Internet146;s knight

The news that Midnight8217;s Children has won another prize with the word 8220;Booker8221; in its name will gratify many. Many books have been written about India since Independence, but this is the one that has deservedly been awarded the most prizes that include in their title the word 8220;Booker8221; one or more times. As Salman Rushdie 8212; lately knighted by Queen Elizabeth 8212; does not tire of pointing out, the great thing about that novel is that even people who talk at length about how much they hate it are merely restating how influential it is. He also believes that this is recognition for his career in general 8212; useful when the regular, or Vanilla, Booker has recently turned to focusing on 8220;new voices8221;, no doubt thinking that since everyone is capable of one great novel, it therefore follows nobody is capable of more than one.

The prize was handed out on the basis of an internet vote. No doubt there are those, infatuated with our post-intellectual online future, who will celebrate this as further, long-overdue democratisation of literary taste. After all, internet polls are wonderful. Nobody would claim that they are representative, or free from systemic bias, or, really, in any way informative; but that doesn8217;t matter, because they leave the decision to the People, that great mass of individuals all of whom have actually read the five books under consideration. It8217;s an anonymous, easy, online vote, after all! In such a system, why would anyone choose to vote without carefully considering the alternatives? Why, indeed, would anyone click on the familiar favourite8217;s name, in this carefully constructed, scientific system? Surely everyone voting would be able to justify their vote with a well-argued defence; if they were ever called on to do so. If they could not, then such a prize would be a travesty. Which of course it isn8217;t, because Rushdie won, and everyone expected him to. QED.

The truth is that winning an internet poll is indeed testament to the novel8217;s influence, inasmuch as its name is sufficiently familiar. It is not evidence of popular literary preferences, however, where we have a more accurate alternative to such polls and awards: it8217;s called the market, as represented by the bestseller list.