Thursday, October 18, 2007

Irish + Bleak = Booker Prize


Reuters photo

On the Yahoo news website there’s an article about an Irish writer winning the Booker Prize. In the article they associated the word “bleak” with Irish twice (and an association between bleak and the Booker Prize actually). True?

Methinks there is a component in many Irish people for bleakness. Maybe that’s why some Irish have drinking problems. There is that moment of hilarity when you get drunk ... moment, mind. And if you continue, like a couple of my family members do, on to oblivion. Is it to wipe out a certain bleakness? I think a sizeable portion of Russians have that component too ... I usually refer to it as “being glum.” Don’t be so glum, chum.

Anyway ... on to this writer: Anne Enright and her prize-winning novel, The Gathering.
"It is an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language," he [chairman of the judges Howard Davies ] told reporters after the judges spent 2-1/2 hours closeted together picking the winner of the prize of $100,000.

Enright herself described the book as "the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepy."

"When people pick up a book they may want something happy that will cheer them up. In that case, they shouldn't really pick up my book," she has admitted.

Asked if winning the famous prize under a harsh media spotlight might now provoke writer's block, the 45-year-old Enright said: "I am no spring chicken so it won't stop me squawking."
To read the entire article, go here.

2 comments:

ThePoliticalCat said...

Oh, my. I must research the ethnic/racial component of glummitude. What about people who are born in places with dreary weather (methinks Ireland and Russia face a common dearth of sunshine)? Doesn't that just encourage a propensity to glum?

Ms. Manitoba said...

Well, think of how blessed *I* am with bleakitude:
-- half Irish
-- born in Winnipeg, Manitoba

The 'peg is said to be the coldest city in North America. City, mind. Not place.

Good golly! It's a wonder my brains aren't splattered against the wall.