Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 Speculation

[namelesshere]

I’m not sure I’m following.
well of course I figured from the first time I saw a post from you that you loved the writer

I was just interested in knowing about the reasons why his work alone, its style and themes and how they work together, should win the Nobel; and it’d would be a nice way of finally making me curious to open a book of his, is all...

This synopsis of Broken April is what made me get hold of it asap. I've read a few of his others since and none were as good as this one was. A really fascinating and tragic account of "blood feuds" in Albanian history.

"From the moment that Gjorg's brother is killed by a neighbour, his own life is forfeit: for the code of Kanun requires Gjorg to kill his brother's murderer and then in turn be hunted down. After shooting his brother's killer, young Gjorg is entitled to thirty days' grace - not enough to see out the month of April.

Then a visiting honeymoon couple cross the path of the fugitive. The bride's heart goes out to Gjorg, and even these 'civilised' strangers from the city risk becoming embroiled in the fatal mechanism of vendetta."

 

[Sisyphus]

I’m not sure I’m following.
well of course I figured from the first time I saw a post from you that you loved the writer

I was just interested in knowing about the reasons why his work alone, its style and themes and how they work together, should win the Nobel; and it would be a nice way of finally making me curious to open a book of his, is all...

English is not my native language so I apologize in advance.

I like other writers as well, just saying , but you pick your username once and can't change it afterwards, otherwise I wouldn't be stuck with a lower case initial letter.

 

[redhead]

Thanks for the write up, kadare, about your (user)namesake. It was fascinating to learn more about him and the context in which he wrote a number of his works. Unfortunately, I think he’s one of those writers, like Nooteboom, whose time has passed. He certainly deserves it, though.

Looks like it! It’s been a great discussion, really looking forward to the build up to next Thursday. At this stage I’m beginning to think Ulitskaya will be the winner. I definitely think it will be a non European, and references to scientist and first female winner from a country all point to her. On the other hand it would be surprising if that many hints were leaked. The fact that she was 2nd favourite in the list earlier this week is also odd, don’t think many of us would have put her there.

Ulitskaya winning would also shake things up. She doesn’t have any books out at the library, so it would debunk that theory. Now that would be interesting ?

 

[Bartleby]

English is not my native language so I apologize in advance.

I like other writers as well, just saying , but you pick your username once and can't change it afterwards, otherwise I wouldn't be stuck with a lower case initial letter.

Don’t worry.
you wrote the writer’s profile very well, tho ^^

Ulitskaya winning would also shake things up. She doesn’t have any books out at the library, so it would debunk that theory. Now that would be interesting ?

she has two. But yeah, not a great picture...

 

[namelesshere]

Ulitskaya winning would also shake things up. She doesn’t have any books out at the library, so it would debunk that theory. Now that would be interesting ?

She does have a couple I think... an edition of The Big Green Tent, and an edition of The Funeral Party... unless I'm misreading it.

 

[redhead]

She does have a couple I think... an edition of The Big Green Tent, and an edition of The Funeral Party... unless I'm misreading it.

you’re right, that’s what I get for doing a half-assed double check on my phone before posting that! But the main point still stands: the library theory would be dead if she won

 

[Bartleby]

But the main point still stands: the library theory would be dead if she won

the more obstinate ones, tho, would argue since it’s covid year the SA members didn’t leave their homes much so they got the books to read by other means ?

 

[redhead]

the more obstinate ones, tho, would argue since it’s covid year the SA members didn’t leave their homes much so they got the books to read by other means ?

But then why did other authors have a lot of books checked out? ?

btw Bartleby, we surpassed the number of posts in the 2017 thread!

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

you’re right, that’s what I get for doing a half-assed double check on my phone before posting that! But the main point still stands: the library theory would be dead if she won

? Didn't Handke only have his two or three most recent works checked out last year? What makes Ulitskaya's case different?

(I can't seem to find the Nobel library thread that kicked all of this off, however.)

 

[Bartleby]

? Didn't Handke only have his two or three most recent works checked out last year? What makes Ulitskaya's case different?

(I can't seem to find the Nobel library thread that kicked all of this off, however.)

I don’t remember about recent ones, but he had some 20 books out; the difference would be quantity here. Btw I don’t think Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob was out either, but can’t say for sure ?

btw Bartleby, we surpassed the number of posts in the 2017 thread!

Yay ?

 

[redhead]

? Didn't Handke only have his two or three most recent works checked out last year? What makes Ulitskaya's case different?

(I can't seem to find the Nobel library thread that kicked all of this off, however.)

I can’t find it either, but I was under the impression he consistently had 10+ books checked out.

I wrote this last August, and although it doesn’t mention any specific numbers, it implies he had more than a few checked out.

Also, one final thing for this post: looks like a few more books are out in the Academy library. Can Xue has a few books due later in August which were previously due earlier, and she, Mayröcker and Handke all have some due back in September. With Handke, it looks like a bunch of his more recent books are among those checked out.

And in the 2018 winner thread, I wrote:

Side note: both Tokarczuk and Handke had a bunch of books checked out from the Nobel library!

Wish I could’ve been bothered to write down the numbers somewhere...

 

[Bartleby]

(I can't seem to find the Nobel library thread that kicked all of this off, however.)

yeah it seems to have been deleted, sadly...

But then why did other authors have a lot of books checked out? ?

One can always find reasons to bending evidence haha

I can’t find it either, but I was under the impression he consistently had 10+ books checked out.

I’m positive he had some 20 books. That I remember.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

It looks like the original poster of the thread deleted it, and that's why we can't find it.

Wayback has some archives, but with the host/server change, I think the more recent posts are lost. For example, in this post (https://www.worldliteratureforum.co...literature-2019-speculation.66035/post-153253), you say,

"Also, does anyone have any recommendations for Peter Handke? His name has popped up a few times in the library thread. I read Goalie's Anxiety a few years ago, which, while I could appreciate some of the literary mastery there, left me feeling cold and unengaged, and recently finished Don Juan which I had similar thoughts on. Should I try Goalie's Anxiety again? Or is there another of his someone would recommend?"

but I don't see any mention of his name in the archived threads.

The Nobel Library

Have you checked the Nobel Library? http://www.nobelbiblioteket.se/eng They say the library is "to assist the Swedish Academy in the evaluations required for the Nobel Prize (...)". I believe that the finalists will have all or almost every book they have written in the library - as...

web.archive.org

The Nobel Library - Page 2

Have you checked the Nobel Library? http://www.nobelbiblioteket.se/eng They say the library is "to assist the Swedish Academy in the evaluations required for the Nobel Prize (...)". I believe that the finalists will have all or almost every book they have written in the library - as...

web.archive.org

 

[DouglasM]

But it is not clear if the SA would want to award a "Solzhenitsyn" in 2020, 30 years after the fall of communism.

I don't believe anyone at the Swedish Academy in 2020 really cares about these issues. And Kadare is incomparably a better writer than Solzhenitsyn, a prize for him would be more than deserved. He's quite old, but I hope it happens.

 

[DouglasM]

It looks like the original poster of the thread deleted it, and that's why we can't find it.

Vasquez used to post a lot, I never got to understand why he deleted all his posts and left the forum.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

Vasquez used to post a lot, I never got to understand why he deleted all his posts and left the forum.

I agree with you. I liked his posts tremendously, and we used to have many conversations. It's one thing to stop posting, but it's another to systematically delete all of your posts and trace you had on a forum. I wonder what was the catalyst to all of that... I hope he's doing well.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

I’m positive he had some 20 books. That I remember.

Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018 has been awarded to Olga Tokarczuk "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."

www.worldliteratureforum.com

 

[Bartleby]

I agree with you. I liked his posts tremendously, and we used to have many conversations. It's one thing to stop posting, but it's another to systematically delete all of your posts and trace you had on a forum. I wonder what was the catalyst to all of that... I hope he's doing well.

as someone who has deleted his Facebook account twice, and Instagram once, I can definitely understand the burdensome anxieties of existing on social media ?

hope he’s ok as well.

As for the library thread, maybe someone with the power to do so, if it’s possible at all, could resurrect it (without Vasquez’s posts to respect his decision)?

 

[nagisa]

I’m not sure I’m following.
well of course I figured from the first time I saw a post from you that you loved the writer

I was just interested in knowing about the reasons why his work alone, its style and themes and how they work together, should win the Nobel; and it would be a nice way of finally making me curious to opening a book of his, is all...

Please do try Broken April, or The Palace of Dreams, or Dossier H, or The Three-Arched Bridge ! Kadare has a unique way of evoking the past to highlight the present, and his works are fascinating windows into a little-known country and its people. It's a shame he hasn't got it yet.

 

[redhead]

Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018 has been awarded to Olga Tokarczuk "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."

www.worldliteratureforum.com

Wow, I forgot it was that many.

I went through most of the names Isa posted a while back when they went through the library. For reference:

I went through the entire Library. Literally every single entry in it. This is everyone with a decent number of works in the library that had 4 or more works checked out.

Ann Carson

Javier Marias

Marilynne Robinson

David Grossman

Jon Fosse

Homero Aridjis - 6

Charles Simic

Louise Gluck

Annie Ernaux - 6

Can Xue - 7

Yu Hua - 6

Yan Lianke - 4

Michel Houellebecq - 9

Rosa Liksom - 5

Hilary Mantel - 6

Friederike Mayrocker - 12

Peter Nadas - 6

Marie Norin - 6

Botho Strauß - 9

Ingela Strandberg - 6

Jan Erik Vold - 6

Xi Xi - 6

Yu Hua - 6

Many had similar numbers checked out, but there were a few differences, mainly some names having fewer (if any) books checked out:

Mantel: 1
Liksom: 0
Jan Erik Vold: 0
Yan Lianke: 3
Marilynne Robinson: 1
Javier Marias: 2

So presumably it's none of them.

Ernaux's amount went up to 11.

I won't waste time typing up most of the other numbers and names since most are still the same number or 1 or 2 off (assuming I didn't miscount...), but in case some of us are still doing the library thing next year, here are the amounts for the names without recorded numbers:
David Grossman: 4
Anne Carson: 7
Louise Glück: 13
Charles Simic: 16
Jon Fosse: 9