Who will be the next American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

why would it not be Pynchon?

Maybe Vollmann although I don't really believe anyone finishes any of his books. Also, i don't think it would be for a long, long time.

he has written a string of BIG. IMPORTANT. NOVELS. Some even say his best ever. One more could put him over the top. And the last 3 or 4 have all been properly political.

i dont think that's the case but i may be wrong. it's given for a career not a book.

He's invented all those new words.

After him, in order, I would say the most deserving would be Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, Ishmael Reed, John Ashbery,
John Updike.

1) is probably presently younger than 55, and
2) has not yet written his/her key work.

more talk here for people who are bored and need more momus in their life:

Nobel Prize for Pinter

Herta Müller wins this year.

the anonymity of the winners is getting more and more ridiculous

I got a used copy of The Land of Green Plums a few weeks ago (mainly because it was translated by Michael Hoffmann, whom I like) on a bargain bin for a quid!

This looks like a very obvious '20 years since the Berlin Wall fell' thing.

I think its great that they're less well known -- US authors have a high profile already as it is. If anything I need more works from Asia and Africa.

Vollmann's is just a matter of time. Probably not next though.

I got a used copy of The Land of Green Plums a few weeks ago (mainly because it was translated by Michael Hoffmann, whom I like) on a bargain bin for a quid
Yeah, i bought this remaindered a while ago, again because of Hoffman--now I'll actually get round to reading it.

Barack Obama. Yes, his output is small and perhaps not of obvious literary note, but why should that be an obstacle.

I think Mamet will get it at some point, even if his new plays are Sid Caesar sketches.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/04/william-trevor-nobel-prize-literature

Literary Saloon's annual round-up of runners and riders. Fancies Murakami, Goytisolo, Ko Un.

Of course, last time there appears to have been strong disagreement -- the choice of Jelinek -- they announced on 7 October .....

Misread this as Jandek.

'Authors' who have no chance of getting the prize but are listed at Ladbrokes:
Bob Dylan (10/1) (I'm embarrassed even to mention him in conjunction with the Nobel Prize ...)
Andrea Camilleri (50/1)
Herman Koch (66/1)
Jonathan Littell (100/1)
E.L.James (500/1)

really don't think Murakami will win, those odds look driven by mug bets to me

he's definitely one of the ones odd don't give you a read on. think you're probably right - bit too pop, bit too soon.

Nadas has moved to 5/2. That might be something.

'll try one of his short ones but idk it does sound the accrual of simpleton repetition over a long period of time is what gives whatever Fosse does it's power over the reader (besides being a Viking)

I've never tried him bcz the passages I have seen on twitter are very annoying.

― xyzzzz__

... but as you read them, your attention is very quickly turned towards the tender sweetness at the core of all his character portrayals. The style simply supports that.

yeah tbh since the award went to Dylan i kind of believe it’s impossible to take the prize seriously at all

Jon Fosse's Septology is presented as three audiobooks, Parts I-II, III-V, Vi-VII - The Other Name, I Is Another, and A New Name. They don’t seem that daunting to me from a time point of view, but from what I’ve read they are very experimental novels, a single sentence of stream-of-consciousness narration. I like the concept of slow prose - the copying out, recombining, substituting this word for that, and rephrasing that clarifies ideas

He and Can Xue were the two writers who were thought to be most likely to win this year's award, so it's not a surprise

still holding out for Murnane. doubt he gets it, a shame really

since the award went to Dylan i kind of believe it’s impossible to take the prize seriously at all

things you have learned from Bob Dylan

xp I wouldn't call them experimental novels exactly, since that often connotes something difficult, challenging, not about regular storytelling. His style is different and it sounds weird to not have full stops at first but it does not make the novels fundamentally different reading experiences. They are not difficult reads, they deal with people and their emotions in a relatively straightforward way. The style, if anything, makes an attempt at capturing inner monologues more truthfully, more everyday-like, less formally.

since the award went to Dylan i kind of believe it’s impossible to take the prize seriously at all

Pretty out of character for you to have taken it seriously before, table!

It is a good way to make authors from countries that don't get much exposure more popular tho, was a huge deal when Saramago got it.

Yeah it's really not difficult reading at all. The comparisons to Knausagaard are obvious and already made a 100x times, but from what I've read so far there its really operating on a similar level, minus full-stops and autobiography (afaik)

The Nobel prize has been awarded to writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America. It's mostly Europe but still it's been important.

There have been some howlers like any prize and in the last few years it has been mostly easy to predict. Fosse and Ernaux in line with the betting. Michon or Wrinkler would've been more baffling white male Europeans. Want to see media incomprehension.

_since the award went to Dylan i kind of believe it’s impossible to take the prize seriously at all_

things you have learned from Bob Dylan🕸

those who learn nothing from dylan are fated to repeat him

like a rolling stone, perhaps

okay, i am being hyperbolic— i just don’t think he deserved the Nobel, nor do I think he deserves a great majority of the praise he receives. it reads to me as Boomer self-mythologizing, and i am absolutely done with it.

He is one of Jann Webber’s Masters, which is a bigger deal than the Nobel

table fwiw though I love Dylan I totally agree with you - one becayse I think songwriting is a different artform and two because as I see it the only utility of the Nobel is in honouring ppl who haven't gotten as much fame as they deserve and Dylan is obviously not that

Dylan should get a different Nobel every year

Sure why not

Well I, see you got your
Brand new Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Yes I, see you got your
Brand new Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Well, you must tell me, baby how your
Head feels under somethin' that swell
Under your brand new Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Seriously tho, big co-sign with tabes on Dylan, tho I'd probably be a lot more forgiving of the Boomer self-mythologizing if his compositions were even remotely sophisticated, musically speaking

It went out with Mrs. Fiske.

I'll be back to claim it, and soon. That is, if you want me back

dylan doesn't reach the heights of alfred / eric h banter that's for sure

How well does the used vinyl of other Nobel winners sell?

Thanks for your descriptions of the Fosse audio books, Dan S., can see how his approach, as described, might work well in that medium.
Also---the award has been given to playwrights, why not a songwriter with strong lyrics, cultural impact. Someone working away in brave obscurity, maybe political peril would be good--the Plastic People of Prague, perhaps---but fame and other associations shouldn't be a disqualifier (those who thought Roth wuz robbed can't say he was this poor little innocent obscuro).
L. Cohen would have been okay with me, also Arthur Russsell, Sam Shephard (not primarily a songwriter of course, although he did that and fiction and poetry as well as plays), August Wilson.
I nominate Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith, Marilynne Robison (I've only read the Gilead books, but they're enough, and would be even if Alfred were right about Jack), and Elena Ferrante (The Neapolitian Novels are enough).

Patti Smith is worse than Dylan in terms of being overrated. The worst music that a lot of otherwise intelligent and taste-having people supposedly enjoy

I’ve discussed this on the controp music thread— loathe Patti Smith, her poetry is awful, her associations with famous homosexuals doesn’t impress me

Judging by his indifferent reaction, I'm not sure if anyone was more puzzled than Dylan that he won.

Can't remember who but someone on here noted how Tagore is a good example of the kind of poet-composer hybrid that has won the Nobel.

They gave it to a singer once before. Isaac Bashevis?

lol boooo

lol

Patti Smith is worse than Dylan in terms of being overrated. The worst music that a lot of otherwise intelligent and taste-having people supposedly enjoy

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Monday, October 9, 2023

I’ve discussed this on the controp music thread— loathe Patti Smith, her poetry is awful, her associations with famous homosexuals doesn’t impress me

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Monday, October 9, 2023

her music has resonated so much more with me than Dylan's. I don't hate Dylan's music though

that said, I think the Nobel committee should stick to writers, poets, and playwrights, there are plenty of them who haven't yet been acknowledged

*prose writers

fair enough— I also admit that given her near universal acclaim, that part of this is certainly a me problem. I tried, too. I have the vinyl of Horses somewhere. But after a while, I stopped trying. Should probably sell that record!

Patti Smith will never get the Novel, don't worry!

I've enjoyed a fair amount of her music down through the ages, but first encounter was before she started doing that, when she was a music writer, into thee halcylon with Leroi Jones and Richard Meltzer, but not bothering to seem competitive, just calmly inspecting her object from every angle, moving in and out of metaphor and so on.
I haven't kept up with all of her books over the years, but do have a sense from those I've read that she has kept up, maybe gotten better or deeper while she keeps digging, writing every day, preferably in a near-deserted backstreet coffee shop (black coffee, bread, olive oil, notebook, pen, that's it) Writing about travelling around her room, her books, her neighborhood, the world, her head ,incl. memories that finally have to be disclosed, as other contents under pressure become brief prose poems, as she keeps moving: that's in the logbook of M Train, my copy of which is marked on the back, New Content Within Of course.
Laurie Anderson also seems to have gotten closer to the emotional core of her life in ways she can tell, for instance on the album Heart of a Dog (haven't seen the movie) and the posted trove her Norton Lectures, where audio and video are masterful as ever, text is key.

But those are speculations, suggestions----mostly, from being seized by a single deep body of work in each artist's canon, I nominate Robinson and Ferrante.