namelesshere
Reader
Does anyone know when the academy's meetings are around now?
Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 Speculation
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Bartleby
Moderator
They usually take place on Thursdays, no? The last post on instagram by Peter Englund concerning their meeting was on a Thursday - and the one with the photos of the phones was on a Friday, but he must have been unable to post on the same day, somehow...
namelesshere
Reader
thanks - thought they were Thursdays but wasn't sure!
redhead
Blahblahblah
I just scrolled back through posts the Nobel Foundation made on Facebook to see around when they posted “hints” on social media. Last year, the day before and of the announcement, they shared images of Tagore, Hemingway and Toni Morrison with accompanying quotes, which at the time I thought was them pointing toward an North American poet.
But in 2019, they also posted Tagore and Hemingway (they even shared the same quotes), along with Gordimer as the third. Which makes me think the posts didn’t mean anything last year and some of us just got lucky with predicting Glück last year.
I know some posts pointed toward Dylan when he won, and before that they strongly hinted a woman would win one year, but if we discount last year, have those social media posts meant anything since Dylan won?
But in 2019, they also posted Tagore and Hemingway (they even shared the same quotes), along with Gordimer as the third. Which makes me think the posts didn’t mean anything last year and some of us just got lucky with predicting Glück last year.
I know some posts pointed toward Dylan when he won, and before that they strongly hinted a woman would win one year, but if we discount last year, have those social media posts meant anything since Dylan won?
Bartleby
Moderator
I remember when Ishiguro won, the posts leading up to the announcement referred to Kipling's and Lessing's age when winning, and the average number was about the age Ishiguro was then...
redhead
Blahblahblah
This may sound rich coming from me, but I think that might be reading a bit too much into it
Septularisen
Reader
Yes, but for the Nobel you can forget all of them! The two first are two young and the last three are too old!
Another very interesting author that I can advise if you haven't read is : Zeruya SHALEV.
Septularisen
Reader
Yes I remember that too. When I read these two posts, I had said that the Nobel would be for a British author.
Septularisen
Reader
"Lasciate ogni speranza, o voi che entrate"... Unfortunately, ADONIS is 91 year old!
Septularisen
Reader
Agree with that, nothing better that "La route des Flandres" (1960), for start to discover is work.
But, for me his masterpiece is "Les Géorgiques" (1981).
Bartleby
Moderator
I don't much get this age thing. I mean Lessing was almost that old when she won... sure she's an outlier in this, but I don't see why he couldn't win. I believe he is well and healthy, so why not? Tranströmer, although younger, when he won was, sadly, in worse conditions (what with having suffered a stroke, leaving him unable to speak and all). I'm just curious to know how his whole body of work holds up, since we don't have all that many translations of him...
Septularisen
Reader
Ah, I love Halldor LAXNESS too!
You won't believe it, but one day (one night to be exact...), I found myself reading a book by LAXNESS, - "Le Paradis retrouvé" ("Paradise Reclaimed") -, in the room he had occupied in the Abbey of Clervaux, in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, when he wanted to become a monk...
How the world is... Small!
Septularisen
Reader
For be precise, Doris LESSING was 88 years old when she became laureate. But, as we say in french : "C'est l'exception qui confirme la règle".
I can guarantee you, that I will be the first happy if ADONIS became Nobel Prize, and yes his work really deserve the Nobel, but unfortunately I stopped believe on Santa Claus at eight years...
hayden
Well-known member
I would have gone with the Brits born in other countries thing.
ministerpumpkin
Well-known member
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Septularisen
Reader
Please find below the age of each writer each Nobel Prize since... Doris LESSING in 2007.
2007 : Doris LESSING : 88
2008 : JMG Le CLÉZIO : 68
2009 : Herta MÜLLER : 56
2010 : Mario VARGAS LLSOA : 74
2011 : Tomas TRANSTRÖMER : 80
2012 : Mo YAN : 56
2013 : Alice MUNRO : 82
2014 : Patrcik MODIANO : 69
2015 : Svetlana ALEXIEVITCH : 67
2016 : Bob DYLAN : 75
2017 : Kazuo ISHIGURO : 63
2018 : Olga TOKARTZUK : 56
2019 : Peter HANDKE : 77
2020 : Louise GLÜCK : 77
2007 : Doris LESSING : 88
2008 : JMG Le CLÉZIO : 68
2009 : Herta MÜLLER : 56
2010 : Mario VARGAS LLSOA : 74
2011 : Tomas TRANSTRÖMER : 80
2012 : Mo YAN : 56
2013 : Alice MUNRO : 82
2014 : Patrcik MODIANO : 69
2015 : Svetlana ALEXIEVITCH : 67
2016 : Bob DYLAN : 75
2017 : Kazuo ISHIGURO : 63
2018 : Olga TOKARTZUK : 56
2019 : Peter HANDKE : 77
2020 : Louise GLÜCK : 77
redhead
Blahblahblah
Oh, that I can see.
re Lessing and Adonis: For older candidates, I feel like the SA has probably previously judged their work and evidently found it wanting, so unless they put out new and acclaimed work, I don’t see why they’d get it.
Also, I was under the impression most people didn’t hold Lessing in high regard after her foray into science fiction, and her reputation only really started recovering in the mid to late 90s when she started publishing some acclaimed memoirs/novels. The Academy probably started giving her increased attention after that when she was already older.
I guess what I’m saying is, I can see why Lessing might have gotten it when she did and why other older writers might be out of contention.
namelesshere
Reader
Yeh - I think this was a clear indicator.
I'd be inclined to write off 2018/19 given that two prizes were awarded.
Tweets in the immediate run up to the announcements in 16, 17 and 20 do seem to have hinted towards the ultimate winner.
I guess it's a bit like the library, which has only been a "thing" for a few years in the same way social media has - it's all a bit new and may be a lot of fuss over nothing, but we probably need more data to be definitive about it. At the moment it feels more likely to me than not that there's something in the tweets they post in the immediate day/hours before the announcement. The tweets sent during August/Sept most likely mean nothing much - they could be an indicator of the shortlist but they are routinely identical to previous years for the most part. I wish they'd vary them a bit!
Bartleby
Moderator
This that you say about Lessing is important - there must have been a generational thing going on also, looking down on sci-fi writing; the year she won the Academy members might have had a different look at it, as an example Horace Engdahl proclaiming his great admiration for the last book in her Children of Violence series, which takes a turn on the genre. This time round time might have allowed the Academy to really see what she had done.
But again, as for the age factor, I can see how with the recent laureates being at most in their early 80s upon winning a sort of pattern can be made, but since I tend to believe what the SA members say (e.g. Ellen Mattson's video), about literary merit being the most important thing, if they are assessing a writer who happens to be quite old but who continues writing incredible stuff, I honestly don't see a reason they wouldn't go for this writer (who knows if they weren't really heavily considering Friederike Mayröcker with all those books of hers checked out from the library). I can only imagine them not awarding someone due to age if this same person's work has waned considerably, the Academy having lost their chance when said writer was at his/her peak (perhaps, as some Spanish-speaking members here have reported, we could therefore rule out Homero Aridjis, for instance).
Salixacaena
Active member
Even before Oz passed Grossman seemed far more likely.
Yehoshua won’t win. He’s said a bunch of weird stuff about Jews who don’t live in Israel and has alienated a lot of the Jewish community.
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