Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 Speculation

[Colonel Green]

Churchill won for his autobiography and for being a great leader during the war. He shouldn't have gotten an award for literature, he should have been given a Peace Prize. I don't consider him a literary figure.

I'm not sure the Peace Prize would really have been appropriate to him (though he did his part, I guess; "in victory, magnanimity" and all that).

As for his literary merit, while he's not really much of an historian (his style was outdated even when he was writing it), as prose it's phenomenally readable, so there's that.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I wonder how LOL-worthy that paragraph of tacky purple prose they use the describe the winner's work will be this year.

Here it goes:

"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values"

Yeah, oratory. Unbeliveable.

 

[Latina]

And Ladbrokes is down. Couldn't they do their maintenance at another time? Maybe it crashed from all the Nobel betting. Who knows. So it is almost time.

 

[Bjorn]

There's an interview with Peter Englund here. Don't have time to translate it, but basically
- he's trying to continue Engdahl's work of making the Academy more open, visible, less mysterious. But he also notes that he won't speak out as publicly about politics and literature as Engdahl - "He doesn't care what happens, haha. He's fearless. I probably choose my words more carefully."
- his biggest fear re: international literature is what they don't see, what they miss out on - "What can be translated? What carries over?" He points out Arabic poetry as being especially difficult to translate and says that "translatability [my bad] is an important criterium for the Nobel". "If we look at all the language areas where we have a firm footing we can find worthy winners, interesting writers etc. But what if a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it?"
- he's worried about the ongoing commercialisation and bestsellerisation of the publishing business, with fewer publishers increasingly controlling fewer retailers, and that it's chiefly translated literature that gets the short end of the stick. (And he complains that it makes Swedes "more insular", which has to be a deliberate choice of words.)
- they have a brand new set of security measures and codes for the Nobel, inspired by his time in the military, which he won't even hint at what they might be.
- some of his current pleasure reading is Georges Simenon and James Ellroy, whom he considers "a master". Now watch Ellroy climb Ladbrokes' list.

 

[Eric]

Hi Hystericals! I've come for my daily dose of adrenalin. What will we do once we know the winner of the Nobel? There'll be nothing more to talk about. We'll all go back to reading unreadable 1,100-page post-comprehensional novels by great American writers.

Amadeus says:

"Eric": You have really NO knowledge of Sweden and Swedes and the Swedish language, do you? But, hey, no one's perfect, eh? Keep it up, chap, someday you may come up with something of value. And no, no, no - "j?v" is not the same thing as "r?v" - LOL!

Hi Mozart! I like to set little traps occasionally to see what people will say. Just for Amadeus' information, I have about 35 years' experience of the Swedish language, speak it fluently and just wanted to fox you. (Get it?) Oh, and by the way, I also live in Sweden. So vet hut as the Swedes say (this means accommodation for veterinary surgeons).

 

[Samuel Johnson]

There is an article about N?stor Amarilla in today's DN. A journalist became really interested in the unknown writer and managed to find mr. Amarilla through facebook to make a brief interview with him. Nothing that we on this forum didn't already know really came from it but the funny part is that the journalist is referring to World Literature Forum and especially the comments made by Bjorn on Amarilla. Seems like you really had a scoop with your information concerning who had created Amarilla's Wikipedia page there Bjorn!

 

[Sevastefo]

highest name now in Ladbrokes: Cormac McCarthy. ...and Peter Nadas has climbed. Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Gerald Murnane are still there.

 

[Eric]

My Sherlock Holmes mind says it is probably going to be Ngugi or, secondly, Transtr?mer.

The fact that someone is publishing an article about N?stor Amarilla today suggests that either there has been a leak making Amarilla the winner, which is unlikely. But there could have also been a leak that Amarilla is not the winner, so the journalist thought he might as well publish the article today, as no one would be interested any more tomorrow. Or it could mean that this DN journalist has been cosying up too much with the Vote For N?stor gang of five groupies, and has been persuaded by their charm and smarm.

Or maybe Axel Bj?rklund is our Bj?rn, because I'm not sure how many people have met our mysterious Stockholmer in person. The photo of Amarilla looks more like Mirabell-Shigekuni who has had a shave. So maybe N?stor Amarilla is a spoof, a non-existent phantom invented on the internet as a joke. But I've said things like that before, and the person turned out to be real.

 

[Eric]

Nobel rumour, gossip, hysteria, and silliness:

Headline in today's AftonExpress (Swedish gutter press tabloid):

IS THIS THE SAME MAN?

No, you don't get a million dollars for guessing, or a free trip to the cobble(r)s of the Old Town of Stockholm. But you never know. These Swedes are devious people. Though I'm sure I'm completely wrong.

N?stor Amarilla?

and

Axel Bj?rklund?

I would say: no, not even with contact lenses. But there's something mighty fishy about N?stor Amarilla.

 

[peter_d]

Hi Hystericals! I've come for my daily dose of adrenalin. What will we do once we know the winner of the Nobel?

We will be busy for some days with either praising the decision of the committee, or (more likely) complaining about what a stupid choice they made, how much they have damaged the good name of the prize, and how urgently this whole structure needs to be reformed... After that the fun is over and we'll have to wait until Juny/July next year.

 

[Bjorn]

There is an article about N?stor Amarilla in today's DN. A journalist became really interested in the unknown writer and managed to find mr. Amarilla through facebook to make a brief interview with him. Nothing that we on this forum didn't already know really came from it but the funny part is that the journalist is referring to World Literature Forum and especially the comments made by Bjorn on Amarilla. Seems like you really had a scoop with your information concerning who had created Amarilla's Wikipedia page there Bjorn!

Heh, cool.

Den ofrivillige l?goddsaren - DN.se

Apparently Amarilla's book is all of 37 pages. In fairness, the journalist claims to like it.

 

[Eric]

Here are some photos of the Nobel candidates for literature. I've restricted myself to the first thirty-five on the Ladbroke list, but you have to guess who they are:

 

[peter_d]

Nobel rumour, gossip, hysteria, and silliness:

Headline in today's AftonExpress (Swedish gutter press tabloid):

IS THIS THE SAME MAN?

No, you don't get a million dollars for guessing, or a free trip to the cobble(r)s of the Old Town of Stockholm. But you never know. These Swedes are devious people. Though I'm sure I'm completely wrong.

N?stor Amarilla?

and

Axel Bj?rklund?

I would say: no, not even with contact lenses. But there's something mighty fishy about N?stor Amarilla.

Well, I can see some resemblance, but I'd also say... no.

 

[Stewart]

Here are some photos of the Nobel candidates for literature

An especially unlikely candidate, that one. A few of his pamphlets were floating around back in April and May: nonsense, mostly.

 

[Eric]

Many people read books by people whose authors they don't recognise from photos. For many years I didn't know what lots of authors looked like, e.g. Anthony Trollope, H.G. Wells, Arthur Bennett, John Buchan, Multatuli, Selma Lagel?f, you name it. So I thought a few serious photos would do the trick and keep us on the straight and narrow for the Nobel tomorrow.

Though I'm sure that Stewart noticed the resemblance to the co-author of that work of fiction "Taking Liberties" which is regarded as one of the more accomplished postmodernist fantasies of recent years.

As for my suggesting a Swedish spoof with Amarilla, it's more likely that someone like Carlos Busqued or some other Argentinian or Latin American writer posed for the larger photo. But the whole N?stor Amarilla thing smells of journo-spoofery in the lead up to tomorrow. In a sense Axel Bj?rklund may have blown it by writing too much, because it would not surprise me if his article on Amarilla is April Fools' Day come early.

Peter D is right. We'll be talking about the winner, whose works we probably haven't read, for weeks to come. "I remember nearly going into a bookshop and nearly buying a copy of..."

 

[Eric]

On a non-spoof note, Ngugi had this to say to Professor of English at Ume? University, Sweden, Raoul Granqvist, in an interview published in the Swedish literary magazine 10-tal (my translation back into English):

Translation is emancipatory if and when it is a question of dialogue. Dialogue presupposes equality between the two participants. Everything else is lecturing, commanding people, and means inequality. A liberating translation is an example of two-way communication, mutual give-and-take, not a process in one direction, whichever direction this may be.

Ngugi is right. For far too long, the English-speaking world has assumed that things written in English have a greater intrinsic value than those written in other languages. The two-way communication that Ngugi mentions has been stunted in the English-speaking world by monolingual knowalls who have dominated university literature departments and have never recognised non-English-speaking authors and academics as full partners in literary endeavour.

 

[adaorardor]

Peter Nadas! Peter Nadas! Pleeeeaase let him win!!!

Or if it's indeed a Spanish-language writer I selfishly hope it's not Fuentes or MVL or del paso (as worthy as all of them are) but rather someone whose work hasn't been translated already but will be because of the Prize. (Laiseca...Marceo Cohen....Leopoldo Maria Panero....)

Or, from this second p.o.v., I would be OVER THE MOON if the Catalan novelist Miquel del Palol won. If I could choose one laureate, it would be him, because his work is so highly respected, supposed to be so brilliant, and reading the book descriptions makes them sound fascinating -- but he hasn't been translated into English at all and without the Nobel probably won't be. In fact, I've read that hsi masterwork, the 5-volume, 1,500-page Troiacord, has been turned down for translation even into Spanish, because the Spanish publishers are scared that if they translate it then he will get the Nobel rather than a Spanish-language writer. Please, Committee, let him get it!!

 

[PerDanielAmadeus]

What about Clara Janes for a Spanish-language poet? Does anyone know more about her?

By the way, what do our Spanish-skilled people think about Gloria Gervitz? Her Whitmanish-Poundish "Migraciones" (?) was translated recently into Swedish...

 

[Sevastefo]

By the way, what do our Spanish-skilled people think about Gloria Gervitz? Her Whitmanish-Poundish "Migraciones" (?) was translated recently into Swedish...

there is a lack of information and recognition of her work. She's a mexican poet of jewish decendent, born in 1945. Among her poetry, the most famous titles are Shajarit (1979), Fragmento de ventana (1986), Yiskor (1987), Migraciones (1991) y Pythia (1993). I don't know how much she has been translated.
she's almost unnoticed, but her works are worth.

 

[Daniel del Real]

Or, from this second p.o.v., I would be OVER THE MOON if the Catalan novelist Miquel del Palol won. If I could choose one laureate, it would be him, because his work is so highly respected, supposed to be so brilliant, and reading the book descriptions makes them sound fascinating -- but he hasn't been translated into English at all and without the Nobel probably won't be. In fact, I've read that hsi masterwork, the 5-volume, 1,500-page Troiacord, has been turned down for translation even into Spanish, because the Spanish publishers are scared that if they translate it then he will get the Nobel rather than a Spanish-language writer. Please, Committee, let him get it!!

I don't want to discourage you about Miquel del Palol, but if he hasn't been translated, not even to Spanish it makes it almost impossible to the Nobel Academy to know his ouvre, even less to read it. I don't think they have a special Catalan translator for them, specially if it's a 1500 page book.

there is a lack of information and recognition of her work. She's a mexican poet of jewish decendent, born in 1945. Among her poetry, the most famous titles are Shajarit (1979), Fragmento de ventana (1986), Yiskor (1987), Migraciones (1991) y Pythia (1993). I don't know how much she has been translated.
she's almost unnoticed, but her works are worth.

Here in Mexico she's practically unnoticed. Actually it's the first time I've heard her name. It'd be really interesting to know what our respective countries are exporting to the world in terms of literature. It's difficult to believe that truly living Mexican classics like Fernando del Paso has most of his works untranslated and someone who is practically unknown like Gervitz have translations already. I'm not saying she is a bad writer, but I don't know the criteria they follow to decide what to translate.