Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 Speculation

[Stiffelio]

Would it be some kind of madness to think Mario Bellatin as a winner (maybe not now but in some years)?

If he keeps up his level of writing it's possible in thr future. After all they gave it to more bizarre writers (eg. Fo, Jelinek) so why not! But I would chose César Aira much sooner than Bellatin. With his writing, Aira is designing a new literary theory (the so called 'flight forward and never look back' story telling technique) which is quite unique and is already being studied by scholars. Some day the word will get to Stockholm.

[Eric]

The Wikipedia article about Clarice Lispector says:

Clarice attended the Colégio Hebreo-Idisch-Brasileiro, which taught Hebrew and Yiddish in addition to the usual subjects.

Maybe they've got it wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lispector, a diplomat's wife for a while, smoothed over her clearly Jewish background as there was, and still is, a lot of anti-Semitism around.

As for cranks winning the Nobel, I hope the historian chairman of the Nobel committee continues a sober appraisal of potential winners. I agree that Fo and Jelinek were maybe quirky choices.

[Flint]

Supposing they told me No way, the Prize this year is not going to any English writer (you know my preferred candidate is Londoner Michael Moorcock), it's going to be an American, then these are some names I'd put forward: Cormack McCarthy, Richard Ford, Don DeLillo, Lorrie Moore (I can think of some more, but ...) .

[Eric]

OK, Michael Moorcock is English in the "British passport" sense of the word, but all the other people you recommend write in the English language. Have you not yet discovered authors whose works were written in other languages? And if the Wikipedia is telling the truth, Lorrie Moore has only written three novels. You don't get the Nobel on the strength of that sort of limited performance.

[Flint]

Re Michael Moorcock:
Michael Moorcock was born in London, has lived in London the greatest portion of his life, has written a number of fiction works featuring English characters and English settings. If that's not an English writer, who is?
You have nothing to say about the possibility of awarding the Nobel Prize to a (mainly) genre writer? You have nothing to say about Moorcock's (alleged) magic realism in Mother London? You can only comment on writers' place of residence? That makes for rather poor literary debate.

Re Lorrie Moore:
Who says how many novels an author needs to have written in order to be eligible for the Nobel Prize? Couldn't the Prize be given to a short-story writer? (Would it have been an injustice if the Prize had been awarded to John Cheever who mostly wrote short fiction?)

Conclusion regarding Moorcock and Moore:
May I suggest, no offence meant, that you restrict your opinions to books you have read, and refrain from passing judgement based on Wikipedia? You know, reading an author's work (usually) helps to understand it.

You appear to object to my recommending authors who "write in the English language". Whatever is wrong with that?

With regard to whether I have "yet discovered authors whose works were written in other languages", I find this a rather impertinent question. The fact that somebody's favourite authors write or have written in English does not imply a lack of knowledge of other literatures. If you had had the courtesy to pay some attention to the posts I have written in this forum before asking this you would have noticed I have mentioned (and read) authors whose language is Spanish (Vargas Llosa, Goytisolo) or Portuguese (Pessoa, Saramago, Lobo Antunes). How many languages I know, how many literatures I am familiar with, and why I choose to mention some of them and not others is precisely that, my choice, and I don't think I have to give explanations to anyone about it.

You, on the other hand, strike me as having a rather inadequate knowledge of literature in English. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that you insist on discussing and giving opinions on something you seem to know very little about. Why don't you just talk about what you know? And if that means keeping quiet sometimes, so much more time you're going to have to do some reading. I think you need it.

[Eric]

I think a book about trolls should win the Nobel, preferably written in Esperanto, rather than English.

[Bubba]

That would be awesome. He's a truly inventive of the genre, always trying to explore new options and possibilities in his very brief novels/divertimentos. He works in a way similar to Cesar Aira, producing many short novels that when put together create a very experimental but strong corpus of fiction. Personally I like him better than Aira.

I've read very little of either, but I prefer Bellatín to Aira, too. There seems to be real emotion in Bellatín's work. Aira, on the other hand, I often find tiresome. Bolaño did, too. He said of Aira's work that it's "mostly just boring." Needless to say, they don't put that quote on the back covers of Aira's books!

[Liam]

Bolaño did, too.

What happens if you don't like Bolaño?

[maidenhair]

Aira, on the other hand, I often find tiresome. Bolaño did, too. He said of Aira's work that it's "mostly just boring." Needless to say, they don't put that quote on the back covers of Aira's books!

Surely you have a reference for this quote? Because this sounds different:
“Once you've started reading Aira, you don't want to stop.”
— Roberto Bolaño on César Aira
from
http://ndbooks.com/author/roberto-bolano

[Flint]

I think a book about trolls should win the Nobel, preferably written in Esperanto, rather than English.

If you think there are trolls in this forum, you should report them to the moderator or administrator so they are banned.

[Flint]

What happens if you don't like Bolaño?

Nothing happens.

[Liam]

What I meant was, If you don't like Bolaño, should you really care about the fact that he found Aira's style tiresome?

[Flint]

What I meant was, If you don't like Bolaño, should you really care about the fact that he found Aira's style tiresome?

One thing does not necessarily have a lot to do with the other: you can not like an author's fiction and nevertheless take his literary criticism seriously.

For example, I'm not very enthusiastic about Vargas Llosa's recent fiction (actually I only really like his very early fiction), but I think his essay on Madame Bovary (The Perpetual Orgy) is very good.

Another example: I don't think much of Martin Amis as a fiction writer, but I find his literary criticism intelligent (in spite of the occasional 'boutades').

[Eric]

A piece of Nobel speculation from my local paper Upsala Nya Tidning, the Uppsala daily:

Maybe the publishing house [Norstedts, one of the two biggest Swedish ones] is preparing for the Nobel Prize when they publish, at the same time, two books by the major Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

I'm sure that the journalist writing that (Cristina Karlstam) has no more idea than you or me whether this is the case, but it would not surprise me if a whisper or hint has got as far as Norstedts.

[lhsl]

I've never read Ngugi, how are his books?

[maidenhair]

I've never read Ngugi, how are his books?

Same here. I also wonder if I should try him. There are a few threads on him and his books here:

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Wizard Of The Crow
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Weep not, Child

[Stiffelio]

Surely you have a reference for this quote? Because this sounds different:
“Once you've started reading Aira, you don't want to stop.”
— Roberto Bolaño on César Aira
from
http://ndbooks.com/author/roberto-bolano

Excellent! You found what I was looking for.

[Daniel del Real]

A piece of Nobel speculation from my local paper Upsala Nya Tidning, the Uppsala daily:



I'm sure that the journalist writing that (Cristina Karlstam) has no more idea than you or me whether this is the case, but it would not surprise me if a whisper or hint has got as far as Norstedts.

It seems Ngugi is very popular September & early October in Swedeb. Either he wins or not, I think it's still a good business for Swedish publishing groups

[Eric]

I too have never read any Ngugi books, but he did one thing that makes me respect him. He wrote his early works in English, and in so doing did, of course, gain an international audience. But when he got older, he wrote books in his native Kikuyu or Gikuyu. Of course he translated these books too into English, but one's mother tongue is the true centre of one's language knowledge, the language in which you can express yourself best. So those who do read Kikuyu can get the "real Ngugi", if you like.

To latch onto a point made by Flint, I don't think they're likely to give the Nobel to Martin Amis. Though you never know.

[Cleanthess]

I think that Brazil should finally win the Nobel. The 5 writers that I think that have the biggest chances are:
Ferreira Gullar: (81) A poet, maybe, the biggest chance and who have been told to be getting very popular this year In Sweden.

Thank you for the Ferreira Gullar pointer. I read some of his poems online and they're very nice. One example with my poor attempt at a (mostly faithful) translation:

To Translate.

A part of me
is everybody:
Another part is nobody:
body without body.

A part of me
contains multitudes:
Another part estrangement
and solitude.

A part of me
considers and ponders:
Another part
raves and wonders.

A part of me
is permanent:
Another part
knows that is a transient.

A part of me
is made out of rapture:
Another part
Literature.

To translate one part
into the other part
-and it is a matter
of life or death-
could it be an art?

TRADUZIR-SE

Uma parte de mim
é todo mundo:
outra parte é ninguém:
fundo sem fundo.

uma parte de mim
é multidão:
outra parte estranheza
e solidão.

Uma parte de mim
pesa, pondera:
outra parte
delira.

Uma parte de mim
é permanente:
outra parte
se sabe de repente.

Uma parte de mim
é só vertigem:
outra parte,
linguagem.

Traduzir-se uma parte
na outra parte
- que é uma questão
de vida ou morte -
será arte?