One year ago, Jennifer Egan accepted a Pulitzer prize in Fiction for her masterful novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. Alfred A. Knopf, the Random House subsidiary that published the work, soaked in yet another Pulitzer victory. Fast forward one year. Next to the “Fiction” section of the Pulitzer announcements lie the ominous words “No award.” Meanwhile, Random House busies itself promoting its latest sadist soft-porn hit. Aside from a few angry New York Times columnists and one English class discussion, I have not seen many discussions on the implications of this decision (or lack of one).
It is high time we started talking.
The fiction Pulitzer has had dry spells in the past, but the last gap in the division was in 1977. In fact, during the 60s and 70s were a number of years when the Pulitzer board failed to name a Fiction winner. While this may have been because of pressures to stray from conventional authors and publishing houses, it could also show that a tougher selection process existed then. Most bibliophiles expect a fiction winner from year to year, and the lack of one suggests a change in popular opinions of literature.
Many other reputable literature prizes exist but I look to the Pulitzer for voices relevant to my generation. I thought last year’s pick was right on, since Egan highlighted many of the technological and cultural issues our generation will have to grapple with in the future. This year’s nominees were less promising from a generational standpoint. The best candidate was David Foster Wallace’s Pale King, followed by Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! and Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams. While Wallace should have won a Pulitzer years ago for his earlier work, a posthumously collected, unfinished novel does not fit the bill. It also lacks the sort of authority I would expect from a Pulitzer winner, since his editor had more creative involvement in the formation of a full novel than the late Wallace. Russell’s Swamplandia!, while fun, remains too fantastic to function as a serious voice of our times. Similarly, the topic of Train Dreams makes it out-of-touch: Few fast-paced Americans can connect with an Old West full of simple prose and even simpler living.
I recognize that the Pulitzer was left unawarded because the board found it impossible to choose one of these three options. However, I think the options themselves fail to excite and represent my generation.
Instead, the new generation of thinkers and learners (which I would like to think resides in an NU English discussion) feel they can connect more readily with HBO-style television. In a recent discussion with my English class, many students suggested that Mad Men or The Wire are the literary fiction of our time. While I had my doubts at first, I now actively entertain the possibility.
Think of the cultural reach of a show like Mad Men. New TV shows, such as The Pitch, Pan Am and The Playboy Club have all taken cues from the show’s style, era and subject. While this is interesting, it is not uncommon for a popular TV show to have spin-offs. It is uncommon, however, for a TV show to have multiple substantive fan-fiction novellas, themed cocktails tours in two cities and a line of watches. Even the fashion industry has taken a cue from Don Draper: Banana Republic, Maidenform and Estée Lauder have all released lines based solely on the show. The cultural effect of shows like Mad Men (since Breaking Bad, The Wire and Downton Abbey could easily fall into this category) is far-reaching and thought-provoking.
While I recognize that pop culture does not solely define my generation, these in-depth series reach even into the hallowed halls of academia. Somehow TV programs such as Mad Men and Downton Abbey have renewed interest in their respective periods. Dr. Lucy Delap of Cambridge published an article on the servant-master relations present at Downton in 2011, which she related to her work on domestic servitude in British culture. Similarly, Gary R. Edgerton wrote a collection of essays entitled "Mad Men: Dream Come True TV" to analyze both the content and pop culture phenomena surrounding the show. Don Draper has even arrived in NU classes. This fall, a PARC freshman seminar led by history Professor Michael Allen explored the cultural context of Mad Men. They discussed the economic issues stemming from WWII, and used this to analyze the changes to the nuclear family in the period.
If in-depth TV series inspire so many cultural and academic works, why should they not be judged as types of fiction? Does the written word have an inherent power to create literary themes that the performed one does not?
In the absence of a written work of fiction to voice our generation’s concerns for the next 365 days, I propose a televised one. HBO may not have the illustrious background of Random House, but it sure as hell deserves an award for “most culturally relevant fiction of the year.”
Therefore, this year’s lack of a Pulitzer in fiction opens up a space for a Pulitzer in literary television. Congratulations Don Draper, you are now the new Holden Caulfield.