Orange Prize long list

The long list for the Orange Prize, awarded annually since 1993 to the best full-length novel in English by a woman during the previous year, has been released. I cannot imagine—get my finely balanced mind around—a more outrageous—or disgusting, maybe even obscene—abuse of a literary prize than to advance—to pervert, really—the political cause—the extraliterary ideological conspiracy—of women, who should probably prefer to be called “womyn” or “wopersons” to avoid any taint of the word men altogether. Whatever happened to gender-blind, objective considerations of rose-gray pure literary merit? I’d organize a boycott if the long list did not include so many good novelists (with the notable exceptions of Toni Morrison and Curtis Sittenfeld).

Will that suffice? I didn’t want to disappoint my good friends at Blog of a Bookslut. Besides, I couldn’t pass up the chance to establish myself as a “literary notable.”