To me, Priest's rant was just another pointless salvo in the even more pointless war between "Art" and "Entertainment."
"Your drivel isn't worthy of an award!"
"Oh yeah? Well you're pretentious and inaccessible!"
Both of you just shut up and write books.
Somebody always manages to loose their $h!t over nominations and preserving some sort of perceived "sanctity" of said awards. Whether it's an author, a critic, or a reader. I find that especially ironic considering that the namesake of the Arthur C. Clarke Award hasn't exactly become immortalized and revered because of his unparalleled "literary" chops.
