Nobel Prize in Literature 2009 Speculation

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Scott89119

I have read The Appointment. That as well as reading about Muller's other works make me think that she, in the grand scope of world lit., is at least in a similar vein as Jelinek.

The appointment I found a very untypical Müller novel and her gender is the only reason anyone would group her with Jelinek. Boatloads of writers are, cultuirally and stylistically far more similar; Günter Grass (very strongly), Günter Kunert, who I was reminded of reading The Appointment, Maybe even Christoph Meckel.

A nobel for Müller would surprise me because her career is still gaining momentum. Her latest book is her best so far, maybe, but her work hasn't a definite shape yet, I think. Certainly nobel worthy but not now. not yet. Not for this oeuvre.

also, this book of hers, now...they haven't awarded a prize on the strength of a great book just published in ages, I think. they tend, I think, to use recent publications as hints as to when to award the prize but this is her best or one of her best books. i would think it unlikely that they would rush to give her a novel without waiting to see how, with a few year's distance, he work looks now.

but then I'm usually wrong with prizes.

[beelzebubbles]

Don't let these guys intimidate you Scott.

Get in there and starting punching!

If Philip Roth doesn't win, I've always got the Phillies to root for this October.

[Mirabell]

ok here's my last pitch

I want a poet to win so I'll root for one of those four, in this order:

1) Ashbery: best living American poet, insanely influential, does translations, is vaguely cosmopolitan, etc.

2) Adonis: I've got two vols of poetry of his here and that man writes amazing poetry, if the translations are any indication. he's western enough to appeal to the committee, and his name keeps resurfacing

3) Bei Dao: usually Ko Un is the one on all the lists but I have a selected poems from both and suspect that with KO Un lots is lost in translation. I like Bei Dao's work a lot and Ko Un's not. But if I had to bet money one of them it would, sadly, be Ko Un.

4) Tranströmer: yeah well. important, good, etc. He could also die any minute. What with Inger kicking the bucket that's making the whole issue a bit more urgent.

[peter_d]

Wow, this thread is growing rapidly now. Logging in this morning (in Thailand where it's GMT+6) I was 2 pages behind...

My final post before it's all revealed. I stick to my first and previous guessings (although I was tempted to put Herta M. because of the latest posts):

1. Adonis
2. Ko Un
3. Tomas Transtromer

In that order.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by e joseph

Good point Prommy!

I see the clunky nickname has stuck...


Randy must really hate me right about now--




Chill out guys, it's only a stupid book prize,
~ L.

[Scott89119]

Here's just hoping they have selected someone with a distinguished enough ouevre, and not go obscure for obscurity's sake. Then again, for every Szymborska, Kertesz and Xinjian there's a Naipaul, Coetzee and Lessing, so who the hell knows.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by beelzebubbles

If Philip Roth doesn't win, I've always got the Phillies to root for this October.

If Ray Bradbury doesn't win, I will SLIT MY WRISTS--

Originally Posted by beelzebubbles

Don't let these guys intimidate you Scott. Get in there and starting punching!

Girlfriend, you are SUCH a bad influence!!!




~ L.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Scott89119

Here's just hoping they have selected someone with a distinguished enough ouevre, and not go obscure for obscurity's sake. Then again, for every Szymborska, Kertesz and Xinjian there's a Naipaul, Coetzee and Lessing, so who the hell knows.

If Stewart is right in # 423, then Tomas Venclova is our next winner. Is that obscure enough for you? I mean, Tomas WHO?



Cheers,
~ L.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Liam

If Stewart is right in # 423, then Tomas Venclova is our next winner. Is that obscure enough for you? I mean, Tomas WHO?



Cheers,
~ L.

I ordered a selected poems of his in German a few minutes ago. in German translation, that man is astonishing, from what I saw.

[adaorardor]

List of writers I'd be happy for if they won it:

Peter Nadas
Javier Marias
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
John Banville
Fernando del Paso
David Grossman
Carlos Fuentes
Thomas Pynchon
Paul Muldoon
John Ashbery
Peter Handke
Thomas Transtromer

Selfishly, I hope it's someone like de Palol or Laiseca or Jirgl whom I'm currently waiting for a translation of, just so that process gets set in motion or expedited.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

I ordered a selected poems of his in German a few minutes ago. in German translation, that man is astonishing, from what I saw.

Glad us Yanks have snatched him up, then!!!


~ L.

[adaorardor]

Oh, and my prediction for who it WILL be: either Nadas or Fuentes.

[kadare]

I hope that Ismail Kadare will win the Nobel cause he had been a candidate for the last years

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by kadare

I hope that Ismail Kadare will win the Nobel cause he had been a candidate for the last years

With all respect, he most likely has been a candidate, but the facts are, if he hasn't yet been recognised then we won't know for 50 years how close, if at all, he was.

[miercuri]

I really want Philip Roth to win, because people have been rooting for him for ages but with the passing of yeach year it seems that he has less and less chances. If they didn't give it to Updike at least give it to Roth before it is too late, preferably before the 20 year anniversary of Toni Morrison's win.

[Scott89119]

Originally Posted by miercuri

I really want Philip Roth to win, because people have been rooting for him for ages but with the passing of yeach year it seems that he has less and less chances. If they didn't give it to Updike at least give it to Roth before it is too late, preferably before the 20 year anniversary of Toni Morrison's win.

From your lips to God's (or Peter Englund's) ears. In a perfect world Roth would've won it ages ago. However, if he got it in the past maybe we wouldn't have had some of his later masterpieces. It's a paradox.

[Damian Kelleher]

I don't think Updike was ever much of a possibility. Once you get past the sex, what do you have, really? Some nice sentences? Sure, but an awful lot of terrible ones as well. And, as he became older, his work became the discomforting fantasies of a dirty old man. Of course, in the hands of a genius, that could work, but alas.

Roth on the other hand did sex a lot better (and masturbation, let's be honest), and he has proved again and again that he can do more, too. But Nobel worthy? I used to think so, but the more widely I read the less sure I am. Still, I wouldn't be unhappy, and would probably actually be a little chuffed, all told.

Though I do want Kundera or Antunes to win it most of all...

[kadare]

when is the winner going to be announced

[Bjorn]

Originally Posted by kadare

when is the winner going to be announced

13.00 CET (that's 11.00 GMT).

[Eric]

At 13:00 today we will know all. Just to see whether Swedish literary people have got it right, here are what people interviewed by the Uppsala daily Upsala Nya Tidning had to say:

Ola Larsmo (Head of Swedish PEN): He thinks it'll be Assia Djebar; he'd like it to be Don De Lillo.

Ulrika Knutson (author): She hopes it'll be the Belarusian author Svietlana Alexievych.

Ingmar Lemhagen (critic): Tomas Tranströmer.

Birgit Östlund (publisher): Adonis.

Ulrika Larsson (publisher): Suniti Namjoshi.

So that's what they say in university city Uppsala. Maybe they'll all be wrong.