Book prizes don't work how you think
rebeccamakkai.substack.com
Book prizes don't work how you think
1–10 of 97 posts
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#2Pretty interesting post. I guess I'm surprised that it's just like 5 people doing most of it and the most complex structure is still just 2 stages usually (Pulitzer: 5 judges send 3 books to a special council to pick a winner). It makes me think you probably get as much value from following a few specific critics as you would from following these prizes
I wonder how the reviewers feel when authors like Ursula K. Le Guin refuse awards
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#3>1) Not every judge can look at every single book; and 2) When a judge realizes they don’t love a book, they can put it down.
There is room for LLMs to disrupt book judging by being able to read every single book.
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#4Good post which basically states the f*cking obvious about how any "prize" or "winner" of any subjective category works.
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#5>1) Not every judge can look at every single book; and 2) When a judge realizes they don’t love a book, they can put it down. There is room for LLMs to disrupt book judging by being able to read every single book.
I feel like LLMs are not quite equipped to answer "is this wonderful and delightful" yet.
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#6Related read; a first hand account by one of the 2012 Pulitzer jury members giving a good account of the process and attempting to explain why no literature prize was awarded that year.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/letter-from-the-...
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#7>1) Not every judge can look at every single book; and 2) When a judge realizes they don’t love a book, they can put it down. There is room for LLMs to disrupt book judging by being able to read every single book.
I guess if you want the most average book to win
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#8Sorry, I laughed... :)
> I’ve judged prizes both pre-2020, when we were sent stacks of books, and post-2020, when everything had switched to zip drives and online databases.
Considered medium-to-high-capacity at the time of its release, Zip disks were originally launched with capacities of 100 megabytes (MB), then 250 MB, and finally 750 MB. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#9I read the article.
Book Prizes Do Work How I Think.
It's just like, someone's opinion, man.
Re: Book prizes don't work how you think
#10>1) Not every judge can look at every single book; and 2) When a judge realizes they don’t love a book, they can put it down. There is room for LLMs to disrupt book judging by being able to read every single book.
The book was rejected because it doesn't say "load-bearing" and "now here's the thing" enough.