A McArthur grant is not quite the same as a Nobel prize in literature. And for the cultured northern Brooklynite, having as a neighbor a prominent left-leaning documentary filmmaker does not perhaps yield quite the same cachet as having a renowned exiled Soviet writer down the street. But certainly, A documentarian with a McArthur under his belt, like Errol Morris, is a better replacement for Joseph Brodsky than, say, a management consultant.