For Being the Only Skink

[shadesong]

I love this post on literary awards by Ursula K. LeGuin. Especially this:

I wish we gave literary prizes freely, the way they used to give prizes at the Pet Show at Codornices Park in Berkeley when I was a kid. Every kid in the neighborhood brought their pet, and every pet got a prize, an ad hoc, unique prize: for Soulfulness — for Loud Meowing — for Unusual Spot Placement — for Being the Only Skink…. There was no Best of Breed (in those days there were many mongrels and few breeds), and certainly no Best of Show.

I‘d have some trust and interest in literary prizes like that. For Soulfulness — for Sitting Up and Begging Nicely — for Passion Well Expressed – for Excellent Use of Semi-Colons — for Being the Only Novel About Elderly Female Entomologists in Love….

You think literature would suffer, if prizes were given so freely? You think sharing praise diminishes its worth? You think good books are written in order to win huge advances and one-a-year prizes? Maybe so. I think not.

Tonight I was giving myself awards in my head. For Cleaning Up After Everyone. For Being Attentive to Cats. For Finishing My Manuscripts Fastest.

And For Being the Only Skink just lurks in the back of my head, you know? The Only Skink. I sort of love it. And I feel it. I feel very off on my own sometimes, uncertain if what I do will connect, but determined to do it my way because it is my way - as LeGuin says later, "I think good novels are written by writers who want to write this novel, their novel, which is like no other. And which is therefore unpredictable, unsafe, and unlikely to win a prize."

I do this, I do it my way; I need to. It's not usual and it's not safe.

I give myself the award of Being the Only Skink, the only me, the very best Shira that I can be. The me-est me.

I want to give everyone prizes, really.

What prize would you give yourself?

Comments

[jasmine-koran.livejournal.com]

I don't know what prize I'd give myself...but I just have to say that the "Only Skink" makes me happy, because Jack and I HAVE skinks, and we love them, and most of the people we've met have no idea what they are. XD

Opal, our fire skink.

Agate and Beryl, our berber skinks.

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Our oscellated skink (which I always want to spell "oscillated skink" XD), Topaz, gets the prize for Skink Too Fast To Photograph.

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

Aww, not one blue tongue showing in those pics! A friend of a boyfriend had a really bit one(wide torsoed) that I held on my shoulder/chest for an hour or so. Docile, contented guy.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

They are gorgeous!

[thegreenyear.livejournal.com]

For Eating All of the Thin Mints.
For Vacuuming Before Guests Arrive.
For Remembering to Dance.
For Finishing the Fifth Project.

[thedigitalkuri.livejournal.com]

Best non-fetishistic intersex adventure plotter. Can't say I write 'em good, but I love my kids and what they get up to in my head and their complete dismissal of the gender bianary.

Also? I believe very strongly in your books. Ciatrix is the first book (just a snippet!) that has made me openly weep in years.

I like the only skink prize XD

[ivy]

I would read those books!

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Best Use of Corpses.

[theicequeen.livejournal.com]

My prizes would be:
For Being the One Who Didn't Leave
For Shining Bright Even in the Dark
For Being the Funniest Person in My Head

Also, for Being the Only Me (which is not as easy to do and to do with integrity as it sounds....and because I want to be the only skink and think, if most people were true to themselves, we'd all be the only skink...)

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

I second giving you the Shira-est Shira prize, cause that is a glorious thing :)

I want to *earn* the "finally gathers enough spoons to write something again" prize :/

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Oh, I want that one too!

What I'd give myself a prize for

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I'd give myself one for following my dreams, no matter how many times I got distracted by other things, or delayed; for coming back to my dreams until I make them a reality.

[miss-lisa-ma.livejournal.com]

Survivor with dimples.

[sarapada.livejournal.com]

For Always Making the Coffee
For Reveling in a Warm Bed
For Preparedness with Snacks
For Offering Appreciation to Others

(I LOVE this!)

[sophy.livejournal.com]

Love this whole post.

and hmmm....

how about a Loves Her Friends A Lot award or a Foodiest Foodie award.

[gentleeleos.livejournal.com]

I would give myself the best prize ever in the history of prizes: For Getting a Two-Year-Old to Like Broccoli.

[miss-lisa-ma.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. That's clearly the Bestest Prize EVAR :-)

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I'd like to give myself an award for being the Stubbornest Nutcracker. 'Cos it's usually me who finally cracks the stubbornest nuts. =:o}

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

The prize I most want is "Widespread Begrudging Respect".

But in my writing, I want "Best Way to Make the Readers Slap Their Foreheads and Say 'Now I Get It!'".

I'm still working on that one.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Most un-indicted co-conspirator.
Un-indicted by the Hague, three times running!
Best leader of a three man invasion of a sovereign nation.

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

The One Who Makes the Hard Choices

I left school because it was making me absolutely exhausted. I refuse to throw myself under the bus that is family drama.

[thenetwork.livejournal.com]

we need an only skink award! your reasons for writing are the only reasons that make sense.
i'd give myself an award for the only gay werewolf story written by a cat. :)