I was a contestant on a couple trivia gameshows (once you do one, you get endless calls to do more) and what’s crazy about this particular segment is that your little 12-second story is carefully vetted and planned beforehand, and the host reactions are often scripted by producers too. This wasn’t a spontaneous burn;…

My friend and I used to watch Jeopardy and laugh at how much Alex Trebek hates life. The chit chat portion is always super awkward and he has, over time, consistently developed serious crankiness. He is just waiting for the sweet release of the grave.

This exactly. Trebek is kind of a dick, when you really start to look at what he says to these contestants during the “lets fill in three minutes of showtime with stupid banter” segments. This one though takes the cake. My guess is as he’s getting older his filter for saying stupid shit is weakening. They let this one…

“I’ll go with Pompous Dicks for $1000"

I would have liked to have seen Ursula K. LeGuin or Octavia Butler, another two game-changers, win a very big prize. The former is still alive, but I can’t see the Nobel people recognising her.

Margaret Atwood has reached a lot of readers all over the world, and has completely changed the science-fiction writing game. She should win for her fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. She’s prolific but her standards remain high. She’s an excellent writer, and I can’t think of anyone else who writes as well across so…

I’m at a solid 50/50 on Atwood’s work. I feel like her genius is really evident when she has the right editor, but it’s very clear when she has a lax one. Excited for Hagseed though! 

Louise Erdrich! Incredible body of work, both literature and poetry, and also has done so much for Native American people throughout her whole life. Also from Minnesota, much more deserving than Ol’ Bob.

What about Adonis, the French-Syrian poet? It would have been deserving and politically interesting to give it to one of the few Arabic poets. Plus considering the fact of the Syrian crisis.

Margaret Atwood, although I suspect it will never happen.

I stand with ElephantShoe2.

No, see my response above.

I’m just recycling the common praise I hear for Dylan and the only reason I can imagine he is getting this prize based on the guidelines.

I hate Bob Dylan. I can’t stand his voice, I especially can’t stand his lyrics, which always creep me out re: women. I get that his music reached a lot of people but I don’t think it necessarily did so in a wholly constructive way. Not many of his songs are actually about peace.

So a regular ventriloquist dummy?