At The Millions, Sonya Chung responds to Laura Miller’s argument that the National Book Awards have become “the spinach of literary awards.” Chung advocates for having different awards with distinct selection processes and a reading public that absorbs an array of books.
“What I am saying is that we do a disservice to “ordinary readers” and “professional” ones alike, by calling a book spinach and attaching good-for-you but not good-in-itself to that metaphor. We are telling readers, This is spinach, didn’t you know, and you won’t like it; over here, this is ice cream, you’ll definitely like this. Herein lies a more insidious kind of paternalism.”
