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

mark s otm

He's written one book I thought was excellent (When We Were Orphans), one I enjoyed despite its flaws (Never Let Me Go). The other two I've read have been two out of the three books I've given up on in the last 15 years (The Unconsoled and The Buried Giant, the latter was almost unreadable).

"who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

I've only read Never Let Me Go. I didn't even know he was on the radar for a Nobel.

I threw Never Let Me Go across the room on two different occasions.

it was a sudden change of plans when tom petty died.

He's written one book I thought was excellent (When We Were Orphans), one I enjoyed despite its flaws (Never Let Me Go). The other two I've read have been two out of the three books I've given up on in the last 15 years (The Unconsoled and The Buried Giant, the latter was almost unreadable).

His rep mainly rests on the 3 books not mentioned here tho

The only novel of his I loved was THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, which is almost at the level of THE GOOD SOLDIER as a novel about ironic withholding of info.

the butler didn't do it

http://mobile.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/forest-whitaker-lee-daniels-the-butler.jpg

I wrote a snarky little article about 10 years ago telling people to put £20 on him getting the nobel because he was the kind of writer who wins prizes. Was thinking just a couple of weeks ago how wrong that seemed now, but, well, good on him. And good intuition, younger dumber me.

God I am no good for this world take me now thanks.

Is it just me or is this not a bit, um, up itself? pic.twitter.com/EjRiT125hZ

— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) October 5, 2017

The only novel of his I loved was THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, which is almost at the level of THE GOOD SOLDIER as a novel about ironic withholding of info.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 5, 2017 2:55 PM (nine hours ago)

yes, this is a perfect book imo. was assigned it in high school (oddly enough) and reread it a couple years ago and thought it held up beautifully. not a single wrong note.

No lit Nobel this year because of a sexual assault scandal

Kanye is going to be bitterly disappointed.

2018: Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk
2019: Austrian writer Peter Handke

They're never going to change, are they?

Lol

They had to give one of these to a woman so they choose someone who has just started being published in English recently. Usually the winners are in some kind of conversation for a long time before being awarded by their weird obscure process. It's just as much of a reveal as Handle's win.

Everybody loves Peter Handke, the Austrian Nobel laureate who likes to explore the periphery and the specificity of human experience! [shortly] We regret to inform you that Peter Handke is Frank Furedi in a vampire mask and will be appearing on the Moral Maze this week

— 1st International Paul Crowther Brigade (@pdkmitchell) October 10, 2019

Hey at least it wasn't the Peace Prize

The Swedes don't really care whether it's published in English or not. She's been translated into Swedish regularly since 2002.

yeah I don't really get xyzzzz's post

we had to read "offending the audience" in high school, good times.

Handke has become an old idiot, but he helped make Wings of Desire, so.

Most of the winners since the 60s have a record of publishing in English and are on that kind of conversation as potential winners as they have been at it for a long time.

That isn't the case for Olga Tokarczuk, whatever her merits. There is something forced about it, given that it's given for the year of its suspension.

Handke isn't getting it for crap like Wings of Desire. It's for his work in the 70s. Some of it is good but I've never been close to really loving it.

You seriously want to define the winners of an international prize with how much they're available in your own culturally narrow-minded language area?

your own culturally narrow-minded language area

new board description

Not about what I want lol. What I'm saying is the Nobel committee are already kind of doing it. They usually give the prize to writers who have a really long track record and are in that kind of literary conversation. And as I said much of their work would've been available in English already. Caveats are that some of the work might be out of print or not yet translated into English.

Maybe the Swedes also access a lot of German translations too but I can't recall anyone looking at the winner and going 'there is no book by this person in English' today.

getting ready for my yearly argument with someone over whether they award the Nobel Prize in Literature for a specific book

Like people are so adamant that Beloved won the Nobel Prize

I'd like to win the Nobel prize for literature.

Slavoj Zizek almost makes me applaud the choice: “In 2014, Handke called for the Nobel to be abolished, saying it was a ‘false canonisation’ of literature. The fact that he got it now proves that he was right. This is Sweden today: an apologist of war crimes gets a Nobel prize while the country fully participated in the character assassination of the true hero of our times, Julian Assange. Our reaction should be: not the literature Nobel prize for Handke but the Nobel peace prize for Assange.”

I like Handke's A Short Letter, Long Farewell a lot but haven't wanted to explore the rest.

Lots of good stuff from him back in the day, The Weight of the World, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, Afternoon of a Writer, but yeah.

great writer

and an even better friend (to slobodan milosevic)

could be a poll: is it cool to give awards to people who have gourmet hot-takes about ethnic cleansing?

The thing is, hasn't he written about that stuff? Isn't it a part of his work?

I shouldn't say anything, I'm reading the Cantos at the moment. Forty impressive and smart poems, and then it ends up being about 'usura' and that it's all the fault of the jews.

Yeah thought he did but that was after I stopped reading

I shouldn't say anything, I'm reading the Cantos at the moment. Forty impressive and smart poems, and then it ends up being about 'usura' and that it's all the fault of the jews.

― Frederik B,

and Martin Van Buren as a character!

And Alexander Hamilton! And I'm sorry, but I'm with Lin-Manuel on this on.

https://pen.org/press-release/statement-nobel-prize-for-literature-2019/?fbclid=IwAR0A6dk7_PsdpY8KlYkAfecVYWW4wETqAjjMyGSIF8nuaNDWbltsF69Rf3s

Holy shit. It's on!

https://live.staticflickr.com/3702/9986624746_c24f8fc0ab_b.jpg

You just have to 🙄 @ those statements above. It's just a total misunderstanding at what the Nobel does and who it rewards. They are not interested in following a line on the politics of literature and they've no incentive to do so. If they did it's unlikely it would have the status it does. No. It has to bring all sides to the table, so it will elevate some marginalised voices now and then.

I wonder if Olga Tokarczuk might reject the award at some point...

The description of the Nobel literally says it's to award an 'idealisk riktning', that is, it's meant to award art in an idealistic direction. Genocide deniers don't really fit that bill. Then again, it was the ones in the Academy who defended the rapist who stayed, so they do like male criminals.

Also, fuck no is Peter Handke marginalised. He literally chose the perpetrators over the victims, and has been praised to the heavens in Serbia for doing so.

Olga Tokarczuk had to have protection because she spoke out about the darker parts of Polish history. Handke was allowed to speak at a state funeral for a war criminal. It's so obscene people think he's the marginalised one, complete moral idiocy.

Idealistic direction is just why we are here. They will point to the body of work (the Nobel is not really given for a specific book).

Lol I am not calling Handke marginalised. I'm saying it will award a writer of colour or a woman, now and then.

What Olga has said so far:

Olga Tokarczuk on winning the Nobel Prize (1/2): "I believe in a literature that unites people and shows us how very similar we are, that makes us aware of the fact that we're all joined together by invisible threads. That tells the story

— Jennifer Croft (@jenniferlcroft) October 11, 2019

I wouldn't care about the prize so much except it came with £740,000.

one year short of the centennial of knut hamsun's nobel prize for literature!