This is not such a rare occurrence. Over the centuries, Britain’s Honours Committee has stripped 34 honorees of their knighthoods, including Benito Mussolini, the former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the queen’s beloved art curator, Anthony Blunt. He turned out to be a Soviet spy.
Handing back awards could be a disturbing trend. Who’s next? Sir Mix-A-Lot, the cofounder of Nastymix records, and creator of the hit album “Dun 4got About Mix’’? Will they come after Lady Gaga’s title? What about Lord Gaga? Is the University of Massachusetts planning to rescind Dr. J’s license to practice? What about Dr. Dre? Where will it all end?
On the one hand, it never hurts to be cautious when taking back awards. Every few years, there is talk of stripping former New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty of his Pulitzer Prize. In retrospect, Duranty was a Stalinist sock puppet, but he isn’t the only tarnished Pulitzer winner. Wallace Stegner copied portions of his prize-winning novel, “Angle of Repose,’’ from a diary entrusted to his care, and so on. Nobody’s perfect.
On the other hand, who wouldn’t want to reassign half or more of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year? What are those Scandihoovians smoking? Leaving aside the notorious Warmongers for Peace Prize, awarded to such miscreants as Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, and Menachem Begin, the literature award has become a standing joke.
My favorite: In 1974 the committee passed over Vladimir Nabokov and Graham Greene to give the Literature prize to Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson. Who they, you ask? By wild coincidence, they served on the panel that selects Nobel Prize winners! Fancy that.
