Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 Speculation

[Mirabell]

I would also add: Geoffrey Hill, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin, and Jack Gilbert.

Here's Gilbert's "Falling and Flying": Failing and Flying- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More

Robert LOwell, of course, John Berryman, George Oppen, Elizabeth Bishop, Frank Bidart and ASHBERY.

[peter_d]

Just as last year I'd like to put my thoughts about this issue in 2 categories: 1. Who do I hope to win 2. who do I expect to win

1. who do I hope to win (in this order)
Kadare
Nooteboom
Mulisch
Kundera
Ngugi Wa Thiongo
Achebe
Oz
Okri

2. who do I expect to win
An American, someone who writes in Spanish or a poet:
Roth
Delillo
Oates
Vargas Llosa
Juan Goytisolo
Ko Un
Transtromer
Ashbery

The best way of predicting it, is by looking at the Ladbrokes betting list a couple of days before the day it will be anounced. Both M?ller and Le Cl?zio went up to the top of the list in that last few days. Apparently there's someone in or around the committee cashing in on his/her insiders information.

[DWM]

Yet no mention of John Ashberry, or that certain renown Syrian poet who calls by the pen-name Adonis?

Ashbery (it's spelt with one 'r') and Adonis don't appeal to me like the three I mentioned. I believe that Or, Kaplinski and Tafdrup are truly world-class poets who have also worked to make the world a rounder place, and are most deserving of the award. I would only add Tomas Transtr?mer to my list, but as he is of Swedish nationality it's not too likely that he would win.

[DWM]

Robert LOwell, of course, John Berryman, George Oppen, Elizabeth Bishop

These poets are all dead??

[Bjorn]

The Gothenburg Book Fair has an African theme this year, which may not have the slightest influence on the Academy, but it's been about time for a long while. So I'm going to second guesses of Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe... Mia Couto wouldn't hurt either. Of course, it's been so long since it went to any non-European that all bets are off.

[Amoxcalli]

I'm hoping for Kundera, Rushdie or Eco to win the award, although it'd be slightly dubious to award the Nobel Prize to someone who has only written five novels, three children's stories and a whole bunch of academic texts. Personally I'd be really happy to see it go to Kundera.

I'm not that well-read, but judging by what I have read, I wouldn't like seeing it go to Chinua Achebe (read Things Fall Apart and wasn't wow-ed).

Shame Borges is dead. Had he been alive, it'd have been a no-brainer.

[kpjayan]

The Gothenburg Book Fair has an African theme this year, which may not have the slightest influence on the Academy, but it's been about time for a long while. So I'm going to second guesses of Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe... Mia Couto wouldn't hurt either. Of course, it's been so long since it went to any non-European that all bets are off.

I too, would like to see some African writers getting it this time.. Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe, Okri... anyone of them...

Waka waka eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

[Mirabell]

These poets are all dead??

This was explicitly a reply/continuation of mobrien's post, which I took as a set of recommendations for our young waalkwriter. After all, he also listed dead poets (James Merrill).

[Stiffelio]

Shame Borges is dead. Had he been alive, it'd have been a no-brainer.

No brainer for who? Borges lived to be 86 and he was snubbed year after year, only because he happened to be on the wrong side of the political spectrum.

[waalkwriter]

No brainer for who? Borges lived to be 86 and he was snubbed year after year, only because he happened to be on the wrong side of the political spectrum.

I'm sure what he meant was that if Borges were still alive, at age 110, the committee would be hard-pressed to refuse him; because he would have outlived most of the people who disliked him.

I'm skeptical about any man that lives with his mother until he's 80 years old and she dies of enormously advanced age . Speaking seriously, I love Borges short stories, but I've never quite been fully satisfied by anything of his; the stories are so focused on binding barriers, creating vast openings of possibilities, and, like in The Garden of Forking Paths for instance, thousands of alternate realities, that such stories never seem to get around to creating a satisfyingly developed character. Which isn't to say that aren't enormously good and beautifully written.

I do think that is the reason though he really never wrote a novel; he personally knew that his style wouldn't work on a novel-length work and that instead such a story, told as he told stories, would undoubtedly become tedious; which is what I get out of his old statement that he tried to write novels but instead any attempts ended up being short stories.

I feel sort of rude, to be the one out of all these polite people, to say that there are no Asian or African writers that interest me, though I'd be glad to be steered towards one by a surprise selection. Anything to get the Award off it's Eurocentric kick, which it's been in ever since the mid 1990s. I think that's because they spent much the time between 1980-1995 spreading the award around to various major national writers around the world; Wallcott, Paz, Oe, Marquez, etc.

There's a big field this year, and it's pretty open. I still think Amos Oz would be the most relevant selection, and it is good for such literary awards to also try and be relevant to the times. He's got pretty good odds, certainly better ones that Roth. I can't imagine them ever giving it to so mundane a writer, (but then again America's literary society seems to love it's mundane writers), for all their faults at least Pynchon and McCarthy aren't so damned mundane and predictable. I have a good feeling, like this might be America's year, but then again I had that feeling last year and they gave the award to a relatively obscure, activist Romanian writer who was almost unknown outside of the German speaking world, and even there was a 2nd tier literary figure, (prior to the award). So whoever might be able to guess what the hell the academy will do, I am certainly not that person.

[peter_d]

I feel sort of rude, to be the one out of all these polite people, to say that there are no Asian or African writers that interest me, though I'd be glad to be steered towards one by a surprise selection.

Are you saying that people are interested in African writers out of politeness? Is your lack of interest based on just having read Things fall apart of couple of years ago, or on a thorough knowlegde of African literature? Or on what?

Anything to get the Award off it's Eurocentric kick, which it's been in ever since the mid 1990s. I think that's because they spent much the time between 1980-1995 spreading the award around to various major national writers around the world; Wallcott, Paz, Oe, Marquez, etc.

I don't want to be lecturing here, but in memory of my late Spanish teacher who told me to correct people who use Spanish surnames wrong, I need to say that it is Garc?a M?rquez instead of M?rquez. Gabriel is his first name, Garc?a his father's name and M?rquez his mother's name.

[waalkwriter]

Are you saying that people are interested in African writers out of politeness? Is your lack of interest based on just having read Things fall apart of couple of years ago, or on a thorough knowlegde of African literature? Or on what?



I don't want to be lecturing here, but in memory of my late Spanish teacher who told me to correct people who use Spanish surnames wrong, I need to say that it is Garc?a M?rquez instead of M?rquez. Gabriel is his first name, Garc?a his father's name and M?rquez his mother's name.

Really? I hadn't heard of that before. Thank you for the interesting tip. And technically, his fullname is: Gabriel Jos? de la Concordia Garc?a M?rquez.

No, I was saying that some people are promoting that an African or Asian writer win it mainly out of a desire to spread the award around. Which is what i meant by saying I was about to be rude, (so I wasn't intending to imply they were simply being polite). Things Fall Apart wasn't especially impressive either, so I don't know if I'd find Achebe a good winner; that and the fact that he's Nigerian; and Nigeria is the only country, other than South Africa and Egypt, to have a Nobel Laureate in Literature already with Wole Soyinka.

But to wave off all this meandering, I could also add, mainly, that due to my background, the authors I come in contact with are mainly from the Americas and Europe.

[Stewart]

As someone from Scotland, I was just going to mention Edwin Morgan, the Scottish poet, who has a substantial body of work but, as went to his Wikipedia page, I see he died today. How's that for synchronicity?

[DWM]

It's sad to hear of Edwin Morgan's passing. He was one of the most internationally-minded poets and writers not only in Scotland but in the English-speaking world as a whole. He once wrote a very flattering review of my first collection of poems, and I've always been grateful to him for that. He opened the literary horizons of many readers, and his translations of Russian and East European poetry - sometimes into Scots, as in the case of Mayakovsky - were unique and inimitable. I learned a great deal from him, and I'm very sorry that he's gone.

[Elie]

I would love to see Kundera win. But I don't really know if I'm well read enough to make an objective judgement - haven't read anything by most of the writers mentioned here! Anyone care to give me some starting points?

[Bjorn]

I would love to see Kundera win. But I don't really know if I'm well read enough to make an objective judgement - haven't read anything by most of the writers mentioned here! Anyone care to give me some starting points?

That's not a bad idea. We keep coming up with all these names, it would be nice if they came with some actual reading recommendations too? Would make it a bit less of a namedropping exercise, plus maybe by November we'll all have discovered several authors and not just one?

So, say your favourite wins it and someone asks you "Hey, you read a lot, have you heard about this writer, why did they get it?" - which book would you mention? The WLF shouldagottenthenobel reading list. Anyone?

[Eric]

I think our world-travelling Dutchman Peter D has covered most of the big names in the Ladbroke's "Bet on a Nobel Prizewinner" stakes.

Though DWM's mention of Kaplinski is, of course, a name that everyone involved with Estonia will know about as Estonia's most likely candidate. He is a well-received poet and scholar and has recently published a book of prose that has appeared in English. But the Swedes are very cagey about the Baltics for various historical reasons that I have mentioned here all too often. So maybe not Kaplinski.

The Wizard of Oz, not Amir Or mentioned by DWM, could be a candidate - but even left-wing Israelis tend to get boycotted internationally.

Transtr?mer would maybe be a good candidate, but the Swedes really got criticised when the Nobel people gave it to Martinson & Johnson a few decades ago, i.e. people sitting on their own committee.

'Fraid I've never read any Kundera, but that informer business, if true, won't have done him any good. The Nobel people do appear to choose people with a high moral standard.

Maybe Ngugi?

Maybe Vargas Llosa?

Maybe Bei Dao?

Or a Dutchman - the Dutch have never won the prize.

Or someone none of us have heard of.

*

There was an amusing article in the Swedish press this summer about how Peter Englund (I think that's the name), the head of the Nobel-choosing committee, sits on the commuter train reading the potential winners with a false dust cover over the book to avoid detection. How much of a myth this is I don't know.

[Daniel del Real]

And I personally don't think there are that many great poets around today, certainly none important enough or influential enough to warrant the highest literary distinction of all.

For the first time in this forum history I agree with you. I'm sure there are good poets out there, but I don't see the iconic figure truly representative of worldwide poetry that can represent him/herself as a universial poet. There are many poets that I'm sure they're great in their original language but I still think we are missing that universal voice that we can recognize as the grear poet of our generation. These years I've been reading a few of the ones always mentioned to get the prize, among them Ko Un, Adonis, Transtr?mer, Bonnefoy etc. and I haven't found any greatness in any of them. Again I'm basing myself in what I know and what I read, which is probably not enough to have a really serious judgement. Many other guys in here are more aimed to poetry an can give a better approach to this topic.

My perennial favorite is Vargas Llosa. It's about time they awarded the Nobel to somebody writing in Spanish and IMHO Vargas Llosa's body of work is comprehensibly the best among living writers in this language.

I agree about Vargas Llosa's literature. Basing ourselves only in the writing field he should be the one.
In Spanish language, before Vargas Llosas or Fuentes, my bet last year was Spanish writer Miguel Delibes. Unfortunately he diead earlier this year. Though Goytisolo is a good writer and will be strong in the bets, I'd go instead with another Spanish writer, Juan Mars?. Another name that will be appearing in the lists this year is Mexican poet Jos? Emilio Pacheco, last winner of the Cervantes Prize and in my opinion the best living poet in Spanish language.

I think it's time an African writer of Portuguese expression win. Someone like Mia Couto, or Pepetela (you can't get a more political writer than a man who fought in the war of his country's independence). With Saramago recently deceased, we must show the Portuguese is in the hands of a fine generation of writers

As Saramago wrote in his blog a few months ago I'm also a believer that next Portuguese Nobel winner will be Goncalo M. Tavares. He is a really youn writer but he already posess a superb novel and many excellent short stories.
However I'd like to see that happen, with writers like Couto or Pepetela.

[Daniel del Real]

No brainer for who? Borges lived to be 86 and he was snubbed year after year, only because he happened to be on the wrong side of the political spectrum.

Personally I think this is the biggest omission in the Nobel's history.

Speaking seriously, I love Borges short stories, but I've never quite been fully satisfied by anything of his; the stories are so focused on binding barriers, creating vast openings of possibilities, and, like in The Garden of Forking Paths for instance, thousands of alternate realities, that such stories never seem to get around to creating a satisfyingly developed character. Which isn't to say that aren't enormously good and beautifully written.

I do think that is the reason though he really never wrote a novel; he personally knew that his style wouldn't work on a novel-length work and that instead such a story, told as he told stories, would undoubtedly become tedious; which is what I get out of his old statement that he tried to write novels but instead any attempts ended up being short stories.

.

Borges never cared about writing a novel, that is why he never wrote one. He made something more interesting and difficult than create a character as you know/like; he created universes, new langugages and way to communicate, ways to read different worlds and planets, ruptures in time and space and new ideas about philosophy and ancient cultures. You can't judge an enormouse figure like Borges only with your preconceived ideas that a character should be defined like this and like that. You may like it or not, but of course you can't judge something you truly don't understand.

[Daniel del Real]

And who I want to see winning this year:

Isma?l Kadar?
Amin Maalouf (no one had mentioned him before this year)
Juan Mars?
Juan Goytisolo
Ernesto S?bato (hurry because he is 99)
Jos? Emilio Pacheco
Haruki Murakami
Antonio Tabucchi
Amos Oz
Salman Rushdie