Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 Speculation

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Liam

Administrator
They're going to give it to a conservative, super-old, white, straight man just to piss everyone off again, 😛

Of course, if the writing is good I'll still say, Congratulations!
 

Daniel del Real

Moderator
De la primitiva lista de los doscientos sobresalió media docena de europeos, según fuentes de la academia. Son el rumano Mircea Cartarescu, el húngaro László Krasznahorkai, la francesa Nina Bouraoui, la finlandesa Sofi Oksanen, el noruego Jon Fosse y la rusa Liudmila Ulitskaya. Aspirantes de otras procedencias, según las mismas fuentes, son el keniano Ngugi wa Thiong’o, la antillana Maryse Condé y el israelí David Grossman. Esto implica que se habrán quedado por el camino, entre otros, el estadounidense Don DeLillo, el canadiense Michael Ondaatje o el británico Ian McEwan.

Again, this is just speculation. What are the "acamedy sources" they claim this information come from?

Most of the names in Spanish language are just ridiculous for different reasons: Almudena Grandes, Fernando Vallejo, Fernando Aramburu, Nélida Piñón, Elena Poniatowska, even Leonardo Padura and Juan Gabriel Vásquez who I enjoy reading.

Should we create a way-too-early Nobel speculation thread for 2020? :p
 

Johnny

Well-known member
Again, this is just speculation. What are the "acamedy sources" they claim this information come from?

Most of the names in Spanish language are just ridiculous for different reasons: Almudena Grandes, Fernando Vallejo, Fernando Aramburu, Nélida Piñón, Elena Poniatowska, even Leonardo Padura and Juan Gabriel Vásquez who I enjoy reading.

Should we create a way-too-early Nobel speculation thread for 2020? :p
Why not, there’s not a lot else to do at the moment. My initial thoughts are that after the controversies of Dylan and Handke they might be tempted to play it safe. Who’s the favourites, I would think Annie Ernaux and Anne Carson must be up there.
 
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Deleted member 83959

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Carson has been consistently checked out for years.

Anne Carson - 6

Han Kang - 4 (Le Clezio is a fan)

Mend-Ooyo Gombojav - 4

Lydia Davis - 3

Nuruddin Farrah - 3 (doubt he’s a contender and much of his work isn’t even in print currently). I can’t find any noteworthy African authors with a significant number of works checked out.
 
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redhead

Blahblahblah
Ditto, Isa! Glad to see you back

Why not, there’s not a lot else to do at the moment. My initial thoughts are that after the controversies of Dylan and Handke they might be tempted to play it safe. Who’s the favourites, I would think Annie Ernaux and Anne Carson must be up there.

Who knows what they’ll do. I thought they’d play it safe last year after the scandal and they gave it Handke
 
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Deleted member 83959

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I get the feeling that Carson has been on the shortlist for the last 3-4 years and is likely still on it. Every time I’ve looked since 2016 she’s had 4+ books checked out. She’s not popular enough where I’d really see it likely that your average Swedes are just constantly checking out her works.

I went through about 100 authors (international award winners, authors listed with betting odds previously, much more obscure international authors I’d found on various blogs and forums, etc) that haven’t been mentioned on here recently on the Library site over the last few days. Nobody had more than two books checked out other than the ones I mentioned above. So I guess if we really want to use the Library as an indicator we either have a very small list of potential winners (the authors mentioned on here) or the Academy is considering authors that pretty much no one here finds likely.

Looked through about 20 Korean authors. It seems safe to say that unless it’s Han Kang or somehow they’re scummy enough (at this point it wouldn’t surprise me) that they’re still seriously considering Ko Un a Korean isn’t winning this year.

I also think it’s fairly safe to eliminate books checked out that aren’t in Swedish, French, English, or a language we know certain Academy members are able to speak.
 

Bartleby

Moderator
Can Xue is still looking strong as well with 8 books checked out (I believe she had 10 last Nobel season). This could be her year.
 

redhead

Blahblahblah
Can Xue would be an awesome winner. I think it's likely they're looking at her, too. She's such an unknown and dense writer, I don't see the public checking out that many of her books.

I went through about 100 authors (international award winners, authors listed with betting odds previously, much more obscure international authors I’d found on various blogs and forums, etc) that haven’t been mentioned on here recently on the Library site over the last few days. Nobody had more than two books checked out other than the ones I mentioned above. So I guess if we really want to use the Library as an indicator we either have a very small list of potential winners (the authors mentioned on here) or the Academy is considering authors that pretty much no one here finds likely.

Btw, who're the obscure international names? I'd be curious to check them out
 

Americanreader

Well-known member
Can Xue would be an awesome winner. I think it's likely they're looking at her, too. She's such an unknown and dense writer, I don't see the public checking out that many of her books.



Btw, who're the obscure international names? I'd be curious to check them out
Is there a solid entry point into her work? I tried Frontier and the stories in Vertical Motion, but those were just a little too out there for me. Maybe she just isn’t to my taste?
 

redhead

Blahblahblah
Five Spice Street felt slightly more grounded to me, but pretty much everything she writes is bonkers. If you read slowly and carefully, though, you'll see there's a method to the madness and certain themes and patterns will emerge. She's not for everyone, though. The first time I read her, I wasn't keen on her either. I thought Five Spice Street was meh and didn't get Vertical Motion at all. It wasn't until The Last Lover that something clicked. I'd hesitate to recommend that one to you, though, as I thought it was just as bizarre as Frontier.
 

Johnny

Well-known member
Carson has been consistently checked out for years.

Anne Carson - 6

Han Kang - 4 (Le Clezio is a fan)

Mend-Ooyo Gombojav - 4

Lydia Davis - 3

Nuruddin Farrah - 3 (doubt he’s a contender and much of his work isn’t even in print currently). I can’t find any noteworthy African authors with a significant number of works checked out.
You’ve reminded me of Lydia Davis, I read a collection of her essays a while back and really enjoyed her style. I’ll add her to my summer list of reading, she seems like a cool person also with some heavy duty translations like Proust.
 
I have a feeling the academy has by now figured that the Nobel Library is a source for potential leaks. Esp after this forum successfully predicted the 2017, 18, 19 winners. If that's true, with 0 books checked out, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o might be this years winner. After the Handke debacle last year, the Academy knows that nothing would please the literary world more than an African author—a very deserving one at that; and a continent that is grossly overdue.

If this theory is not correct, which is likely, I think the Academy is moving away from "perennial" candidates such as Thiong'o, Atwood and Murakami—each of them barely have books checked out. In that case, writers that are not thought of as perennial, such as Can Xue, Anne Carson would be a great pick.

Personal favorite (I can dream): Marilynne Robinson. She has a new book out this year around the time Nobel is announced so the Academy might want to wait till next year if they give it to her.
 
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Deleted member 83959

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I’d say there’s an extremely small chance anyone in the Academy actually cares about this forum or has even looked at it.

Just went through a bunch of Indian authors. Things.... do not look promising. Nothing checked out for 20+ authors and even aside from that the library hasn’t bought very many of their works. I think it’s safe to say an Indian author won’t be winning this year (unless it’s someone who’s won none of India’s major awards - or any of the major European awards).
 
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redhead

Blahblahblah
There’s a chance they may have heard of the forum, but I doubt it. The only other place I’ve seen us mentioned is in that Polish article last year.

They probably wouldn’t lie about what’s checked out, though. Especially since the public has access to the library. I don’t think they’d want their listings to be incorrect, especially when they could just do something like check out a ton of books by other authors until there’s so many any list we make becomes meaningless.
 

JCamilo

Reader
Eventually, they will try to trick everyone by inventing an author, his works and even his polemics.
 

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Since we don't have a lot to do these days let's start early: here's the thread for this year's speculation.

With all the social movements claiming right now for human rights, fighting against racism and the inequality the pandemic has unconvered I think the academy could focus on names with a strong activist agenda. Thinking this way, a name that resonates in my mind Nawal El Saadawi: muslim woman, figthing against the patriarchal oppression of Islam. Her name has been mentioned several times here and although she is very old I think it fits the profile for a year like this.
 
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lucasdiniz

Reader
I read "Woman at Point Zero" with a lot of expectations, maybe that's why I ended it quite disappointed. Still, she's such an interesting person. I feel like I could listen to her talk all day. I want to read her autobiography, though.
 
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