Well, I'm going out on a limb here.

In today's MediaBistro (which is like a really big deal in the publishing industry) they

featured the seasons big award winners, including the Nobel Prize for Doris Lessing

and the Man Booker Prize for Ann Enright.

Well along with those heavyweights, they have a former writer from "Days" whose name is

not allowed on these boards. You all know Vola Voof.

Scroll down to her award win in Sweden.

MediaBistro/Literary Award Winners:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/awards/default.asp

I know people are prudes and people are petty, but I just don't get it.

The soap industry is dying and they're letting award winning authors like this get away

because they're eccentric and cause publicity?????

I just find that to be the most mind-boggling stupidity.

I watch the shows day in and day out, and I don't see the level of passion or bodacious-ness

that this woman had anywhere on the soaps.

Now back in the day, they use to have that urgency. People talked about them!

I just find myself miffed at the whole OVER-REACTION to this award winning and obviously

rising author by the soap industry. Talent is talent.

What sh!t and what opinion? And I really didn't know all about that Cocacolagate thing...

Well, my confusion stems from your asking about the board's experience with this...concept, said you were curious to hear from us, but before most people could answer you you come up with gushing articles, highlighted quotes, and are championing her to me. Either you want to know or you'd already made up your mind.

I think this is a misunderstanding. I posted those two quotes because I didn't want this thread to turn into "Hating Naima Bint" before some people even formed an opinion about her. In many ways I'm disgusted, too, by what she did and all this crazy atmosphere that surrounds every single discussion about her. And I thought that if in some way someone would be able to detach her personality and that sh!t connected to her, those quotes would stand as a the sort of thing daytime industry needs.

I'm not championing her, I just want to forget all those terrible things that happened and that could have happened, and somehow look at this person in a new light and just be focused on her work as a writer and possible fresh voice in serials. I don't care if her mother was a Somali princess, I don't care if she was Osama's mistress, I don't care if she has an unnaturally augmented libido or whatsoever, I just don't care. To me, she is interesting as a writer, and I was really unaware of the Colagate and that is why I asked, although I somehow predicted no-one will publicly answer me. So here is your chance to speak and tell us your version of the story.

OK can you translate that? Because all I can think about after reading about all this "major award" confusion is this:

She did win that award.

It was presented to her at the Schomburg Center.

Are you legally about to try and claim that she didn't win an award and that she's lying?

And what Legal basis would you be making that claim on?

It can't be controversy, with the crappy trash soaps are more than willing to produce. Hypocrisy maybe. Racism wouldn't surprise me a bit. I can just picture the bigwigs afraid that Sami Brady would start wearing gold teeth on her watch.

And why is someone with an unspeakable name allowed a thread dedicated to them? How can I ignore that she exists now?

I agree Stenbeck.

I also believe that racism and "petty" KNIT-PICKING is what drive many of the hateful comments

by people on this board.

The industry is dying and they're too busy being prudes over b.s. that doesn't equate a hill of beans.

Did you see how they posted her Arabic birth name?

There's obviously a lot of prejudicial undertones to this childishness.

...As opposed to, you know, trolling Internet message boards fighting with 19 year olds. Because that would just be counterproductive.

Our soaps are dying

and you're sitting up worrying about who is trolling the frigg'n internet!

There's network executives on these boards acting like 6 and 7 year olds and you're trying to bring

back McArthyism just so you can hate on a black writer trying to kick some doors open for herself?

Your priorities are SO under the bus, man.

Talent is talent.

Vola voof is no more "strange" than Madonna, Kim Zimmer or any other wildly successful person with

a party girl streak.

So what she got bored and went online to entertain herself. So frigg'n what, man!

What sh!t and what opinion? And I really didn't know all about that Cocacolagate thing...

That's because most of it is a lie that they've invented about her.

She used to post online at WOST if I'm not mistaken and she used her real identity

and she's posted other places as herself.

I've been accused of being her and I'm not, so that's how I know they're lying on her.

They have "other reasons" for hating this broad. Go figure.

Did you see how they posted her Arabic birth name?

That name was posted because of the following reasons:

1. K-o-l-a B. automatically turns into an acronym.

2. K-o-l-a sounds like a parody name to me and I don't like it. Especially when paired with "B-oo-f".

3. I love Arabic language and I also love that name. I have a huge collection of Arabic music (from Oum Kulthoum to Amr Diab and Elissa) and Naguib Mahfouz is one of my favourite writers (I haven't read anything by Tawfiq al-Hakim). I'm such a fan of Arabic culture that this thread would be a huge off-topicking all over the place if I started a discussion on that. And if you wanna now - in this precise moment I'm listening to Khalik ma'aya.

4. I would like if she used that name and threw K-ol-a into the litter bin.

So it's not at all racially motivated or anything of the sort...

Edited October 18, 200718 yr by Sylph

I, for one, would love to have her write one of the soaps I watch. She seems like she could kick life into any of the soaps actually!

Oh, I feel so bad, I can't call Rararara, Ru. It's just not fair!!!!

Edited October 18, 200718 yr by YRBB

I, for one, would love to have her write one of the soaps I watch. She seems like she could kick life into any of the soaps actually!

So would I, YRBB!

Edited October 18, 200718 yr by Sylph

I think this is a misunderstanding. I posted those two quotes because I didn't want this thread to turn into "Hating Naima Bint" before some people even formed an opinion about her.

But I thought you hadn't formed an opinion about her, either.

In many ways I'm disgusted, too, by what she did and all this crazy atmosphere that surrounds every single discussion about her. And I thought that if in some way someone would be able to detach her personality and that sh!t connected to her, those quotes would stand as a the sort of thing daytime industry needs.

It's not possible to detach that. From what little I've seen this craziness goes back before this silly little site. Someone made it their business to have this [!@#$%^&*] follow this name around for a long, long time. And daytime needs someone who cares more about being a competent professional writer than being a college kid's fuckin' Myspace friend and having multiple screen names and trolling the board to keep her name out there. Whether or not she herself did that - if she really exists at all - that [!@#$%^&*] is only ruining any name she has.

I just want to forget all those terrible things that happened and that could have happened, and somehow look at this person in a new light and just be focused on her work as a writer and possible fresh voice in serials.

That can only happen if this endless trolling re: her stops. And it won't.

There's network executives on these boards acting like 6 and 7 year olds and you're trying to bring

back McArthyism just so you can hate on a black writer trying to kick some doors open for herself?

There are no network execs.

There are no career opportunities.

There is no hope for a daytime career for anyone on this board simply by posting here, black white or polka dot.

Anyone trying to "make a name for themselves" with trolling a board full of moms and kids is just humiliating themselves.

Edited October 18, 200718 yr by Vee

I MISS AREMID, the following doesn't make sense.

Apparently, People Feel Strongly About [s.W.S.N.B.N.]

So I ran this item yesterday about how [s.W.S.N.B.N.] received a Swedish literary award last month while giving a reading at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. That prompted a bunch of unhinged racist e-mails yesterday afternoon, all from the same anonymous remailer. This morning, I get another, saner bit of correspondence from somebody much nicer, politely explaining that I had been hoodwinked.

So I start Googling around, and it gets interesting. OK, so apparently Boof's story about this award has changed; her email to GalleyCat said she'd won the "World Author's Woman to Woman Pen," but back in July, she was calling it the "Gudrun Schyman Pen in Feminist Prose." Maybe these things change as translations from the Swedish get more reliable, I dunno. Then my pseudonymous correspondent tells me that there never was any reading at the Schomburg Center, and that was a little trickier—it turns out, as best I can determine, that she did speak in the Langston Hughes Auditorium, but that it wasn't an official NYPL event, so it doesn't show up on their website, but people who were there took pictures and wrote about it. (Even the racist from yesterday afternoon had said he'd gone!) By then, I've determined that the online forums where all these arguments about the veracity of anything Boof says about herself play out are, frankly, a world of crazy (as nearly all online discussion boards tend to be), and I'm ready to bail.

Everyone knows that the Langston Hughes Auditorium is located INSIDE the Schomburg Center.

WTF?

I was also at the event, so I know that an award was given to Ms. Boof. Glad he mentioned that people

took pictures.

He's totally right about people on the internet "inventing" baseless and hateful CRAZY stuff about this

woman.

Personally, I think it all stems from the fact that she's a black woman trying to overcome her past and

make something of herself and people generally despise ambitious women. Add her color and she's

considered a "bitch".

But I thought you hadn't formed an opinion about her, either.

I formed an opinion about her, but I didn't form it on that affair that happened last year or whenever because I couldn't have since I didn't know what was going on.

So, no apology from you, Changed, on calling me a racist?