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Comment by arjie | Hacker News Reader

The Hugo Award nominees are all pretty good. Winning isn't any more significant than getting shortlisted. For a short while I thought it was dropping in quality but a discussion here led to my changing my mind: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48929545

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The article you list which is referred to reads to me like the books she is judging are not standing out on their own enough to instill in the reader a sense of their "greatness" as a work. Old school book awards were obvious then, and are obvious now. You know when you put one of those puppies down that you've done something that has re-arranged how you process life.

I'm not clear what in the convo changed your mind?

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I did not mean the article. I meant the Hacker News discussion. The link is to my comment claiming that the Hugos today are garbage but I can see how it would appear that I intended the primary story.

ever since i was a teenager i always read all the booker prize nominees and nothing else. But they've seemed to have jumped onto social justice bandwagon and are nominating books with an agenda. i have no problem with social justice and belive in mission 100 percent but for some reason my heart doesnt agree with books slected for an agenda.

I gave up on the Booker Prize years ago. It's mostly hand wringing, dreary, navel gazing tedium, which is a shame.

i still re/read old winners though

For people who are interested in modern literature reading the Booker Prize winners from 1969 forward and skipping any book that you find dull after 100 pages or whatever is well worth it.

Then people can stop as they get to the latest things that are driven by identity politics when they choose.

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