Re: The Nobel Prize
Just let's remember that these 18 Swedes, some of whom are a little too old to be effective arbiters, have to choose from among a vast number of living contemporary authors (they are lucky the rest are dead!), and find someone who crosses the boundaries of nationality and language and has something to say to the whole world.
Given the fact that these Swedish intellectuals don't actually read 25 languages each, the whole process hinges hugely on translation.
Imagine if the Nobel prize had to rely mostly on what is available in English. The list of hopefuls would soon be greatly narrowed down. If about between 25% and 60% of books in many European countries (e.g. Sweden) are translations, and Britain and the USA only have 3% apiece, how on Earth would candidates be judged fairly?
The Nobel judges do, of course, have a network of advisors and people who propose these advisors. These are academics and translators. But again, a process of choice and filtering means that if there is only one leading expert on a particular smallish literature (e.g. for Armenian, Berber or Thai) living in Europe or the USA, that person becomes very powerful and can make or break an author's reputation from any particular language area.
These Swedes on the Nobel committee are not all linguists themselves. And the only foreign language many of them can read is... English. Maybe a few can read German, French or Spanish (and naturally Norwegian and Danish), and there's one man in his 80s who can read Chinese. But English will be the main language they rely on. The very language which tends to ignore translations!
How are they going to make fair global choices? Because the very fact they will probably have to commission translations into Swedish or English slows down the process, and runs the risk of a good writer being excluded by a poor and hastily cobbled together translation of one of his novels, when he's actually written fifteen, only eight of which are Nobel material.
In an ideal world, all 15 of his novels would be examined before any prize is awarded. Does this happen with the Nobel? Once the Nobel judges start commissioning translations of work by a particular author, that very fact is already filtering out dozens of other authors from the competition.
Translation is the kingpin of the Nobel. Let's never forget that.
Just let's remember that these 18 Swedes, some of whom are a little too old to be effective arbiters, have to choose from among a vast number of living contemporary authors (they are lucky the rest are dead!), and find someone who crosses the boundaries of nationality and language and has something to say to the whole world.
Given the fact that these Swedish intellectuals don't actually read 25 languages each, the whole process hinges hugely on translation.
Imagine if the Nobel prize had to rely mostly on what is available in English. The list of hopefuls would soon be greatly narrowed down. If about between 25% and 60% of books in many European countries (e.g. Sweden) are translations, and Britain and the USA only have 3% apiece, how on Earth would candidates be judged fairly?
The Nobel judges do, of course, have a network of advisors and people who propose these advisors. These are academics and translators. But again, a process of choice and filtering means that if there is only one leading expert on a particular smallish literature (e.g. for Armenian, Berber or Thai) living in Europe or the USA, that person becomes very powerful and can make or break an author's reputation from any particular language area.
These Swedes on the Nobel committee are not all linguists themselves. And the only foreign language many of them can read is... English. Maybe a few can read German, French or Spanish (and naturally Norwegian and Danish), and there's one man in his 80s who can read Chinese. But English will be the main language they rely on. The very language which tends to ignore translations!
How are they going to make fair global choices? Because the very fact they will probably have to commission translations into Swedish or English slows down the process, and runs the risk of a good writer being excluded by a poor and hastily cobbled together translation of one of his novels, when he's actually written fifteen, only eight of which are Nobel material.
In an ideal world, all 15 of his novels would be examined before any prize is awarded. Does this happen with the Nobel? Once the Nobel judges start commissioning translations of work by a particular author, that very fact is already filtering out dozens of other authors from the competition.
Translation is the kingpin of the Nobel. Let's never forget that.
