Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

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Ludus

Ludus

Reader
That sounds amazing, Cleanthess. In Spanish we only have a few books of her in Spanish, with "Flights" about to hit the libraries next month. The spanish publishing world was just too late to recognize her, but her prize should come with new editions of her already published books, like "Un lugar llamado antaño" (Primeval and Other Times, the spanish edition published by Lumen) or "Sobre los huesos de los muertos" (Drive your Plow..., published in spanish by Océano).
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Now, I have a question about the this Nobel committee, and since at the 2019 Nobel thread everybody seems to be quarreling I'm gonna make it here:

In a video posted a few days prior to the announcement, the president of the Nobel Committee, Anders Olsson stated that they selected a shortlist of eight, accepted by the Academy who read their ouvre extensively during the summer. First meeting after would be to vote and decide two winners from that list. In the same video, Olsson said this new Committee wanted to expand their scope to more women and avoid being so euro-centric.

After the annoucement, same Olsson contradicted himself saying the Nobel Committee presented the two now laureates and the Academy accepted the proposal. Even a question came later about how do they feel with the new role of the Academy just stamping a decision previously made.

Now this questions comes to mind as the same process will repeate next year as the same Nobel Committee is set to work for the 2020 Nobel Prize.
If the second statement is the real one, then it makes no sense telling they wanted more women and more non-european candidates, otherwise they would have proposed two with the same characteristics.

Anyway, here are the names for the Committee who will work their third and final year in 2020

www.nobelprize.org

The Nobel Committee for Literature

The Nobel Committee for Literature at the Swedish Academy is responsible for the selection of candidates for the literature prize from the names submitted for consideration by qualified nominators, who […]
www.nobelprize.org www.nobelprize.org
 
U

Uemarasan

Reader
My best guess is that the shortlist contains more women and more non-European candidates but that Handke in particular had been seriously considered for a while. It seems quite likely that next year a non-European will be awarded.

What I found funny is the contrast between the general reaction of Tokarczuk winning this year and that of Muller winning in 2009. With Tokarczuk, it’s “yes! a woman!” yet with Muller it was “Herta who???” It’s as if no one even cares about the actual literature now and only the gender and cultural background of the writer...
 
S

spacepirate

Reader
Uemarasan said:
What I found funny is the contrast between the general reaction of Tokarczuk winning this year and that of Muller winning in 2009. With Tokarczuk, it’s “yes! a woman!” yet with Muller it was “Herta who???” It’s as if no one even cares about the actual literature now and only the gender and cultural background of the writer...
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Jesus you do have a bitter way of dragging politics into every thread, regardless don't you? Handke being a genocide apologist can never be political; Olga being a woman must be political. The hypocrisy is ridiculous. Are you so desperate for someone to say: Olga's work is shit and she only won because she's a woman? Is that the validating contrarian response you are gagging for?

People are celebrating Olga's win because, obviously, she is more well known in the Anglophone world than Herta Muller. It's really not difficult. It is fully within our intellectual and cultural capacity to care both about Olga's literature as well as her important position as one of the few women Nobel laureates. It's almost as if ... the art and the artist is somehow related?! What a radical concept...
 
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Ludus

Ludus

Reader
spacepirate said:
Jesus you do have a bitter way of dragging politics into every thread, regardless don't you? Handke being a genocide apologist can never be political; Olga being a woman must be political. The hypocrisy is ridiculous. Are you so desperate for someone to say: Olga's work is shit and she only won because she's a woman? Is that the validating contrarian response you are gagging for?

People are celebrating Olga's win because, obviously, she is more well known in the Anglophone world than Herta Muller. It's really not difficult. It may surprise you to understand that we can both care about Olga's literature as well as her important position as one of the few women Nobel laureates. It's almost as if ... the art and the artist is somehow related?! What madness...
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Well, I've seen an awful lot of people in Facebook saying just that, that she is not a deserving writer because she is a woman and the scandals "forced" the Academy to give the prize to any female author, trying to fill a gender quota... This people, obviously, have never read Tokarczuk. This people are, of course, shit heads.
 
U

Uemarasan

Reader
spacepirate said:
Jesus you do have a bitter way of dragging politics into every thread, regardless don't you? Handke being a genocide apologist can never be political; Olga being a woman must be political. The hypocrisy is ridiculous. Are you so desperate for someone to say: Olga's work is shit and she only won because she's a woman? Is that the validating contrarian response you are gagging for?

People are celebrating Olga's win because, obviously, she is more well known in the Anglophone world than Herta Muller. It's really not difficult. It may surprise you to understand that we can both care about Olga's literature as well as her important position as one of the few women Nobel laureates. It's almost as if ... the art and the artist is somehow related?! What madness...
Click to expand...

Oh please, stop putting words in my mouth. I already said I enjoy her writing and she deserves the Nobel. I thought it was an excellent choice made on the strength of her work alone.

Never said that about Handke. Never said that about Tokarczuk.

Are women just as deserving of Nobels? Yes. Are non-Europeans? Yes. Are there people who only like Tokarczuk because she’s a female writer? Yes. Are there people who only like Tokarczuk because she’s a fine writer? Yes. All that I’m saying is that there are probably people out there who don’t really care about her writing but only care that she is a woman, especially in our current cultural climate, and especially in the media.

Jesus.
 
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Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
Ludus said:
This is extremely funny and awfully cruel at the same time
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Yeah... I laughed at first, but then I felt bad for him... Especially since I'd like him to actually win the prize. Just don't know what the academy would do in his case. Make it clear that it's to banville and not Benjamin Black?

At least he took it lightly?
 
Ater Lividus Ruber & V

Ater Lividus Ruber & V

我ヲ學ブ者ハ死ス
Daniel del Real said:
Now, I have a question about the this Nobel committee, and since at the 2019 Nobel thread everybody seems to be quarreling I'm gonna make it here:

In a video posted a few days prior to the announcement, the president of the Nobel Committee, Anders Olsson stated that they selected a shortlist of eight, accepted by the Academy who read their ouvre extensively during the summer. First meeting after would be to vote and decide two winners from that list. In the same video, Olsson said this new Committee wanted to expand their scope to more women and avoid being so euro-centric.

After the annoucement, same Olsson contradicted himself saying the Nobel Committee presented the two now laureates and the Academy accepted the proposal. Even a question came later about how do they feel with the new role of the Academy just stamping a decision previously made.

Now this questions comes to mind as the same process will repeate next year as the same Nobel Committee is set to work for the 2020 Nobel Prize.
If the second statement is the real one, then it makes no sense telling they wanted more women and more non-european candidates, otherwise they would have proposed two with the same characteristics.

Anyway, here are the names for the Committee who will work their third and final year in 2020

www.nobelprize.org

The Nobel Committee for Literature

The Nobel Committee for Literature at the Swedish Academy is responsible for the selection of candidates for the literature prize from the names submitted for consideration by qualified nominators, who […]
www.nobelprize.org www.nobelprize.org
Click to expand...

I also found this puzzling. Why make the video if you're going to directly contradict yourself a couple of days later?

Lugn, who is apart of the Committee, told the press in 2018 that they had already chosen a candidate, and the prize wouldn't be cancelled. Of course, it was. Who was the author? Handke? Tokarczuk? Someone else? Did the Academy members of the Committee push for certain authors? All very oblique and a strong contrast from that diaphanous behavior they were going for. I wish they had better reporters in audience. That last person's question about prize money about summed up the quality.

Bartleby said:
One thing I didn’t like about this announcement was the utter indifference of the press. Not even a sound when the names, both of them, were pronounced. I love it when there’s a passionate reaction, like there was when Lessing, Tranströmer and Dylan were awarded.
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After Dylan got the prize and the fallout that ensued, they officially banned the press from making such ejaculations. A pity.
 
U

Uemarasan

Reader
I thought this was interesting with regard to the reception of her work within Poland and without:

Because travel is a very multifaceted phenomenon, there are different aspects of travel that can pique readers’ interest. Apart from the fact that a full decade separated Flights’ initial Polish publication and that of its English translation, during which the anti-immigrant right has grown in power on both sides of the Atlantic, the fact that Polish and Anglophone reviewers have emphasized different aspects of the novel likely results from cultural differences. As both Britain and the United States are multicultural societies, the anti-nationalist and anti-racist flair of the book is more relevant than in Poland, which, while experiencing a growth in immigration in recent years, is still largely a homogenous society (and was even more homogenous in 2007). Furthermore, Polish reviewers’ greater attentiveness to the metaphysical and quasi-religious accents is probably a reflection of the fact that rates of religious observance are higher and Poland, and so Polish reviewers are naturally more interested in the transcendent.

 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Ater Lividus Ruber & V said:
I also found this puzzling. Why make the video if you're going to directly contradict yourself a couple of days later?

Lugn, who is apart of the Committee, told the press in 2018 that they had already chosen a candidate, and the prize wouldn't be cancelled. Of course, it was. Who was the author? Handke? Tokarczuk? Someone else? Did the Academy members of the Committee push for certain authors? All very oblique and a strong contrast from that diaphanous behavior they were going for. I wish they had better reporters in audience. That last person's question about prize money about summed up the quality.



After Dylan got the prize and the fallout that ensued, they officially banned the press from making such ejaculations. A pity.
Click to expand...

I can understand why they didn't award a Non-european female in the first case. They handed the Swedish Academy a shortlist of 8 authors with this carachteristics in its majority, let's say 5 non-european females and 3 european writers; despite ther larger number of the first mentioned the Academy decided to award 2 of the 3 european proposed. That makes sense.

But if it happened as they mentioned at the announcement ceremony, with the Nobel Comittee presenting those two names and only those two names to the Academy, and they approved the proposal, then what was the purpose of that stupid video by Anders Olsson?
 
Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
Daniel del Real said:
I can understand why they didn't award a Non-european female in the first case. They handed the Swedish Academy a shortlist of 8 authors with this carachteristics in its majority, let's say 5 non-european females and 3 european writers; despite ther larger number of the first mentioned the Academy decided to award 2 of the 3 european proposed. That makes sense.

But if it happened as they mentioned at the announcement ceremony, with the Nobel Comittee presenting those two names and only those two names to the Academy, and they approved the proposal, then what was the purpose of that stupid video by Anders Olsson?
Click to expand...
I think the shortlist was there since July or so, and from those 8 they, the committee, since the academy in general seems to have little say in this, chose these two from the shortlist, and presented them to the whole academy for them to "approve" the laureates.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Bartleby said:
I think the shortlist was there since July or so, and from those 8 they, the committee, since the academy in general seems to have little say in this, chose these two from the shortlist, and presented them to the whole academy for them to "approve" the laureates.
Click to expand...
So they presented a shortlist of eight with special emphasis on two, and the Academy said, yeah yeah, go ahead?
Sometimes I think we over estimate what the Svenska Akadimen do.
 
Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
Daniel del Real said:
So they presented a shortlist of eight with special emphasis on two, and the Academy said, yeah yeah, go ahead?
Sometimes I think we over estimate what the Svenska Akadimen do.
Click to expand...
No, I think it's happened kind of what it always did. They came up with the shortlist without knowing just then who they're choosing, then they read the eight author's works and among themselves, that is, the committee, they voted for the two, later presenting them to the academy for "approval".
 
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