Ocean Vuong gets a MacArthur Grant
 

Very happy to see that the cartoonist Lynda Barry got one, too.

Congratulations to Ocean. Though if the theory some have mooted—that he got too famous too quickly and it has harmed his work—is true, it may be a curse in disguise.

Emily Wilson also got one. I hope it means we'll get her Iliad that much sooner.

There's a theory that he's not very good too, Aaron. I haven't, admittedly, read more than a handful of his stuff. Maybe I'll change my mind. I wasn't at the time motivated to read more.

Ocean Vuong isn’t very good. A MacArthur grant doesn’t alter that in either direction. However, for all that poetry, particularly of the non-Instagram variety, is a niche market, it is nevertheless worth thinking about the effects of big money (at least relatively so) on the art. Namely, one gets a group of endowed arts administrators, moneyed failsons and -daughters who were too dumb for management positions at the family racism factory, and maybe even a couple of practitioners of the art in question together. The foundation is presumably not the main thing they do, but they want it to remain “relevant,” self-sustaining, whatever. Thus, they tend to want not to be outliers, to make a decision at odds with the others. There is, inevitably, a great deal of metagaming.

It makes the arts more faddish, especially since it’s an easy hook to hang a news article on, and it means that the same people tend to sweep the major awards.

I can’t get that angry about Vuong winning a “genius” award, though. It’s just too funny.

I saw this and thought of you Quincy, literally immediately.

I guess this is how MacArthur grants get awarded. To the rich, much shall be given. It does seem they might have done a better job identifying a major American poet and giving it to them. Vuong has never, for instance, been Poet Laureate of the United States, for what it's worth. To my mind, they tend to be decent at their art.

Cheers,
John

They give so many grants that I wouldn't generalize about the MacArthur based on one recipient. (Of course, few of us are in a position to know whether those from most of the rewarded fields are worthy). But as for poets, it's not intended only for those who have been widely recognized already or have been Poet Laureate and such, but for promising voices that still have a long way to go in their careers and might go even further with a financial boost to free them up. Alicia Stallings, for example, who was known and admired by most of us here when she won it but still was quite young and had many more books to write and readers left to reach.

Good point, Roger. And Vuong is 30, so it makes sense if they’re rewarding promise not achievement.

Cheers,
John

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