I’d never applied for a Guggenheim before, and I found the wording of their rejection a little surprising: “Yeah, right, we’re gonna give you a Guggenheim, and George Bush is going to give Cindy Sheehan a cabinet post.” Can anyone tell me if this is their standard form letter?
Well, if you aren’t pulling our legs, tell them that if they can award one to a homosexual hobo who looked backward to Greece and forward to junk instrumentation, they sure as hell can give one to you.
J
I think the standard letter reads: “We regret to say that when we asked Milton Babbitt about you he made a face.”
You would have to have done a heck of a job in order to get a grant. ; -) Oh wait, it’s not a government grant. My letter said, “Sorry, we couldn’t get enough academics to praise you, so we didn’t bother to listen to your music. We don’t listen to anything until we’ve been told what to think by the right people.”
Ah yes, to paraphase scripture, “Banality of Banalities, all is Banality”.
Nelson Algren used to giggle about not getting a “Googie,” as he called it. The first time he tried, his sponsors were Richard Wright and Kenneth Fearing. The second time, his sponsors were Carl Sandburg and Ernest Hemingway. That’s a record hard to beat.
Kyle,
It’s so nice to know that I got rejected alongside someone so creative!
I often refer to their letter as my “F-you” letter. (I’ll keep it PG for the kiddies.) I mean, they might as well say that. I think it would actually drive their point home better.
Has anyone ever contacted them to discover what the criteria are for actually getting one?