Game On

I admit that I'm a sucker for some reality television shows--the ones in which the winners have to prove their abilities by competing a series of clever and usually difficult challenges against very qualified opponents. I'm thinking here of American Idol, Project Runway and Top Chef. The winners of these contests are talented and creative. They are pushed to the limit and they respond. Their rewards? A shot at the big time--a foot in the door of industries that are notoriously hostile to newcomers.

The competitors are the first to admit the savage natures of the very industries they wish to join. One American Idol contestant last week bemoaned her treatment by the music industry. She wasn't sure she had the stomach to sign up for more morale bashing. Just listen to the judging on Project Runway--it is as brutal as the fashion industry underneath the glamour they project. And the restaurant business is literally cut throat--pun intended.

And yet they keep coming...these want-to-bes who genuinely have talent and can't get a break, many after years of trying to work their way up the totem poles of their professions. They pay their dues; they demonstrate their talent and yet there is still that need to be in the right place at the right time and to suck it up, big time.

Of course, every industry, notably publishing, has this element of luck, timing, talent and incredibly hard work. Getting published the traditional way has all the elements of American Idol without the spotlight. You respond to challenges; you complete assignments on time; you push the envelope and you face the judges--most of whom are nameless and faceless and simply say, "It's not for me." "I just didn't feel it," Randy says frequently on American Idol. "It didn't do anything for me."

Do we need a reality show, The Great American Novel, to push open the doors to the Random Houses of the world? It's hard to make a verbal medium visual so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fly. And we have all these dire statistics about the dearth of reading in America to begin with, so who would care about a show in which people actually create things that require thought, effort and actual participation (other than voting) on the part of the audience?

In a way, its a shame. The traditional publishing world is dying a slow death because they are making it harder and harder for anyone new to get in. It seems to me that if people are pounding on your door, the least you could do is open it a crack, show us how it really works, make yourself feel even more important in the process and give away a few keys.

If its all a game, then let us all try out before you make the cuts.