Nobel Prize in Literature 2009 Speculation

[Clarissa]

That does not make any sense. Do you think they planned for decades to give SOME shoah lit a nobel and planned to do it in the 00's, which is the reason why they snubbed Levi? Levi died in 87, around the time when Kertesz' work gained recognition. From reading the deliberations for some older prizes, I assume his name came up for the second or third time, and enough people were convinced he merited it then and there to give him the prize. Primo Levi can't of entered such a discussion.

Of course I don't think they decided that they should have given the prize to some Shoah writer in the '00s. I do think Levi should have got it before he died in '87. And I still think his If Not Now, When? and If This Is A Man more important and more lasting books than Kertesz's Fateless.Read this in German and prefer the German title Mensch ohne Schicksal.

Levi is in good company with all the possibly greater writers than he was, writers who never got it. Proust, Kafka, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf (at her best when Pearl S. Buck was awarded it), just to name the first few that spring to mind.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Bjorn

To repeat another name I keep repeating every year, Gitta Sereny?

wow I don't know her-

odered a book a moment ago. bastard.

[Clarissa]

Not sure if I would put Gitta Sereny in the Nobel Prize for Literature heavyweight league... Interesting, well written but an important literary figure, not so sure.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Clarissa

Of course I don't think they decided that they should have given the prize to some Shoah writer in the '00s. I do think Levi should have got it before he died in '87. And I still think his If Not Now, When? and If This Is A Man more important and more lasting books than Kertesz's Fateless. Raed his in German and prefer the German title Mensch ohne Schicksal.

Levi died surprisingly. I can well imagine that they wanted to give it to him but then he died. And, again, in consideration of Kertesz' prize it makes no sense at all to compare him to Levi. Time is an important factor.

And Kertesz work is very different from Levi's, with other strengths. A kudarc, translated into German as Fiasko is a masterful meditation on writing about the shoah, writing under a dictatorship, political pressure in a socialist country etc. It's both vaguely jocean (the first third) and kafkaesque (the last two thirds). I jave read no other book like it and thank the academy for bringing this amazing writer to my attention.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

It's a great, great, great book, wonderful, insightful (even though I dislike its politics)

What IS it with you and politics, M?

If I paid any attention to my favorite writers' "politics," I'd have to throw my entire library out the window.


Magris sounds positively captivating, however. Thanks for the info.



Cheers,
L

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Liam

What IS it with you and politics, M?

If I paid any attention to my favorite writers' "politics," I'd have to throw my entire library out the window.


Magris sounds positively captivating, however. Thanks for the info.

Cheers,
L

I read this on the heels of writing two papers on German conservativism (more precisely: the so-called Conservative Revolutionaries), 19th century, early 20th century and leading up to the Shoah and then the continuities in present day German literature (One of my papers was on Bernhard, another writer would be Botho Strauss), so I was heavily aware of tropes and figures and could not refrain from mentioning this.

My blog used to be full of all sorts of snide political remarks then, too.

and um, I am a huge, huge fan of Ezra Pound. Huge. And Paul de Man. Huge. Celine. etc. So, I do disregard that usually. This aside was just due to my preoccupation with Hofmannsthal and others at the time.

[Daniel del Real]

Good times coming! I really missed this speculation thread Stewart, thanks

What we all need to check are the longer droughts that walk aside the prize.
Le Clezio's award last year finished the 22 year drought for a frech writer to get the prize (not taking in consideration Gao Xingjian that for most of experts he is Chinese).

So it leave us the following

a) 18 years without a laureate in Spanish language.
b) 15 years no US writer have won it.
c) 12 years a poet does not receive it

These are the main trends that I identify for this 2009 Nobel.
Who could end them?
this is what is really interesting.

a) Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, Javier Marías
b) Philip Roth, Don de Lillo, Joyce Carol Oates
c) Adonis, Ko Un, Tomas Transtromer.

As you can see always the same names.
There is also important to mention that Horace Engdahl is not Primary Secretary, and this could change things a lot.

I would love the curse for Spanish to end this year, but I don't think this is going to happen. So I'd have to go for option b, US writer.
Who?
Roth is finally going to get it.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Daniel del Real

a) 18 years without a laureate in Spanish language.

Would a Basque writer qualify? D'ya think Atxaga has a chance? He's political enough... It seems the ETA have bombed something yet again, more than 40 people were hurt including children. Why doesn't Spain just give the Basques their homeland? Because I'm telling you, the bombing will NOT stop until they get their country back.

Originally Posted by Daniel del Real

Roth is finally going to get it.

Although personally I don't like him AT ALL, I wouldn't mind seeing Roth take it home. He's a good writer, by all measure, and if some consider him a giant, well then so be it, he's a giant.



L.

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by Liam

Would a Basque writer qualify? D'ya think Atxaga has a chance? He's political enough... It seems the ETA have bombed something yet again, more than 40 people were hurt including children. Why doesn't Spain just give the Basques their homeland? Because I'm telling you, the bombing will NOT stop until they get their country back.

It's hard to see Atxaga as a contender for the prize. Of course he is not going to be proposed by the Spanish committee who always will prefer writers in Spanish and not in Basque or Catalan.
It seems good but I haven't read this guy's works. I don't know if he stands a chance against the heavyweight Spanish writers.
For example.
Miguel Delibes
Juan Goytisolo
Juan Marsé
Javier Marías
Enrique Vila-Matas

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by Liam

Although personally I don't like him AT ALL, I wouldn't mind seeing Roth take it home. He's a good writer, by all measure, and if some consider him a giant, well then so be it, he's a giant.

L.

I'm not a big admirer of Roth's book myself. I've read a couple of them and I liked it but I gotta admit he is not of my favorites.

The ones that I'd jump of joy if they get the prize are:

Haruki Murakami
Mario Vargas Llosa
Carlos Fuentes
Ismail Kadaré
Ernesto Sábato

oh if only Bolaño would still be alive

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by Daniel del Real

Ernesto Sábato

They should hurry up with him,he is close to a 100 years old.
It could be fatal.
I lost alejandra last year,i'll try to find it this summer.

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

They should hurry up with him,he is close to a 100 years old.
It could be fatal.
I lost alejandra last year,i'll try to find it this summer.

I know, he is way too old, he turned 98 this year and it is almost impossible for him to get it. But you know, hope is always there.
It would be fair because he is an amazing novelist and essayist and by the fact that Argentina deserves a Nobel laureate since long time ago. They already ditched Borges, Cortázar and Bioy Casares and I wouldn't like Aira to be the first one.

P.S. Spanish writer and Cervantes Prize winner Franciso Ayala is still alive at 103. Wouldn't be amazing him to get it?

[Omo]

A Dutch writer should finally receive it, so my guess is either Nooteboom or Mulisch. But actually, I don't care much for the Nobel and cannot understand many of their decisions.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Omo

A Dutch writer should finally receive it

Why not a Basque writer, or a Galician writer, or an Estonian/Latvian/Lithuanian writer?

I stand by Pentti Holappa. He's gay, he's Finnish, he's a poet, he's a novelist. Check out his thread, too.

[Not gonna happen, I know...]


Cheers,
L

[My name is red]

Amin Maalouf?

[john h]

Personally, I think Alice Munro deserves it. But she has only worked in the short story. I've yet to see anyone who works primarily in the short story rewarded with a major literary prize. Maybe there have been some but I'm not aware of them. Isn't it about time this novel bias was overturned?

[Funhouse]

Originally Posted by john h

Personally, I think Alice Munro deserves it. But she has only worked in the short story. I've yet to see anyone who works primarily in the short story rewarded with a major literary prize. Maybe there have been some but I'm not aware of them. Isn't it about time this novel bias was overturned?

Um, how about the very same Alice Munro who this year won the Man Booker International Prize? You're right, it is rare, but then so are writers who work primarily in the short story...

[beelzebubbles]

I hesitate to share this, but I would choose Roth not for the literature prize but for the Nobel for medicine. I was in a deep depression and it disappeared after reading a Roth book with a strong Oedipal theme. I was surprised and gratified. Who knew catharsis was something more than a vocabulary word in high school literature courses.

[My name is red]

Originally Posted by beelzebubbles

I hesitate to share this, but I would choose Roth not for the literature prize but for the Nobel for medicine. I was in a deep depression and it disappeared after reading a Roth book with a strong Oedipal theme. I was surprised and gratified. Who knew catharsis was something more than a vocabulary word in high school literature courses.

And could you share which book was it?i'm curious

[beelzebubbles]

Originally Posted by My name is red

And could you share which book was it?i'm curious

Letting Go.