i am trying to shape up. You think Umanyu chateerjee's weight loss will help. as recommended. what do you think i should do? read it, eat it or sleep with it.

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  5. Anonymous, we are rendered mute by your mindbending ability to grapple with polysyllabic verbal constructs and your cerebral legerdemain. But if you don't like blogs, why cast your pearls before us swine? And while you are at it, why don't you have the cojones to name yourself?

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  6. I simply love your blog... Its all a blog should be and much more. great job. I wish I could write as well .... Adding to my favorites.

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  7. I agree with Felix and Deepti.If Mr/Ms Anon feels *such* aversion towards all bloggers, he has to be
    1) a politician and is now "anonymously" avenging himself (poor poor thing, clearly lacks the balls to do it in public)
    2) enormously frustrated from the lack of attention (oh,how sad..awww)
    3) started a blog and no one read and no one commented! (dont worry boy,we shall all read it. Why dont you put an ad?)
    4) feels J when someone seems to use a word which either challenges him intellectually or he feels proprietary towards it. (which either way,is equally spineless)

    I wish we didn't have to do with people dishing out meaningless and vicious criticism.And if people did decide to throw it around,what cost them to freakin name themselves?

    Anyway,I love your blog Jai. I chanced upon it when I was looking for a review of Upamanyu Chatterjee's The Mammaries of a Welfare State and since,have been hooked.Go on Jabberwock,hum bhi tumhare saath hain!!

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  8. Felix, Kangana: thanks for the comments, but you've seriously overfed the troll now - its stomach will burst and where will future entertainment come from then?

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  9. why are so many people pouncing on anon? just as we have a right to like jai's blog, he has a right to dislike it ( for no particular reason)...leave him be guys....jai has plenty of other fans out there...

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  10. Dear Author jaiarjun.blogspot.com !
    I can not take part now in discussion - it is very occupied. Very soon I will necessarily express the opinion.

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