Pulitzer Prize winning author says GTA IV ain't art
Who knew that Pulitzer Prize winning authors were taking their hard-earned awards and combining it with writing skill to... play Grand Theft Auto IV? It's not like they can be accused of slacking, having won a Pulitzer and all. Junot Diaz who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao spent some quality time ripping off cars and robbing his fellow Liberty City denizens, but in the end he says the game isn't worthy of the praise that's being spoon-fed to the masses.
In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Diaz points out the sugary coated love the game has been receiving -- GTA IV is better than "The Godfather," better than "The Sopranos," better than say, a novel! He admits to loving the game, but doesn't think it deserves to be compared to classic cinema, or a timeless television show about chubby mafia dons.
The piece is very well written, and if it wasn't we'd have to call Diaz on the carpet and demand he fork his award over. There's also a nice sidebar on the history of the different GTA games over the years. In fact, Diaz said the best thing you can compare GTA to is itself, "Before you start measuring a game to The Brothers Karamazov maybe you should measure it up to its earlier iterations. You might actually see something."
We agree on some levels that anyone comparing this to The Godfather needs to have some serious cinematic appreciation classes, but who's to say Nico's story isn't high art? We can think of a few classic novels we had to read in school that we'd love to skip in lieu of some carjacking. Do you think that 2007 Pulitzer winnner Cormac McCarthy spends much time gaming? Maybe he's more of a Wii dude.
