It's not verbatim what I've already posted elsewhere but I'm intrigued by all of the articles about Doris Lessing's amazing Nobel Prize win that mention how she was out shopping during the time of the announcement. Like the press was so incredibly needy for bits of information that it's essential to note that the significant author of a life of amazing (albeit unread by me) work was getting on with the business of life when elsewhere in the world she was being decidedly celebrated.
I know sometimes it's hard to find a hook to a story, and I know that filling a word count is sometimes hard but, really, is that tidbit of information essential to the telling of the piece? I'm sure there are hundreds of authors out there just sitting by the phone waiting to be told they've just won the Nobel Prize.
Or not.
But you're telling me that someone from some camp somewhere couldn't have maybe let her in on the secret if only to make sure she's home when they call?
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3 comments:
Although I admit I haven't read her work either, she's a pillar of feminist writing and to think that the main crux of this story would be the fact that she was out shopping is a bit mind-boggling. Would they have mentioned it if she had been a man?
I saw the video on the Guardian (via Bookninja) and she was told by reporters as she was getting out of a black cab. It was pretty remarkable. I think that a man accosted in such a way would have been story-worthy as well. Of course the man would have been getting out of a swish convertible, or a chauffered limo, but you know...
I would have thought she already knew - maybe by letter the week before?
Is it not the norm to tell the winner first before they make the announcement? The Oscars are not the norm. LOL
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