The function at school of prizes is part reward and part self-advertising. In the striving there is some excellence and a lot of work but in the actual winning does this all vanish? Does self-advertising take over?
I wonder at this when I see hundreds of awards from small institutions, publishers and even blogs and all over the Net stars and ratings and commendations as if they all mean something more than simply being mutually supportive. It is the same kind of misleading venture that brings the large writing awards into disrepute as people get the idea that there is an in-set and it is ‘someone’s’ turn to win. The amount of lobbying that goes into Hollywood’s Oscars that means it is no longer a mark of excellence but a marketing tool. The same is now true of British honours lists.
There are those who say no matter what human beings create eventually it becomes corrupted because the inspiration behind the creation becomes no more than the inherited institution of the following generations. Prizes are supposed to be wonderful marks of achievement but actually they are meaningless. The true prize of a writer is to be read, of an actor to be watched, of a human being to be admired for who they are.
Everything else is candy floss.