Who Is The Ultimate Culture Game Changer?

HuffPost's Game Changers series celebrates 100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 12 categories who, whether working in the spotlight or under the radar, are changing how we look at the world and the way we live in it. We salute them for their willingness to take risks and question the status quo.

Below, check out the nominees for HuffPost's 2011 Game Changers in Culture.

Voting for the Ultimate Culture Game Changer is now closed. Thank you for your participation!

1 of 7

Jennifer Egan

1 of 8

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Changed the game by: Rethinking time and space in her Pulitzer-winning novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad." Jennifer Egan proved herself a masterful writer long ago with "Look at Me" and "The Keep." Still, for years she felt isolated from the New York literary circle and was left off many "Best Of" lists. Egan finally "arrived" this year with "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which gained her the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and solidified her place amongst the Franzens and Lethems of the literary world. Egan's skillful shuffling of time and place in "A Visit from the Goon Squad" captures the outlook of contemporary America: obsessed with nostalgia and hurling forward into a digital future we don't yet fully understand. The book is already being adapted into an HBO series. Egan's advice for young writers: Ignore those "best of" lists. Must-click: Egan's site (Photo Credit: AP Images)

gadgets/slideshows/227508/slide_227508_997636_small.jpg

Hanging on to America

Making the Case for Historic Preservation: Online Competition Leverages Younger and Would Be Preservationists

gadgets/slideshows/213033/slide_213033_762256_small.jpg

90s Kids: Beanie Babies, WalkMan, Nintendo (VIDEO)

gadgets/slideshows/223099/slide_223099_914057_small.jpg

Dancing Stormtrooper Danny Choo Grooves Around The World (VIDEOS)

Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' Will Be A 'Pornographic Drama' Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg

gadgets/slideshows/221673/slide_221673_889358_small.jpg

Ramiro Saavedra, Kurt Cobain Sound-Alike, Rocks Peruvian TV (VIDEOS)

Changed the game by: Rethinking time and space in her Pulitzer-winning novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad."

Jennifer Egan proved herself a masterful writer long ago with "Look at Me" and "The Keep." Still, for years she felt isolated from the New York literary circle and was left off many "Best Of" lists. Egan finally "arrived" this year with "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which gained her the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and solidified her place amongst the Franzens and Lethems of the literary world. Egan's skillful shuffling of time and place in "A Visit from the Goon Squad" captures the outlook of contemporary America: obsessed with nostalgia and hurling forward into a digital future we don't yet fully understand. The book is already being adapted into an HBO series.

Egan's advice for young writers: Ignore those "best of" lists.

Must-click: Egan's site

(Photo Credit: AP Images)

comments(11)

Total comments: 11 | Post a Comment

1 of 8

Comments

[thereisonlyoneparty]

12:56 PM on 10/13/2011

How exactly did Misters Stone and Parker (along with the guy from the horrid "Avenue Q") change anything?

As far as musicals go "Book of Mormon" is incredibly standard.  It is a traditional musical.

Is it good?  I guess so (have not seen the stage production, but I have the cast album).   But did it change anything?  Not really.

[Loyal Whig]

09:43 PM on 10/09/2011

To be a game changer don't the have to alter the game?

[shylove2]

09:00 PM on 10/05/2011

Permanent war and the warfare state is the only cultural game changer as homeland security and its surveillance and data bases moves into every town and village.

[veelamon]

03:17 PM on 10/05/2011

Somebody can only be a game changer if you've heard of them, and there's two or three that i've not heard of. There again you could say, The best is the one that most people have heard of, if that makes sense. I suppose the real answer in my opinion is this question. Who is known the most, COMMERCIALLY! In this case it would have to be Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Only because South Park is watched by millions all across the world.

[Joshua Kaanaana]

07:24 AM on 10/06/2011

I'm pretty sure you have the concept entirely flipped on its head. Changing the game can occur whether your famous or not. Just look at the little known Barack Obama during the 2008 election campaign and where he came from in his 2004 convention speech. He took the democrats from a so-so strategy of winning an election to a massive one in a matter of months. Then of course there's the people of youtube who changed how we view videos and connect to friend or Mark Zuckerberg; of course you may argue that these are all HUGE people and we've heard them now, but the fact of the matter is, at one point, their projects and talents were vastly unknown and I'm sure that those you haven't heard of may go on to do great things in their own fields. Besides, it's not like Ballet is an american past time, etc; etc;

[thereisonlyoneparty]

02:54 PM on 10/13/2011

Not really.

You do not know who invented the light bulb or developed the vaccine for measles or the people who developed improved agricultural methods and saved billions of people, but those people completely changed the world.

[columbusbuck]

12:44 PM on 10/05/2011

"Book of Mormon" is a shoo-in to win the next Grammy for musical cast album. Only an Oscar stands between Trey Parker and Matt Stone becoming the first EGOTs since Whoopi Goldberg in 2002.

[binq56]

11:29 AM on 10/05/2011

HP seems to think that culture is only what happens in New York. There are wonderful things happening all over America, even the world, that are changing culture. One writer, one architect, a bunch of people at MOMA...? That is what pushes culture? Myopic much?

[DarkTruths]

12:55 PM on 10/05/2011

Agreed. I'm surprised they didn't list The Strokes.

[simonbugatti]

11:14 AM on 10/05/2011

Zaha Hadid is the only person on the list I would think of as a game changer, but she's not really new, she's been doing great things for more than a decade. So your candidates are not enough 2011, and they're too Americentric as well.

[SteveDenver]

10:29 AM on 10/05/2011

All of these nominees have had impact, but Trey & Matt have had the furthest reach that has affected people on a popular level. Their "little cartoon" has taken on incredible issues and introduced new ideas into daily conversation. The wildly successful musical isn't mean, but it's merciless through humor.

I have only watched a handful of Southpark episodes, but I think they win. (Although I'll take the ballet dancer home and soothe his aching muscles.)