Popular Misconception

Annie Proulx has been ranting about the Oscar 'snub' for her story. In an editorial that has been spreading around the globe, she derides the 'conservative heffalump academy voters' who apparently don't know what's what in 'contemporary culture'.

Poor Annie. She's laboring under the popular misconception that '6,000 film industry voters...living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates' are responsible. I have many friends in the trades in Hollywood, lads in the trenches who toil behind the scenes and see everything that is going on. 'Tisn't those 6,000 film industry voters doing the voting, Miss Annie.

I've seen films before their release to DVD because a friend was given a reviewer's copy and it gets passed around. From one of the 6,000 it goes direct to one of the 6,000 secretaries. They not only share the films with their friends, but THEY ARE THE ONES WHO VOTE. Out of touch with the 'shifting larger culture and yeasty ferment' you think, Annie? They are the yeasty ferment. They don't live behind gates, they live in cramped little apartments, in the midst of all that ferment, across the hall from a gay couple who are going on about their ordinary lives. Their bosses give them the tally when it's Oscar time and tell them to take care of it, just like they tell them to send a letter or call a contact.

Do you think those hard-working folks give a horse's patoot about the message of Brokeback Mountain ? Did you ever think, in your ivory towered ferment, that they picked Crash because it's an action flick with plenty of comfortable and entertaining stereotypes? Kind of like characters in a John Grisham novel, Annie, and he's selling a lot of copies. Is it trash? I don't like Grisham's style, but I like yours. Unfortunately, I'm not a secretary to one of the 6,000, so my vote doesn't count.

The Annie Proulx diatribe sounds exactly like the diatribes of unpublished novelists who pen beautiful prose that falls into the literary category. Why is Grisham a best selling author while they can't get an agent? Why did Crash take the Oscar? Why do some liberals come across as elitist? The secretaries and the assistants to the 6,000 voted, and they chose entertainment over issues. Isn't there enough competition for decent men these days? It's not entertaining to realize that there's even more competition out there, from other men.