[lit-ideas] WHO RECEIVES GRANT MONEY?
- From: Eric Yost <NYCEric@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:43:49 -0400
http://www.literaryrevolution.com/news/news.crony.htm
WHO RECEIVES GRANT MONEY?
or, Cronyism in the Lit-world
When the 2002 National Endowment for the Arts $20,000 grants to writers
were announced earlier this summer, the names on the list included
Jonathan Franzen: highly-publicized best-selling author of THE
CORRECTIONS. Jonathan Franzen! The U.L.A. received inquiries about the
matter, because of our reputation at having protested a $35,000
Guggenheim award in 2000 to ultra-rich author Rick Moody. Why, and how,
did Jonathan Franzen receive an award of money from the government, when
he is among the dozen or so authors in the country who least need it? We
decided to look into the matter.
ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS
A cursory investigation into NEA grants, and into similar awards like
the Guggenheims, reveals the appearance again and again of the same
names. A person sitting on an NEA panel handing out money one year will
often receive it the next. University professor Josip Novakovich sat on
a grants panel in 2000, then received money in 2002. (Prose grants are
given every other year.) The 2002 grant was his second NEA award. (He'd
previously received one in 1991.) Out of the many thousands of writers
in America, should one of them receive TWO NEA awards? Is Professor
Novakovich that outstanding a writer, or in that in need of help? We
think not. (In 1999 Novakovich received a $35,000 Guggenheim award.)
Novakovich isn't an exceptional case. Educator and bookstore owner Lisa
Howorth sat on both the 2000 and 2002 awards panels. In a nation of 280
million people, many of them literate, why do the same individuals serve
as judges again and again?
More noticeable than awards professionals like Howorth and Novakovich,
is the frequency of names connected with the core NYC literary elite.
Sitting on the 2000 panel with Howorth and Novakovich were better known
literary celebrities Mary Gaitskill (good friend of Rick Moody) and
David Foster Wallace. Also on a 2000 NEA panel was Foster Wallace friend
John O'Brien, publisher of the Dalkey Archive Press in Illinois. In
2001, a year after O'Brien served as a judge, Dalkey received a $50,000
NEA grant.
One of the most frequently-appearing names, when public art monies are
involved, remains Hiram F. "Rick" Moody III, despite the controversy
over his 2000 Guggenheim grant. As Moody himself said in a May 2002
interview, "I judged about a zillion awards this year. . . ."
We at the Underground Literary Alliance voiced our concerns late last
year, when we learned that Rick Moody had been chosen as a judge for the
2002 awards. Should someone who had already demonstrated his lack of
conscience--his noticeable greed--been chosen for that role? After the
effort we expended in highlighting his example of corruption, it was a
slap in the face. Of the thousands of writers, editors, and even
bookstore owners, in this vast civilization, Rick Moody should've been
the LAST person chosen for such a responsibility. His selection was the
signal of a system incapable of reforming itself. "Would Rick Moody
reward his friends?" we wondered. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID.
THE RICH GET RICHER--AT YOUR EXPENSE
Despite his scant talents, and the modest interest in his work from the
book-buying public, Rick Moody has received continual hype from the
mainstream media. In a 4/14/97 TIME article by R.Z. Sheppard, Moody was
included as one of "Fiction's New Fab Four," along with David Foster
Wallace, Donald Antrim, and Jonathan Franzen:
"All are graduates of elite Eastern colleges. Moody and Antrim were
friends at Brown. Wallace concentrated on philosophy and English
literature at Amherst, while Franzen majored in German at Swarthmore.
The latter two became close after Wallace wrote a Franzen fan letter
about the time Franzen met Moody, . . . Antrim and Franzen visit
regularly. . . ."
Four buddies, from the sound of it, who've been linked together by the
mainstream media again and again. "The New White Guys," they've been
called. All are privileged and successful, and all suck at the public
trough. The "Fab Four" were included in the NEW YORKER's 1999 list of
"Twenty Best Writers Under Forty." Also on that list was Matthew Klam,
another of their literary circle. Like the Four, Klam is from an
affluent background, and writes for high-paying NYC magazines like the
NEW YORKER. Like the Four, Klam is a darling of the establishment media.
Not by any stretch of the imagination could one of them be called a
struggling writer--yet they receive taxpayer (and tax-sheltered) money.
We ask our regular question: Why does scarce grant money go to those
writers who least need it? RICK MOODY GIVES TAXPAYER MONEY TO . . . JON
FRANZEN! Among writers receiving NEA grants in 2002 are Donald Antrim,
Matthew Klam, and Jonathan Franzen. Antrim is one of Moody's best
friends (his name regularly appears in the Acknowledgements sections of
Moody's books). As for Franzen, at the time Moody sat on the panel,
Franzen's book THE CORRECTIONS (which should be called THE CONNECTIONS,
or maybe THE COLLECTIONS) had already been proclaimed "novel of the
year" by the media. The firestorm of hype for it had begun--it was
obvious that Jonathan Franzen was going to make a ton of money. How
could a grant be so inappropriate; the corruption of the system so
blatant? A privileged coterie of writers stay on top in part by helping
themselves; buddies all. Rick Moody is so well-off, money has no meaning
to him. He's never had to worry about paying his bills. $20,000 could be
20 cents for all he knows. It doesn't register with him. The NEA's
wasn't the only money Rick Moody handed out this year. Moody was also
one of three judges of the inaugural PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowships for
writers. One of the other judges was Joel Conarroe, President of PEN
American Center. Conarroe is also President of J.S. Guggenheim
Foundation, which in 2000 gave Rick Moody $35,000. Conarroe had been
Moody's most ardent defender when the U.L.A. made a fuss. Conarroe saw
nothing wrong with a writer so wealthy he lived on an exclusive island
reserved for the richest families in America receiving such funds. How
appropriate then, that both miscreants sat on the 2002 PEN panel
together. Of three $35,000 Fellowships they awarded, one went to Matthew
Klam.
A WORD FROM JONATHAN FRANZEN
Franzen's reply to our inquiry:
"As to your question--leaving aside your slightly Inquisitional tone--I
applied for an NEA (for like the 7th time) before THE CORRECTIONS took
off. The money was kind of an embarrassment, in the event. I used all of
it to buy work from a couple of underappreciated visual artists I know,
since visual artists can't get NEAs anymore. Don't know if this passes
muster with the ULA; but that's what I did."
In other words, Franzen bought two expensive paintings for himself. Not
quite someone who needs the funds in order to write! Do taxpayers know
their hard-earned dollars were spent for Jon Franzen to decorate his
walls? His casual rationalization reveals tremendous arrogance.
"--that's what I did." So there! Clueless. Entirely clueless. These
parasites on the working public are touted as our leading novelists, yet
their actions show they lack the integrity, the knowledge of their own
country, and the empathy with people, that a great writer must have.
---King Wenclas
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