Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Oscar-winning movies may get a brief boost
It depends on a lot of marketing factors, doesn't it?
Brokeback
didn't get much of an Oscar bump because it already had been seen by its audience.
Million Dollar Baby
though got a significant boost from the Oscar attention.
I don't object to there being variations on Blue Ribbon panels to bring attention to various projects in various media. It's just a form of expert vetting, and depends on what you think of the particular set of experts.
The Nobel brings attention to achievments in science in a way that simply wouldn't exist without them. Ditto for the Pulitzer and journalism.
Leave it to DavidS to bring out the core of the thing. Who has a Blue Ribbon?
People selling the stuff, or people buying the stuff?
Who has a Blue Ribbon?
Dennis Hopper in
Blue Velvet.
People selling the stuff, or people buying the stuff?
You do bring up the interesting point of What Is Marketing once the media is decentralized.
Of course, even something like the marketing campaign for Blair Witch was engineered to take advantage of message boards and build audience that way.
It's always going to be that way. I like to look at advertising and marketing as kind of a pure barometer. It only works by being right.
Of course, Bill Hicks thought everybody in marketing was going to hell.
First of all, the market
is
decentralised.
Advertising is dead.
... now, we come to the issue of marketing. Sure,
Blair Witch
did a thing seven years ago that was right for that time. Studios have tried to force that phenomenon since then, with marginal effect.
The pure barometer is the material in the mind of the recipient. The rest of it is about bucks.
Good on you, that you do not read the Post 'cuz Pulitzer-Comm said to do so. That is you. I am not talking about the discerning public.
Do you know anyone who reads a particular paper because someone on staff won a Pulitzer X years ago? I don't, but I'm sure that people like that could exist. I simply doubt that it's a significant number of people.
You said that that the Pulitzer had "enormous weight in what people consume." Even assuming that by "enormous" you only mean, "equal to the influence of an Oscar," I'm still skeptical. I have granted that more people will see movies that get, or are nominated for, best picture. That doesn't mean that they'll turn out in droves for the next movie by the same writer, or director, or actor. So the influence isn't ongoing.
Blogs are more like newspapers than movies or novels. Being deemed "great" once will get you momentary attention from a very small group of people. Hearing that a year ago some blogger did a single piece that was brilliant? I'll look, but net years are like dog years -- as a "what to read *now*" guide it'd be useless.
The Nobel brings attention to achievments in science in a way that simply wouldn't exist without them. Ditto for the Pulitzer and journalism.
Oh, I think the Nobel carries much more weight in the popular consciousness than the Pulitzer, because it's not about something the average layman understands.
The rest of it is about bucks.
Hence the "market" portion of marketing, right?
Blogs are more like newspapers than movies or novels. Being deemed "great" once will get you momentary attention from a very small group of people. Hearing that a year ago some blogger did a single piece that was brilliant? I'll look, but net years are like dog years -- as a "what to read *now*" guide it'd be useless.
I noticed this just from the books that I've done. The shelf-life of a book is just hugely different than that of a magazine or an online post. And it winds up engaging in a public dialogue for a much longer time.
We did the Bubblegum book many years ago but its still the definitive reference on that particular tiny niche market. So when stuff comes up, we still get media hits for comments etcetera. Goldmine - the record collector's magazine - did a huge Bubblegum issue a few years before our book, but it doesn't maintain the same kind of media longevity.
Gus, I don't think advertising is ever going to be dead. It's just going to keep mutating like a retrovirus trying to be unrecognizable as advertising. But that's what it will be.
Somehow, Strega and I are at war. So be it.
In terms of what the Pulitzer influences, I am biased toward fiction. I've bought fiction because of a Pulitzer, when I'd otherwise be disinterested.
If they would point me toward a blogger of interest, I would peek in.
For the Academy ... if it has an Oscar and I have not seen it, I will press "record " on the DVR. What the hell, I'm giving all those dollars to Cinemax. I might as well see what's on.
This is the influence I am speaking of.
The Nobel ... I work in the sciences. They only reward effort after it is expended.
Long
after it is expended.
You said that the Pultizer had enormous influence on readers, and that it was a fact. I asked for evidence. And explained why I thought you were overstating things.
If that's war, I guess I'm out. G'night.
No...Bill Hicks thought people in marketing should kill themselves and that they were also sucking the devil's dick.
Really, Hecubus.
Get your facts straight.
And how much do I love profaning a discussion about literature by saying "sucking the devil's dick."
Enough to stay out of grad school, that's how much.
