tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7747759322341026313.post885090067286713572..comments2023-12-31T07:32:12.295+00:00Comments on The Voice of Reason: Does anyone else find the winner of the blogging prize UNREADABLE?Claire Khawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557436240917008429noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7747759322341026313.post-46904028768631389482012-05-29T13:18:19.227+01:002012-05-29T13:18:19.227+01:00http://theorwellprize.co.uk/shortlists/graeme-arch...http://theorwellprize.co.uk/shortlists/graeme-archer/ was last year's winner. <br /><br />http://theorwellprize.co.uk/winners/filter/type-Blog%20Prize/year-2010/ was the 2010 winner.<br /><br />http://theorwellprize.co.uk/winners/filter/type-Blog%20Prize/year-2009/ was the 2009 winner. <br /><br />That should give you an idea what they are looking for in a political blog.Claire Khawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11557436240917008429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7747759322341026313.post-57590949332051708502012-05-29T09:40:55.464+01:002012-05-29T09:40:55.464+01:00The word "blog" is an amalgam of the wor...The word "blog" is an amalgam of the word "web" and "log". I do not think therefore that the Orwell Prize were looking for an essay per submission but something in the form of a diary entry - which may be long or short - with political content. <br /><br />Politics is necessarily confrontational so I cannot see anything necessarily wrong about being confrontational per se. <br /><br />Since the purpose of a blog is polemical, I really do not think length should come into it. If it is too long people simply won't want to read it. <br /><br />I would therefore argue that a good political blog is one that makes you want to read it, despite disagreeing with the views of the blogger, so that there might be an exchange of ideas. <br /><br />http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/still-annoyed-about-orwell-prize-award.html discusses this a little more.Claire Khawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11557436240917008429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7747759322341026313.post-49119606541288884692012-05-28T21:40:35.962+01:002012-05-28T21:40:35.962+01:00The winning title appears to be very boring indeed...The winning title appears to be very boring indeed. And I would certainly agree that investigative journalism per se is not political writing. <br /><br />Maybe its success can be accounted for by the fact that the press has abandoned proper investigative journalism. <br /> <br />It doesn’t entice readers in the way it did when, say, Harold Evans’ Sunday Times led the field. <br /><br />There appears to be no trace in the Rangers piece of the qualities Orwell thought essential to good political writing, for which Orwell's work itself may stand as a model. <br /><br />Orwell's pieces on Charles Dickens, Donald McGill, Salvador Dali, Killing an Elephant and How the Poor Die seem to show that a damned good political essay works best. <br /><br />Many essays and articles by Nick Cohen, Nick Ryan, Martin Amis, the late Christopher Hitchens, Peter Hitchens, and Gore Vidal would all qualify. <br /><br />However, I must also regretfully state that, in my view, much of the daily bloggery of Claire Khaw does not really make the grade either in a prize-winning sense - for her work is seldom expository, but declamatory and confrontational, with very little attempt to persuade an unsympathetic reader. <br /><br />(And if there is no such attempt, such writing surely fails in its political purpose.)<br /><br />There might be one or two exceptions. <br /> <br />Indeed, I thought the characterisation of countries bombed by the West as Emma Woodhouse was an amusing off-the-wall idea. <br /> <br />But this failed to be developed or exploited to any extent.<br /><br />Anyway it is surely the exceptional piece of work that ought to be submitted for a prize, rather than a routine selection from a daily blog.<br /><br />But, hey. Perhaps I am seriously missing the point of a ‘blogger’s prize’.<br /><br />Anyway Orwell did not ‘blog’, but wrote excellent prose instead - probably with a fountain pen.Jeff Marshallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357173394992977693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7747759322341026313.post-62278676140350129152012-05-24T17:32:19.751+01:002012-05-24T17:32:19.751+01:00'The judges said: ‘The 2012 Blog Prize showed ...'The judges said: ‘The 2012 Blog Prize showed that not only could blogs comment on current events, they could drive stories forward. Rangers Tax-Case takes what might be a dry topic – the tax affairs of a sports team – and shows how a striving for transitory success has severely distorted sporting, legal and ethical boundaries.' Might be a dry (ie boring) topic? Might? Straight from the leftie guff factory. The Orwell Prize will soon be in galactic collision with the Turner Prize.Ericnoreply@blogger.com