Prose generated by LLMs really is just an outright cognitohazard. Like I've seen text from actual people (like Matt Ward) that has the same sort of gnawing insubstantialness to it where reading it feels like its abrading your brain away bit by bit, but with LLMs that's all it does when trying to write stories. Like it overloads it with all these prestige markers of "literary" writing that aren't good to start with when they're being puzzle boxes to hide meaning from the reader as a form of enrichment, but become completely noxious when there's nothing inside them: you don't get a tasty treat of meaning for understanding the reference or symbolism, you just get a over and over because it's a thin skein of stylistic imitation stretched over literally fucking nothing.

I think this says more about how we judge who gets their art funded then anything.

People won't see it that way though.

I would wonder if the judges weren't bribed with a crap ton of money. It's really not out of the question at this point. When you have billions floating around, what is a couple hundred thousand?

I FUCKING LOVE BEING A WRITER