Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 Speculation

[Deleted member 83959]

On the topic of Alan Moore, did anybody read his very James Joyce derivative novel from a few years ago, Jerusalem? It was ... something. I couldn't finish it and it's still sitting on my shelf. A lot of reviews were claiming he had outdone what Pynchon and Vollmann had attempted (amongst other nonsense). It mostly read to me like Moore read works by Joyce and Pynchon and then sort of regurgitated his own amalgamation of them to the length of 1000+ pages. The section where he attempts to write in the style of Finnegans Wake was particularly tiresome and was the point at which I gave up.

Anyways, as I've expected since 2016 I still think Anne Carson will win.

And as with every year since 2016 the Facebook posts do not appear to be in any way referencing the winner. The clues leading up to Dylan's win culminated with a massive jump in his betting odds. Ever since that and especially with the scandal about potential internal leaks from Academy members themselves it's seemed like Nobel as an organization has stopped posting these clues.

 

[redhead]

Anyways, as I've expected since 2016 I still think Anne Carson will win.

Just finished rereading one of her collections, Men in the Off Hours. She’s a real master, the way she can incorporate so many themes and poetic forms into poems that bring the Greeks alive for us, and yet... she leaves me a bit cold? I‘m not sure what it is, but she’s a writer who I can appreciate as a genius, but don’t consider myself much of a fan. What do you think of her?

Also, so far most of the discussion about a potential Chinese winner has centered around Can Xue (I probably had something to do with that...). I still don’t see Yan Lianke winning, but I picked up a collection of early stories by Yu Hua and I’m really impressed. I’d still prefer Can Xue, but if Yu Hua won I wouldn’t complain.

 

[JCamilo]

I was a massive Miyazaki fan growing up and still cherish many of his works but I have a lot of trouble seeing him winning anything like this from a literary perspective. I mean to start with, most of his films are adaptions of existing written works. In some cases he's not even changing anything, he's just literally animating an existing childrens' novel.

His last film came out in 2013. At 7 years ago that falls somewhat into my "hasn't made something recently enough" disqualifier.

He is actually working in a new movie, but literally animating an existing children's novel can only describe Howl's and Kiki among the movies he directed. Mononoke, Spirited Away, Totoro, Laputa, Ponyo are all original and Porco Rosso or Nausicaa are also mangas... written by Miyazaki and I think that is probally why ALR & V included Miyazaki here: the guy has also several mangas under his sleeve, after all he is notorious for working with storyboards rather than full scripts.

Anyways, do you really think a Guy notorious for anti-war themes and very early works talking about environment destruction, overly praised for this would have actual experts questioning how much social issues are being investigated or doing much truly important or revelatory?

 

[Uemarasan]

That’s a terrible misreading of The Wind Rises, and a great disservice to an artist who has been outspoken in his pacifism, anti-imperialism, and anti-fascism.

 

[Bartleby]

Just finished rereading one of her collections, Men in the Off Hours. She’s a real master, the way she can incorporate so many themes and poetic forms into poems that bring the Greeks alive for us, and yet... she leaves me a bit cold? I‘m not sure what it is, but she’s a writer who I can appreciate as a genius, but don’t consider myself much of a fan. What do you think of her?

Also, so far most of the discussion about a potential Chinese winner has centered around Can Xue (I probably had something to do with that...). I still don’t see Yan Lianke winning, but I picked up a collection of early stories by Yu Hua and I’m really impressed. I’d still prefer Can Xue, but if Yu Hua won I wouldn’t complain.

I’ve read a couple more short stories by Can Xue from The Embroidered Shoes, and they keep impressing me; there’s this one Floating Lotus that’s 6 pages of pure poetry, like some of the most radical short prose-poems Woolf wrote; one should approach it with concentration and a sharp mind, otherwise it would go over one’s head. And since I trust you that her other collections will be even better, and her novels are outstanding, I’d be very excited to see her win come Thursday.

I need to read more Carson... but anyone who inspires the reader to get acquainted with ancient poetry and philosophy, any such ardent promoter of the humanities I’d also be very glad to see win.

 

[pinkunicorn]

Nobel Prize in Medicine announced this morning. 3 joint winners.....
I know it’s far more common in other areas for Joint winners than literature but just to add some more to the speculation.

For the science prizes it would be notable if the prize was *not* shared.

 

[redhead]

I’ve read a couple more short stories by Can Xue from The Embroidered Shoes, and they keep impressing me; there’s this one Floating Lotus that’s 6 pages of pure poetry, like some of the most radical short prose-poems Woolf wrote; one should approach it with concentration and a sharp mind, otherwise it would go over one’s head. And since I trust you that her other collections will be even better, and her novels are outstanding, I’d be very excited to see her win come Thursday.

I hope I don’t lead you astray, especially as I haven’t yet read Embroidered Shoes in its entirety yet (it’s been sitting on my shelf). But I find with Can Xue, you either get her or you don’t. Certain works are better entry points, but my experience and what I’ve seen online suggests that in general if you like one of her books, you’ll prob like them all. Hopefully that’s your experience too.

 

[Sisyphus]

For the science prizes it would be notable if the prize was *not* shared.

I don't think it would be a bad idea at all if they also shared the Literature Prize from time to time. Who knows, they might surprise us again?

 

[SpaceCadet]

I think you lost me somewhere in the middle of the woods... I've tried to follow but I had to skip big chunks as I could not find enough free time to read everything... I'll try to stay tune, at least for the last part of the run... And sorry, but there are too many names unknown to me so I can't come up with any guess...

 

[Bartleby]

I’m not sure if it would be a good idea for the literature prize to be shared; maybe this year and then not for another 50 years or so... I know it might just be the impression that in the past there were more truly great writers alive, but I feel like if the academy starts sharing the award ever so often, they’d end up giving it to the really worthy ones alive real quick and being left with mediocre or good-but-not-great-overall ones...

 

[namelesshere]

I’m not sure if it would be a good idea for the literature prize to be shared; maybe this year and then not for another 50 years or so... I know it might just be the impression that in the past there were more truly great writers alive, but I feel like if the academy starts sharing the award ever so often, they’d end up giving it to the really worthy ones alive real quick and being left with mediocre or good-but-not-great-overall ones...

I like the idea of an occasional shared prize, once every 15 years or so. If it's only one extra laureate very occasionally I think there are enough worthy living writers to maintain the prize's integrity. And then you might have a few less Borges etc missing out. And maybe one or two more Bertrand Russells.

 

[namelesshere]

Some coverage from The Guardian. I'm really not sold on the likelihood of Jamaica Kincaid. Is she really Nobel "worthy"? (I haven't read her work so can't really say.)

Nobel prize for literature tipped to make safe pick after years of scandal

Having been postponed in 2018, last year’s return drew heavy fire for the selection of Peter Handke, so experts expect a cautious choice this week

www.theguardian.com

 

[redhead]

I wouldn’t mind seeing them award multiple people more often, if not every year. It would probably help avoid a lot of snubs. Sure, they might award some mediocre writers, but the “one each year” thing hasn’t stopped them from awarding lesser writers in the past.

 

[Bartleby]

Some coverage from The Guardian. I'm really not sold on the likelihood of Jamaica Kincaid. Is she really Nobel "worthy"? (I haven't read her work so can't really say.)

Nobel prize for literature tipped to make safe pick after years of scandal

Having been postponed in 2018, last year’s return drew heavy fire for the selection of Peter Handke, so experts expect a cautious choice this week

www.theguardian.com

What I know is she’s really beloved by some professors in my university; the same might happen in America and other countries (but that alone shouldn’t necessarily mean an author is Nobel worthy... oh the mediocre stuff I’ve read just because it fit some professor’s preferred themes...). Btw I do want to read Kincaid, just haven’t yet.

 

[Uemarasan]

Here’s an excerpt from Kincaid’s latest novel:

excerpt

www.kcrw.com

I must say I’m not a fan of the monotonous structure of her sentences and the relentless repetition. I can see the technique working in an incantatory manner in shorter works, but it just becomes exhausting at some point in long-form. I’ve tried reading her short stories and excerpts from her other novels and this seems to be her preferred mode of expression.

 

[namelesshere]

Here’s an excerpt from Kincaid’s latest novel:

excerpt

www.kcrw.com

I must say I’m not a fan of the monotonous structure of her sentences and the relentless repetition. I can see the technique working in an incantatory manner in shorter works, but it just becomes exhausting at some point in long-form. I’ve tried reading her short stories and excerpts from her other novels and this seems to be her preferred mode of expression.

Thank you!

 

[hayden]

Some coverage from The Guardian. I'm really not sold on the likelihood of Jamaica Kincaid. Is she really Nobel "worthy"? (I haven't read her work so can't really say.)

Kincaid would be extremely safe, but (in my opinion) unworthy. At the end of the day, the award needs to be based on the quality of work. I've read her short novels A Small Place and (recently read) Lucy, neither of which has any sort of wow factor. They're okay, you know? Maybe a hair above middle-of-the-road. It would be a very thin and unexciting win, especially compared to the possibilities of Anne Carson, Can Xue, Thiong'o and Annie Ernaux. Nothing against Kincaid, but she wouldn't be anywhere near my choice to win a Nobel.

 

[Daniel del Real]

Just finished rereading one of her collections, Men in the Off Hours. She’s a real master, the way she can incorporate so many themes and poetic forms into poems that bring the Greeks alive for us, and yet... she leaves me a bit cold? I‘m not sure what it is, but she’s a writer who I can appreciate as a genius, but don’t consider myself much of a fan. What do you think of her?

Also, so far most of the discussion about a potential Chinese winner has centered around Can Xue (I probably had something to do with that...). I still don’t see Yan Lianke winning, but I picked up a collection of early stories by Yu Hua and I’m really impressed. I’d still prefer Can Xue, but if Yu Hua won I wouldn’t complain.

Same thing happened to me after reading Autubiography of Red, it was a brilliant work in many aspects but left me cold. I haven't really delved into her poetry so my opinion is very limited.

Talking about Chinese writers, I stated reading Ge Fei and I'm really liking it. Probably this will not help, but it feels like reading Murakami, H without the fantastic part. It's more about the daily life of a middle-aged man in a monster city like Beijing and his encounters with different characters, some of them quite misterious. This is his only translation so far to Spanish and I'm not sure if he has been translated to English. He is 56 years old and doesn't seem to have the notoriety from other candidates, but I'd like to see more of his works translated soon.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I just checked and he has some works translated to English: The Invisibility Cloak (which is the one I'm reading), Peach Blossoms Paradise & Flock of Brown Birds.

 

[hayden]

You're all leaving me completely out of the loop with the manga/comic book possibilities. Truly not my wheelhouse at all. I will say, as much as I enjoy his work, Miyazaki has absolutely no chance at winning the Nobel in Literature. He might have a nomination or two somewhere, but to win would be a bizarre shock. If there was a Nobel for cinema, sure. 100%.