Nobel Prize in Literature 2023

Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Ben Jackson said:
Under Grass documentary, a short clip of Engdahl announcing his name and Grass walking on sidewalk (I think it's Berlin) and been interviewed. You can search it on Nobel website.
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So Engdahl got to announce 10 laureates during his tenure as Permanent Secretary.
Hope Malm doesn't last that much.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Papageno said:
Yes, I agree with you and the others 100%. Just for the sake of systematization, I think we can list four distinct ways in which this phenomenon of simplification is manifesting:
(1) just boring unenthusiastic journalists in the audience; why can't we go? We'd create an atmosphere;
(2) Mats Malm, who looks permanently bored. I miss Sara Danius so much. Even though I disagree with the Dylan prize vehemently, one could see that she relishes the excitement she has generated, and that is the true spirit of the Nobel Prize. I also miss Peter Englund;
(3) very generic citations (this has started with Glück, I believe ("for her unmistakable poetic voice" - I mean, would they have given it to someone "for her generic poetic voice?")). what happened to "the cartography of power" or "the landscape of the dispossessed?";
(4) no art on the diplomas! I think it is nothing short of a scandal that they stopped including the artwork in the diplomas, and I wonder why journalists, ever so keen on bashing the Nobel committee, do not press them on that issue. I mean, look at Patrick Modiano's diploma: it is nothing short of a spectacular work of art, in the best tradition of livre d'artiste, an artistic vision inspired by Modiano's work, but which is a work of art in itself... Less than a decade later, his compatriote Annie Ernaux got the generic one-size-fits-all one. I think putting them one by one brings out the contrast.
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Talking about poetry, why do you think they don't award more poets?
 
hayden

hayden

Well-known member
Liam said:
Coz poetry don't sell, ?
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While novels still have more commercial value (can be sold to film studios, franchised, blah blah blah), I've always valued owning a physical poetry collection over a novel. They do something to a shelf that novels don't. I'm cool with returning a novel to the library. Poetry though? Always wish it sticks around a little longer.
 
Papageno

Papageno

Well-known member
alik-vit said:
But almost all of diplomas for scientists keep the paintings.
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You are very right, they kept the artwork for diplomas in Chemistry, Physics and Peace, but for some reason not for Literature and Medicine. Here are some examples that I like very much. I am sure that all Nobel laureates are extremely creative people, but it would seem to me that Literature asks for creativity the most, and it is such a letdown that it is precisely Literature that has the generic diploma.
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Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Liam said:
Coz poetry don't sell, ?
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Is that the real reason? Do you think there really is some sort of pressure from the publishing industry to award novelists?
This could be something going on in current times as only two poets have been awarded in this century while in the 90's alone four were selected.
 
redhead

redhead

Blahblahblah
Daniel del Real said:
Is that the real reason? Do you think there really is some sort of pressure from the publishing industry to award novelists?
This could be something going on in current times as only two poets have been awarded in this century while in the 90's alone four were selected.
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I'd assume poetry sales (or lack thereof...) do have something to do with it, though maybe not in the sense that publishers pressure the SA. More so in what gets attention, and therefore gets translated, and therefore gets international attention. And there also may be fewer people pursuing poetry as a career at the level they're looking for due to economic pressures. There may just be fewer poets on their radar who they'd seriously consider when compared to the past. (This is more of a gut feeling, though, not backed up by stats or anything.)
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
redhead said:
I'd assume poetry sales (or lack thereof...) do have something to do with it, though maybe not in the sense that publishers pressure the SA. More so in what gets attention, and therefore gets translated, and therefore gets international attention. And there also may be fewer people pursuing poetry as a career at the level they're looking for due to economic pressures. There may just be fewer poets on their radar who they'd seriously consider when compared to the past. (This is more of a gut feeling, though, not backed up by stats or anything.)
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I also think that members of the SA read more prose than poetry.
 
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