The PEN is not quite as mighty as the sword

Dear American PEN:

Can you rescind the literary service award from this wrinkled hoser? Writers like Matt Stone and Trey Parker (not so much as a shout-out in the old bat's speech, BTW) are getting death threats from religious fundamentalists, but Atwood has figured out who the real censors are:

I hope however that this recognition is not the equivalent of the gold watch to the retiring manager. No, surely not! For writers can’t retire, nor can they be fired: As we hear constantly from those who think there should be no arts grants, writers don’t have real jobs.

Of course writers have real jobs! Or at least, they can put their skills to good use as technical writers, editors, journalists, or copy-writers while they wait to hear back from Random House about their manuscript. It's a low overhead activity that doesn't require much more investment than a netbook, printer, and the occasional trip to the library. A novel can be written while waiting on tables, and more often than not, it gets done exactly in this fashion in the good ol' US of A.

Free markets, free minds. Americans have built a whole publishing industry around that very concept, without any Canada Council grants, or government sanctioned cultural protectionism.

If Atwood is going to use the podium to hammer the Canadian government over government arts funding, and can't be bothered to mention Trey Parker and Matt Stone, does she really care about fighting censorship, or is she just a partisan hack masquerading as a concerned activist?

I'd put my money on the latter.