On the irrelevance of awards

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by murg

I'm sorry, is there a mock shortage?

No, quite the opposite.

[GA Russell]

Pulpmeister, is there an Upfield book you recommend?

[gmw]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Pulpmeister, is there an Upfield book you recommend?

I know it wasn't me you asked, but thought I'd give you my opinion anyway. I haven't read them all (probably about 2/3rds of them), but they seem pretty consistent - so just pick one up and try it. Possibly the earlier books are a bit better.

It's been several years, but I seem to remember particularly liking The Sands of Windee and Wings Above the Diamantina.

Note that The Lake Frome Monster was published after Arther Upfield's death, and was apparently completed by J.L. Price and Dorothy Strange.

[GA Russell]

Thanks gmw!

[Pulpmeister]

Upfield became famous in Australia in 1931 when he wrote a book called "The Sands of Windee", an early Bony novel. He was then working as a boundary ride on the vermin fence in outback Western Australia, and he and various campfire mates devised the core of his plot: how to destroy a human bodywithout trace on an outback cattle station using only the sorts of equipment easily found there.

As it turned out, about the time the book was published, one of his campfire mates. "Snowy" Rowles, tried out the method in real life, with three victims before he was caught. Upfield was a witness at Rowles' murder trial.

The book I mentioned earlier, "An Author bites the Dust", dates from 1948 by which time Upfield was just about the only novelist in Australia making a full-time living from his novels. He thought that being an internationall known author, published in Australia, Britain, the USA and even Germany, that he would be welcomes by the literary establishment. Not.

"Death of a Lake" 1954 is set during a fierce outback heatwave (which Upfield experienced) which is rapidly drying up a lake on a cattle station, and in the nearby house are a group of people who believe that a missing man and his motorbike will be exposed when it dries up, proving that one of them is a murderer.

He wrote about 20 or so Bony novels, somewhat variable in plotting and characterisation, but with a vivid grasp of locality and the life in the harsher regions of Australia in the 30s and 40s.

[Self-Promotion deleted - MODERATOR]

[GA Russell]

Thanks Pulpmeister!

[mandy314]

Should be irrelevant - but the information seems to belong in this thread somehow

Two of Upfield's Bonaparte novels have been shortlisted for "major" crime fiction awards:
- The Man of Two Tribes - Dagger Award Best Novel 1956
- Bony Buys a Woman - Edgar Award Best Hardcover 1958

Seriously. I look at Edgar/Dagger/Hammett and try to read at least the winners. All this "best novel" lark is somewhat senseless anyhow. OK - with the Daggers a first novel can get the Gold Dagger and there is no category for "Best Paperback Original". With the Edgars we have a choice of "best" novels - to name only some categories like "Best First Novel by an American Authors", "Best Hardcover published in US", "Best Paperback Original". And now they even put "Best EBook Original" in the Best Paperback category. Do we really need ebook-specific fiction awards?

[Pulpmeister]

I don't think the public needs awards at all, but perhaps the industry and the authors do. I don't regard awards as a useful guide for my reading, just as I don't regard academy awards as a useful guide to movies' I might watch.

Maybe that's just me.

[ApK]

“Tell me a good story.” Thazzit.

I would like to amend this to:

"Tell me a good story well."

THAZZit.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

I don't think the public needs awards at all, but perhaps the industry and the authors do. I don't regard awards as a useful guide for my reading, just as I don't regard academy awards as a useful guide to movies' I might watch.

Maybe that's just me.

Perhaps with the new rise of indie publishing, awards can serve part of the gatekeeper/dreck filter role that some folks value the BPHs for providing.

Perhaps we need awards like "Fewest Grammatical Atrocities in a Free Ebook," "Most Comprehensible Plot in a Self-Published First Novel," etc.

[mandy314]

Serious readers don't need bestseller lists (god forbid!).
Serious readers don't need fiction awards (irrelevance is now proven).
Serious readers don't need recommendations (who would be in the position to judge?).
Serious readers have a state-of-the-art selection and vetting process.
Serious readers can sense a book being a good read (or better: a good book) in ways which must be mysterious for us mere mortals.
Serious readers read serious books only and are super-human.

-----

Originally Posted by ApK

Perhaps we need awards like "Fewest Grammatical Atrocities in a Free Ebook," "Most Comprehensible Plot in a Self-Published First Novel," etc.

+1

[murg]

Originally Posted by ApK

Perhaps with the new rise of indie publishing, awards can serve part of the gatekeeper/dreck filter role that some folks value the BPHs for providing.

Perhaps we need awards like "Fewest Grammatical Atrocities in a Free Ebook," "Most Comprehensible Plot in a Self-Published First Novel," etc.

"Least Scan Errors in a Commercially Released eBook"

[Pulpmeister]

As my handle suggests, I'm definitely not a "serious" reader.

[DiapDealer]

Things have always only been relevant to the people that find them relevant. I myself find the opinions of people who can't see any relevance in literary awards to be mostly irrelevant. They're free to feel the same about me. Literary awards aren't going anywhere, and neither are the people who find them relevant or ir-. Hi ho.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

I don't think the public needs awards at all, but perhaps the industry and the authors do. I don't regard awards as a useful guide for my reading, just as I don't regard academy awards as a useful guide to movies' I might watch.

Maybe that's just me.

Not just you I'm sure

Plenty of people do find them useful when looking for their next read though. I know plenty of people who read maybe 3-4 books a year and when they go looking for something Awards and Bestseller status are some of the things they use in their search. I'd bet when the winners are announced for pretty much any award that there is an uptick in sales. Need might be too strong a word, but many people certainly seem to value them during their book search.