Nobel Prize 2011

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Nobel Prize 2011; well?
Topic Started: Jul 24 2011, 07:57 AM (11,632 Views)
Canox	Jul 24 2011, 07:57 AM Post #1
onefatman/mirabell Posts: 7,354 Group: Members Member #2,508 Joined: July 13, 2008	any suggestions? the usual suspects would be munro, oz, roth or the usual poet favorites like ashbery, bei dao, les murray, mayröcker or ko un. tranströmer has died. rita dove has been nominated this year, but doesn't stand a chance.



Clarissa	Jul 24 2011, 08:38 AM Post #2
Literary lunatic Posts: 136 Group: Members Member #4,728 Joined: July 5, 2011	Mayröcker lost it to Herta Müller - doubt if a German writing female has a chance this year. Philip Roth is too much of a 'bestseller',not obscure enough. For my money, I think Tom Stoppard would be a more than worthy candidate but doubt if he has any hope. Still, I consider him the most intelligent, best playwright alive today.



Canox	Jul 24 2011, 08:50 AM Post #3
onefatman/mirabell Posts: 7,354 Group: Members Member #2,508 Joined: July 13, 2008	Clarissa Jul 24 2011, 08:38 AM Philip Roth is too much of a 'bestseller',not obscure enough. Pamuk won, Pinter won, Lessing won, Grass won...



Thomas Hounds	Jul 24 2011, 09:03 AM Post #4
Apprentice Sith Lord Posts: 1,265 Group: Members Member #4,719 Joined: June 22, 2011	Clarissa Jul 24 2011, 08:38 AM Mayröcker lost it to Herta Müller - doubt if a German writing female has a chance this year. Philip Roth is too much of a 'bestseller',not obscure enough. For my money, I think Tom Stoppard would be a more than worthy candidate but doubt if he has any hope. Still, I consider him the most intelligent, best playwright alive today. Moreso than Edward Albee? In any case, my early money's on Adonis. And more than deserving. I hope it would lead to some more thorough, translated editions of his work appearing in English.



Canox	Jul 24 2011, 09:04 AM Post #5
onefatman/mirabell Posts: 7,354 Group: Members Member #2,508 Joined: July 13, 2008	Thomas Hounds Jul 24 2011, 09:03 AM Clarissa Jul 24 2011, 08:38 AM Mayröcker lost it to Herta Müller - doubt if a German writing female has a chance this year. Philip Roth is too much of a 'bestseller',not obscure enough. For my money, I think Tom Stoppard would be a more than worthy candidate but doubt if he has any hope. Still, I consider him the most intelligent, best playwright alive today. Moreso than Edward Albee? In any case, my early money's on Adonis. And more than deserving. I hope it would lead to some more thorough, translated editions of his work appearing in English. true. forgot adonis on my list of usual poet suspects.



Thomas Hounds	Jul 24 2011, 09:14 AM Post #6
Apprentice Sith Lord Posts: 1,265 Group: Members Member #4,719 Joined: June 22, 2011	Canox Jul 24 2011, 09:04 AM Thomas Hounds Jul 24 2011, 09:03 AM Clarissa Jul 24 2011, 08:38 AM Mayröcker lost it to Herta Müller - doubt if a German writing female has a chance this year. Philip Roth is too much of a 'bestseller',not obscure enough. For my money, I think Tom Stoppard would be a more than worthy candidate but doubt if he has any hope. Still, I consider him the most intelligent, best playwright alive today. Moreso than Edward Albee? In any case, my early money's on Adonis. And more than deserving. I hope it would lead to some more thorough, translated editions of his work appearing in English. true. forgot adonis on my list of usual poet suspects. i think it's finally his year for a combination of factors that will be playing heavily in the minds of the Academy. One is that, unless my counting is wrong, they've only awarded 3 non-Europeans over the last 13 years. They haven't awarded an Arab Writer since Mahfouz. Regardless of what some folks say, the Academy does give some consideration to the use of the award as a method to bring attention to other literary cultures, and the Arab literary scene is so under-represented and relatively unknown. Two, the Nobel Committee also has a desire to be relevant, and what with the Arab Spring dominating this year in a way that will likely be covered in the history books fifty years from now, a writer like Adonis, with his specific views and background, has to look very tempting. Three, they, understandably, tend towards older writers, a career achievement sort of award; why many people were upset that Muller and not Kundera got it in 2009. Four, the Nobel Committee tries to be unpredictable if they can. For that reason I don't see a McCarthy or Roth or Eco award happening anytime soon. Adonis seems quite intriguing, but woefully unavailable online, and without much out there in terms of published English translations. About all I can find of his online is: Quote: I release the earth and I imprison the skies. I fall down in order to stay faithful to the light, in order to make the world ambiguous, fascinating, changeable, dangerous, in order to announce the steps beyond. The blood of the gods is still fresh on my clothes. A seagull's scream echoes through my pages. Let me just pack up my words and leave. Which is itself only an excerpt from his larger work "The Edge of the World". A stunning excerpt at that. I want to see Adonis win if only to bring more of his work into critical study and make him more accessible to English speakers. I want to see his Arab perspective of the world, and his poetic traditions and Arabic cultural background.



Thomas Hounds	Jul 24 2011, 09:19 AM Post #7
Apprentice Sith Lord Posts: 1,265 Group: Members Member #4,719 Joined: June 22, 2011	He also recently won the Goethe prize. Here's an excerpt of another poem of his, titled "The Funeral of New York" (written in 1971) Picture the earth as a pear or breast. Between such fruits and death survives an engineering trick: New York, Call it a city on four legs heading for murder while the drowned already moan in the distance. New York is a woman holding, according to history, a rag called liberty with one hand and strangling the earth with the other.



Clarissa	Jul 24 2011, 10:56 AM Post #8
Literary lunatic Posts: 136 Group: Members Member #4,728 Joined: July 5, 2011	Adonis - might be tricky because the Nobel Committee migh be afraid of being thought partisan, considering the state of affairs in Syria, where the upheaval is much more violent than in Morrocco, Egypt or Tunisia, where political life is still trying to find a viable solution. Or perhaps, for that very reason, a 'politically correct' choice. I must add that I was grateful to the Nobel Committee when they gave the prize to Mahfouz. Thanks to them, I discovered a magnificent writer. Yes, I do think Stoppard is a better playwright than Albee, more timeless, more intelligent and, possibly also, more challenging. But 'one man's meat... ' Quote: Pamuk won, Pinter won, Lessing won, Grass won - all European and, other than Lessing perhaps, not at all in the same world bestseller league as Roth. Even Lessing did not find it easy to find a US publisher for many years. Even after The Golden Notebook, her agent had to fight to get a publisher even to consider her work. 'Not commercial', the dreaded US criterion. Guess she never was a Dan Brown. I think they will pass on Kundera again... Frankly, his later books written directly in French, are not as good as the ones he wrote in Czech. In my own humble opinion. And why Amos Oz and not David Grossman? Because Oz is the better known? Find them equal in their subject matter and the quality of their writing (read in translation).



oneofmurphysbiscuits	Jul 24 2011, 11:19 AM Post #9
marmalade modernist Posts: 10,437 Group: Members Member #381 Joined: April 15, 2007	I think there was a time when Stoppard was prepared to trust to his intelligence, sadly i think that times long gone. You'll sometimes see intimations of, as in parts of "the coast of Utopia" but it's a rarity, and too often he'll go for the cheap and easy, annd reactionary, laugh



Martstar	Jul 24 2011, 11:48 AM Post #10
Slow Learner Posts: 346 Group: Members Member #8 Joined: November 20, 2006	If the recipients over the period when I've actually been paying attention are any indication, it will likely be a writer I've never heard of, writing in a language other than English, whose books won't immediately interest me, and who I'll eventually feel like an insular, dull-headed American for passing over in order to read more books by old/dead white men. Or it might be Bob Dylan.



Thomas Hounds	Jul 24 2011, 11:52 AM Post #11
Apprentice Sith Lord Posts: 1,265 Group: Members Member #4,719 Joined: June 22, 2011	Martstar Jul 24 2011, 11:48 AM If the recipients over the period when I've actually been paying attention are any indication, it will likely be a writer I've never heard of, writing in a language other than English, whose books won't immediately interest me, and who I'll eventually feel like an insular, dull-headed American for passing over in order to read more books by old/dead white men. Or it might be Bob Dylan. Le Clezio is well worth reading. Pinter's plays are well-worth watching. Etc.



Thomas Hounds	Jul 24 2011, 11:55 AM Post #12
Apprentice Sith Lord Posts: 1,265 Group: Members Member #4,719 Joined: June 22, 2011	Clarissa Jul 24 2011, 10:56 AM Adonis - might be tricky because the Nobel Committee migh be afraid of being thought partisan, considering the state of affairs in Syria, where the upheaval is much more violent than in Morrocco, Egypt or Tunisia, where political life is still trying to find a viable solution. Or perhaps, for that very reason, a 'politically correct' choice. I must add that I was grateful to the Nobel Committee when they gave the prize to Mahfouz. Thanks to them, I discovered a magnificent writer. Yes, Mahfouz is one of the best choices they ever made, one of the great writers they chose period, and one the English-speaking world would have little acquaintance with if not for the Award. Adonis hasn't lived in Syria since he was jailed for belonging to a leftist party in the 1950s. I believe he lives in France now. Could be in Lebanon. I think he has sufficient distance to avoid immediate controversy, and only benefits from the "politically correct" factor.



Clarissa	Jul 24 2011, 12:01 PM Post #13
Literary lunatic Posts: 136 Group: Members Member #4,728 Joined: July 5, 2011	What I meant with my remark about Adonis, the noble gentlemen of the Nobel Committee might be afraid of an Islamic backlash because of seeming to 'take sides'. 'Politically correct' on the one hand, possibly partisan on the other. All the more so with the Norwegian news of the moment... The general first reaction was Islamic Fundamentalists... Even if that did turn out to be wrong, thank goodness. Proof that the extreme Right Wing is alive and well - and extremely dangerous.



Jacek	Jul 24 2011, 11:20 PM Post #14
Deathwalker Posts: 1,459 Group: Members Member #4,514 Joined: December 10, 2009	Canox Jul 24 2011, 07:57 AM tranströmer has died. Is that so? I haven't heard anything about it, nor does a cursory search yield any such news.



Deleted User	Jul 25 2011, 07:31 PM Post #15
Deleted User	I don't think he's dead. M must be drunk, or high, or both.
Deleted User


Jayaprakash	Jul 26 2011, 07:46 AM Post #16
Literary lunatic Posts: 897 Group: Members Member #4,723 Joined: June 30, 2011	As always, my money's on James Havoc.



byrd9999	Jul 26 2011, 04:56 PM Post #17
byrd is the wyrd Posts: 1,157 Group: Members Member #4,492 Joined: August 11, 2009	I'm going to back Philip Roth until he dies (which seems likelier than him winning). If he was any nationality other than American he would have won by now.



Jayaprakash	Jul 26 2011, 09:36 PM Post #18
Literary lunatic Posts: 897 Group: Members Member #4,723 Joined: June 30, 2011	It's okay. Americans have special weird things they go to and meet each other.



Canox	Jul 29 2011, 04:42 AM Post #19
onefatman/mirabell Posts: 7,354 Group: Members Member #2,508 Joined: July 13, 2008	Jacek Jul 24 2011, 11:20 PM Canox Jul 24 2011, 07:57 AM tranströmer has died. Is that so? I haven't heard anything about it, nor does a cursory search yield any such news. yeah he's not dead. no idea why I though he was. last year everyone was sure Ngugi wa Thiong'o would get it. This year, maybe?



Canox	Jul 29 2011, 04:48 AM Post #20
onefatman/mirabell Posts: 7,354 Group: Members Member #2,508 Joined: July 13, 2008	byrd9999 Jul 26 2011, 04:56 PM I'm going to back Philip Roth until he dies (which seems likelier than him winning). If he was any nationality other than American he would have won by now. I don't think he would have the stature and readership he has if he wasn't American.

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