Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 Speculation

[Ludus]

God, I hope not. Giving it to Ko Un now would be idiotic. What he did was monstrous and no matter how they tried to spin it, in light of their own scandal the decision would be viewed as them doubling down.

To be fair, the Nobel Foundation is no enemy of giving the prize to criminals, just look at Henry Kissinger.

 

[Martino]

Mattson reminded us of the subjective nature of all literature (and any other arts') awards. That intuitive inexplicable "special something" we find as individual readers. This is perhaps a platitude but so real.

 

[Seelig]

I’m pleasantly surprised to see so much love for Patrick White.

I do too, Morbid Swither! Indeed it would have been my 11th choice but since I have only read “Voss” and was completely flabbergasted by it (I have reread it 4 times), I didn’t dare to list him. Which book by him must be my second obsession?

 

[Seelig]

I would reverse the problematic and be Deleuzo-Guattarian: it is precisely the desire for such consistency that induces such intrigue (and frustration!). It is an impossible task, resting on a tiny, limited body; the expectation is too great, and too easily disappointed by human and institutional fallibility.

Welcome to the forum

I'm not necessarily hoping to be surprised, but I am hoping for an author I've not yet read!

Thanks Nagisa! You totally nailed it, yes: that damn desire for consistency…
I am also hoping for an author I’ve not yet read (which are legion) but also for that hidden treasure I hope the SA explorers would find for the rest of us. It’s sort of a childish thing, I know… that thrill.

 

[Septularisen]

I just wanted to mention that I dreamt last night that César Aira was announced this year's Nobel laureate in literature. I even remember the bizarre caption, something like: "for imbuing everyday things with the extraordinary senses, and extraordinary things with the everyday," something like that. I also remembered this forum in the dream and thought: Oh my god, this news is going to be so explosive!!!
I can't really explain the dream, I like Aira, but he would not be my top pick. But it would be pretty cool if my dream were prophetic!

I must say that would be really great!

 

[redhead]

Canetti

What's a good place to start with him? And in regards to your question about White, Tree of Life would be my recommendation. If you're looking for something shorter, The Solid Mandala is a (pardon the pun) solid choice.

Mattson reminded us of the subjective nature of all literature (and any other arts') awards. That intuitive inexplicable "special something" we find as individual readers. This is perhaps a platitude but so real.

Reminds me of Fosse. A lot of his work deals with that indefinable "special something" in art and how to convey it or describe it without description. Don't think it's a hint or anything (like you say, it's a platitude), but it's a neat parallel.

 

[Cleanthess]

It's too hard to pick just ten, so I'm going to pretend to be as innumerate as counting crows:

Rudyard Kipling
Rabindranath Tagore
Anatole France
William Butler Yeats
George Bernard Shaw
Hermann Hesse
William Faulkner
Samuel Beckett
Eugenio Montale
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Günter Grass
Wisława Szymborska
Patrick Modiano
Olga Tokarczuk
Peter Handke

 

[Morbid Swither]

Singer

For some reason I often forget about Singer. He factors among the most memorable for me as well. For a time his collected stories was my “go-to favorite” book.

 

[Morbid Swither]

Tree of Life

I second this endorsement! I also like Maryse Condé’s work of the same name!

 

[Seelig]

What's a good place to start with him? And in regards to your question about White, Tree of Life would be my recommendation. If you're looking for something shorter, The Solid Mandala is a (pardon the pun) solid choice.

Reminds me of Fosse. A lot of his work deals with that indefinable "special something" in art and how to convey it or describe it without description. Don't think it's a hint or anything (like you say, it's a platitude), but it's a neat parallel.

Thanks for the White’s, Redheadshadz! And Canetti for me is a titan in Masse und macht, and splendid in his memoirs, but in his books of aphorisms is where I think he reaches the stature of a real classic (in the sense of La Rochefoucauld or Lichtenberg).

 

[namelesshere]

What's a good place to start with him? And in regards to your question about White, Tree of Life would be my recommendation. If you're looking for something shorter, The Solid Mandala is a (pardon the pun) solid choice.

I think my favourite White that I've read so far is The Eye of the Storm.

 

[redhead]

For some reason I often forget about Singer. He factors among the most memorable for me as well.

How memorable can he be if you forget about him ?

 

[Morbid Swither]

How memorable can he be if you forget about him ?

I forget that he won, not that he wrote great literature.

 

[Leseratte]

My favorite laureates. With exception of the first names the order is aleatory. I was more intended on not leaving any one important out, than following a certain order:
1- Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk
2- Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk
3- William Faulkner
4- Thomas Eliot
5-Samuel Beckett
6- Gabriel García Márquez
7- Juan Ramón Jiménez
8- Gabriela Mistral
9- Luigi Pirandello
10- Rabindranath Tagore
11- Wole Soyinka
12- George Bernard Shaw
13- William Golding
14- Eugene O'Neill
15-Thomas Mann
16- Hermann Hesse
15- Gerhart Hauptmann
16- Heinrich Böll
17- Pablo Neruda
18- Octavio Paz
19- Nadine Gordimer
20- Elias Canetti
21- José Saramago
22- Toni Morrison
23- Herta Müller
24- Alice Ann Munro
25- Isaac Bashevis Singer
26- Miguel Ángel Asturias
27- Selma Lagerlöf
28- Pearl Buck
29- Albert Camus
30- Kazuo Ishiguro

 

[Dante]

William Butler Yeats
André Gide
Thomas Stearns Eliot
Ernest Hemingway
Albert Camus
Eugenio Montale
Saul Bellow
Elias Canetti
Nagib Mahfuz
Wisława Szymborska

But I had to leave so many out...

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

What's a good place to start with him? And in regards to your question about White, Tree of Life would be my recommendation. If you're looking for something shorter, The Solid Mandala is a (pardon the pun) solid choice.

Knowing your tastes, you'd enjoy Die Blendung (Auto-da-Fé). That novel made me a big fan of his. Absolutely hilarious in its absurd situations, as well as absolutely frustrating. There are so many characters you want to slap. Wonderful novel.

 

[Mise Eire]

I think my favourite White that I've read so far is The Eye of the Storm.

Mine too. His consecutive string of novels from 1948 to 1973 is un-paralleled - 7 sparkling gems in a row. His novels pre and post this period I don't care for so much but these are all superb. I find it hard to think of another novelist who has had such a string of published novels of this caliber.
The Aunt's Story (1948)
The Tree of Man (1955)
Voss (1957)
Riders in the Chariot (1961)
The Solid Mandala (1966)
The Vivisector (1970)
The Eye of the Storm (1973)

 

[Ludus]

Olga Tokarczuk
Svetlana Alexievich
Patrick Modiano
Alice Munro
Szymborska
García Márquez
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Knut Hamsun
Rabindranath Tagore

Honorable mentions: Solzhenitsin, Saramago, Naipaul, Neruda.

Many laureates I haven't read a whole book by them so I'm waiting to read them more carefully to add them to my list, like Pasternak, Perse, Pamuk, Oe, Morrison, Milosz, Walcott, Yeats, Eliot, Mann, and many others.

 

[Leseratte]

Olga Tokarczuk
Svetlana Alexievich
Patrick Modiano
Alice Munro
Szymborska
García Márquez
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Knut Hamsun
Rabindranath Tagore

Honorable mentions: Solzhenitsin, Saramago, Naipaul, Neruda.

Many laureates I haven't read a whole book by them so I'm waiting to read them more carefully to add them to my list, like Pasternak, Perse, Pamuk, Oe, Morrison, Milosz, Walcott, Yeats, Eliot, Mann, and many others.

Not so different from my list.Only i used the unlimited version sugested by Cleantess. And there also are many I still have to read.

 

[hayden]

Many laureates I haven't read a whole book by them so I'm waiting to read them more carefully to add them to my list, Morrison, Milosz, Walcott, Yeats

Do it-

Recs on Walcott, Milosz and Yeats are their collected poems, but if you dive into Morrison go with Song of Solomon (or Jazz) before Beloved. Walcott's Omeros is a staple, but if you want to go through a smaller volume I rec The Star-Apple Kingdom (or Sea Grapes).

I tried doing the top ten thing, but I'm too weak. Surrendered at a stuck nineteen.