Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 Speculation

[Morbid Swither]

If not for his language/nationality, Simic still would be in the discussion, I presume?

 

[Uemarasan]

Have there been recent instances of Nobel laureates mentioning whom they would like to see eventually win the prize? I remember that Gordimer praised Oe before he won, and then Oe did the same for Mo Yan. Jelinek also alluded to Handke when she was announced as the winner. I’m not sure if I’m misremembering, but the SA does consult with previous laureates?

 

[Papageno]

Have there been recent instances of Nobel laureates mentioning whom they would like to see eventually win the prize? I remember that Gordimer praised Oe before he won, and then Oe did the same for Mo Yan. Jelinek also alluded to Handke when she was announced as the winner. I’m not sure if I’m misremembering, but the SA does consult with previous laureates?

Previous laureates are allowed to make nominations! So, I think you are completely right and it is a great advantage for a potential laureate to have a previous laureate on his/her side!

 

[Ludus]

I'm currently reading Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes and it's boring me to death. I'm alternating between the English and Spanish translation, and I just find the narration bland and his intentions to sound poetic very artificial. I see why it could be compared to Gabriel García Márquez, but the Colombian was way better at framing the poetic retelling of a society's way of life and history. Based on my experience of this book only, he would not have my vote. Am I missing something? Did I started with him through the wrong book?

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

Can someone please tell me, because my eyes always skipped over the library talk in the past but I'm asking now because I can finally log into my account again after years of patient waiting, is the library just for the Academy? Because if anyone off the street with a library card can check out books, then I don't see the point of all this scrutiny. A city like Stockholm is teeming with well-read people. I live in Buttcrack, USA, and if I had access to a library with books by these writers I would check out as many as I could.

Don't take this query as a challenge as though I'm smugly sitting here with my arms folded. I know the Gospel of the Library is alive in a bunch of us here, so I'm not looking for trouble.

It's not just the quantity of books checked out but the lending period. Academy members can borrow books for months at a time, whereas the public is limited to one month. It's more suspicious the website only shows "available" and "unavailable" now, omitting due dates.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

I'm currently reading Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes and it's boring me to death. I'm alternating between the English and Spanish translation, and I just find the narration bland and his intentions to sound poetic very artificial. I see why it could be compared to Gabriel García Márquez, but the Colombian was way better at framing the poetic retelling of a society's way of life and history. Based on my experience of this book only, he would not have my vote. Am I missing something? Did I started with him through the wrong book?

No. I read Sleepingwalking Land and found it prosaic and rudimentary and disappointing.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

Have there been recent instances of Nobel laureates mentioning whom they would like to see eventually win the prize? I remember that Gordimer praised Oe before he won, and then Oe did the same for Mo Yan. Jelinek also alluded to Handke when she was announced as the winner. I’m not sure if I’m misremembering, but the SA does consult with previous laureates?

Correct. We had this discussion the year Ishiguro won. I brought up Oe being a fan of his and him having likely nominated him when red started to rootle around the books checked out from the library.

 

[SpaceCadet]

I'm currently reading Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes and it's boring me to death. I'm alternating between the English and Spanish translation, and I just find the narration bland and his intentions to sound poetic very artificial. I see why it could be compared to Gabriel García Márquez, but the Colombian was way better at framing the poetic retelling of a society's way of life and history. Based on my experience of this book only, he would not have my vote. Am I missing something? Did I started with him through the wrong book?

Good to know I'm not alone with similar impressions (I'm reading it in French translation).

 

[Leseratte]

I'm currently reading Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes and it's boring me to death. I'm alternating between the English and Spanish translation, and I just find the narration bland and his intentions to sound poetic very artificial. I see why it could be compared to Gabriel García Márquez, but the Colombian was way better at framing the poetic retelling of a society's way of life and history. Based on my experience of this book only, he would not have my vote. Am I missing something? Did I started with him through the wrong book?

I haven´t read this book . But I found The Sleepwalking Country , which is considered his masterpiece very depressing as far as I got with it. As for his style, if you read Rosa, preferably in Portuguese, you´ll know, where it originated. He adapted it to his context though.

 

[namelesshere]

I'm currently reading Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes and it's boring me to death. I'm alternating between the English and Spanish translation, and I just find the narration bland and his intentions to sound poetic very artificial. I see why it could be compared to Gabriel García Márquez, but the Colombian was way better at framing the poetic retelling of a society's way of life and history. Based on my experience of this book only, he would not have my vote. Am I missing something? Did I started with him through the wrong book?

I've got this lined up to read... not promising!

That being said, my impression is that this is the first year he's been shortlisted, so on reflection based on previous discussions of late, I doubt he's our winner for 2021.

 

[Johnny]

I’m still not convinced we can be so confident that there is a direct link between books checked out and the shortlist. As someone pointed out earlier it’s highly unlikely in this age that the academy, betting sites etc would not be familiar with this site. I’m still holding out for a surprise winner which would be far more interesting. In any event based on these recent reviews I’ve no interest in reading Couto any time soon.

 

[Ater Lividus Ruber & V]

I’m still not convinced we can be so confident that there is a direct link between books checked out and the shortlist. As someone pointed out earlier it’s highly unlikely in this age that the academy, betting sites etc would not be familiar with this site. I’m still holding out for a surprise winner which would be far more interesting. In any event based on these recent reviews I’ve no interest in reading Couto any time soon.

The findings in the library have predicted the winner since 2017. Why exactly do you not find this convincing? "As someone pointed out earlier it's highly unlikely in this age that the academy, betting sites etc would not be familiar with this site" -- which leads credence to the bizarre change on the library website of removing due dates, no? The Swedish Academy is not some omnipotent, exalted, august, resplendent institution. It is fallible, as seen with the Arnault Affair. It seems since we all love the prize, and we equate literature with lofty ideals that to admit the rewarding body is technologically witless somehow belittles the prize. The Swedish Academy can be moronic for allowing such a huge leak for existing, and the prize can still be respectable. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Stevie B]

Good to know I'm not alone with similar impressions (I'm reading it in French translation).

I literally had this book in my hands at a used bookstore yesterday. Am now feeling fortunate that I put it back on the shelf.

 

[Johnny]

The findings in the library have predicted the winner since 2017. Why exactly do you not find this convincing? "As someone pointed out earlier it's highly unlikely in this age that the academy, betting sites etc would not be familiar with this site" -- which leads credence to the bizarre change on the library website of removing due dates, no? The Swedish Academy is not some omnipotent, exalted, august, resplendent institution. It is fallible, as seen with the Arnault Affair. It seems since we all love the prize, and we equate literature with lofty ideals that to admit the rewarding body is technologically witless somehow belittles the prize. The Swedish Academy can be moronic for allowing such a huge leak for existing, and the prize can still be respectable. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

The point I made was on the shortlist, I don’t believe we can assume the most checked out books equates exactly with the shortlist. Hopefully there is more to it than that. And I repeat, if it really is this predictable it takes a lot of the anticipation and excitement out of it.

 

[Nirvrithi]

Having viewed all 70 pages of speculative drill here, I tend to feel it is getting a bit staid with the obsessive (almost OCD) build up on library check outs. Ernaux, Cauto, Wa Thiong'o or Fosse could all be deserving winners. But with the discussion narrowing down to a few based on check out history looks bland to me. (unless we are speculating here for a stake!) Also, I suspect a SA undercover to be already operating in this forum as the trail of discussions gets some "deft doctored navigation" at some critical junctures. I wish we discuss more on probables based on merit as we view them. Some of the names discussed could then be new but indicative for our future reading, no matter whether they turn out to be eventual winners. Mary's blog list of 94 probables for this year is quite exhaustive and I doubt the SA choice could be someone who doesn't figure there (unless they want to disqualify someone for figuring in that list!)

 

[Johnny]

Having viewed all 70 pages of speculative drill here, I tend to feel it is getting a bit staid with the obsessive (almost OCD) build up on library check outs. Ernaux, Cauto, Wa Thiong'o or Fosse could all be deserving winners. But with the discussion narrowing down to a few based on check out history looks bland to me. (unless we are speculating here for a stake!) Also, I suspect a SA undercover to be already operating in this forum as the trail of discussions gets some "deft doctored navigation" at some critical junctures. I wish we discuss more on probables based on merit as we view them. Some of the names discussed could then be new but indicative for our future reading, no matter whether they turn out to be eventual winners. Mary's blog list of 94 probables for this year is quite exhaustive and I doubt the SA choice could be someone who doesn't figure there (unless they want to disqualify someone for figuring in that list!)

Fully agree, well said. I think Couto is a good example to me, I would much rather be discussing for example Gerald Murnane or Krasznahorkai, neither of which make the cut based on a reductive “most checked out books” analysis.

 

[Johnny]

I should have added by the way that I will be delighted if Fosse wins, reading final part of Septology at the moment and it’s superb.

 

[Liam]

^Additionally, it would be a mistake to think that the Academy's only raison d'être is to "surprise" the public year after year.

Their job is to pick a deserving winner each year, and if the public happens to have guessed that winner's name (based on popular opinion, or library evidence, or whatever else), well, c'est la vie, they're still going to name that person or persons as the recipient for that year.

Just because some people have guessed the name, it doesn't make the winner any more or any less deserving.

 

[Sisyphus]

We can go back to analyzing the odds on Ladbrokes if you like. Looks like Murakami is the front runner this year (again). According to Nicer Odds, Amos Oz is also in the game.

Haruki Murakami 7.50
Anne Carson 11.00
Lyudmila Ulitskaya 11.00
Margaret Attwood 11.00
Maryse Conde 11.00
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o 11.00
Annie Ernaux 13.00
Jamaica Kincaid 13.00
Don DeLilo 17.00
Dubravka Ugrešić 17.00
Hélène Cixous 17.00
Javier Marias 17.00
Nuruddin Farah 17.00
Can Xue 21.00
Mia Couto 21.00
Michel Houllebecq 21.00
Yan Lianke 21.00
Charles Simic 26.00
Edna O'Brien 26.00
Homero Aridjis 26.00
Ivan Vladislavic 26.00
Jon Fosse 26.00
Karl Ove Knausgaard 26.00
Ko Un 26.00
Scholastique Mukasonga 26.00
Xi Xi 26.00
Both Strauss 34.00
Cormac McCarthy 34.00
Hilary Mantel 34.00
Linton Kwesi Johnson 34.00
Marilynne Robinson 34.00
Yu Hua 34.00
Zoe Wicomb34.00
Martin Amis 51.00
Milan Kundera 51.00
Salman Rushdie 51.00
Stephen King 51.00
William T Vollmann 51.00
Richard Osman 101

 

[Leseratte]

Having viewed all 70 pages of speculative drill here, I tend to feel it is getting a bit staid with the obsessive (almost OCD) build up on library check outs. Ernaux, Cauto, Wa Thiong'o or Fosse could all be deserving winners. But with the discussion narrowing down to a few based on check out history looks bland to me. (unless we are speculating here for a stake!) Also, I suspect a SA undercover to be already operating in this forum as the trail of discussions gets some "deft doctored navigation" at some critical junctures. I wish we discuss more on probables based on merit as we view them. Some of the names discussed could then be new but indicative for our future reading, no matter whether they turn out to be eventual winners. Mary's blog list of 94 probables for this year is quite exhaustive and I doubt the SA choice could be someone who doesn't figure there (unless they want to disqualify someone for figuring in that list!)

"Also, I suspect a SA undercover to be already operating in this forum as the trail of discussions gets some "deft doctored navigation" at some critical junctures." That comment made my day.