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Nobel Prize in Literature 2006

Yeah, was just about to post this too. 13:00 CET, for those wanting to watch the webcast on the Nobel site.
 
mrkgnao said:
Actually, I believe Churchill got it for his autobiography (-ies?).
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Apparently both:

for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values


Then again, the chairman (Horace Engdahl) has also said that what they want to reward is rebellion - the ideal winner should be an exile, and an enemy of the state. Er... go Pynchon!
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Except of course Mr. Pynchon isn't an exile nor an enemy of anything. He's just a reclusive loon, like several North American writers who are deeply paranoid and afraid of a government that doesn't even know they exist :rolleyes:

José Saramago is living in self-exile as a protest against the Portuguse government's censoring of his work. Pynchon just doesn't like pictures and interviews. Salman Rushdie is an enemy of islamic fundamentalists; Harold Pinter is an enemy of Bush and Blair. Has Pynchon ever stated any interest in politics or world affairs? Is his work even political?

I fear Thomas Pynchon must be the dullest writer in the world, probably more so than Hemingway, who at least had the good sense to lie about his mundane life buffing it up with safaris and bullfights :rolleyes: Pynchon is just Howard Hughes with a pen in his hand.
 
Heteronym said:
Except of course Mr. Pynchon isn't an exile nor an enemy of anything. He's just a reclusive loon, like several North American writers who are deeply paranoid and afraid of a government that doesn't even know they exist :rolleyes:

José Saramago is living in self-exile as a protest against the Portuguse government's censoring of his work. Pynchon just doesn't like pictures and interviews. Salman Rushdie is an enemy of islamic fundamentalists; Harold Pinter is an enemy of Bush and Blair. Has Pynchon ever stated any interest in politics or world affairs? Is his work even political?

I fear Thomas Pynchon must be the dullest writer in the world, probably more so than Hemingway, who at least had the good sense to lie about his mundane life buffing it up with safaris and bullfights :rolleyes: Pynchon is just Howard Hughes with a pen in his hand.
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Wow, you really like Pynchon, don't you? ;) Couldn't paranoia be a kind of exile? And isn't being a reclusive loon and writing beautifully mad books unlike any others a political statement... of sorts? :rolleyes:

*mrkgnao*
 
I can't say I'm a member of the Thomas Pynchon Fan Club :D

Paranoia isn't exile; it's an unfortunate mental illness. Having to flee from your own country because your writings have upset a political or religious authority, and needing bodyguards because your life's in danger, that's living in exile.

J.D. Sallinger was a reclusive loon and I can't say The Catcher In The Rye is a political statement. I just don't see any 'message' in Pynchon's reclusiveness. It's his chosen way of life, and no more than that. Although it makes his appearences on 'The Simpsons' funnier ;)
 
beer good said:
Has been nominated every year for the last 5-10 years or so, since people consider his lyrics poetry. Don't worry, he's never going to get it either.
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Dont be so sure. One of these days the academy might pick him as a response to the criticism they get for the authors they usually pick. I think Dylan is at least more likely to win it than a swedish author (for the reasons stated above).
 
If you're going to place a bet, go for someone Scandinavian. They've won 13% of the time despite having only 0.5% of the World's population. It reminds me of the Eurovision Song Contest voting system.
 
Wintergreen said:
If you're going to place a bet, go for someone Scandinavian. They've won 13% of the time despite having only 0.5% of the World's population. It reminds me of the Eurovision Song Contest voting system.
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Well, we DO have 100% of the jury - it's no weirder than 99% of all Oscars going to Americans. But it's been awarded to a Scandi author exactly once in the last 50 years, so...
 
Zolipara said:
One of these days the academy might pick him as a response to the criticism they get for the authors they usually pick.
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Not while Horace is in charge... he sees criticism as a guideline for "do the exact opposite", I think... (but with the new academy members, who knows what will happen next year... :) )

*mrkgnao* (with paper bag over head, just in case - as a political statement ;) )
 
Wintergreen said:
If you're going to place a bet, go for someone Scandinavian. They've won 13% of the time despite having only 0.5% of the World's population. It reminds me of the Eurovision Song Contest voting system.
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Well, it could be that Scandinavia also produces good writers. I mean, St Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago don't hold that monopoly ;)
 
Yes, congrats to Mr P. At least this means I can now definitively stop trying to get through his books...
 
Oh, the reason?

"...in the quest for the melancholic soul of his [Pamuk's] native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
 
From Turkey, that beautiful Eden of open-mindedness, civil rights and high culture, comes literature's latest great hope :D

The choice lacked subtlety. Last year they gave it to an inveterate anti-Bush writer. This year they give it to a Turkish writer when Turkey's having problems with the EU for not being too keen on civil liberties.

If the noble Nobel people want to make a political statement, just give the prize to Salman Rushdie once and for all. Now that would be fun!

I'll have to look around to see if Pamuk is already published in Portugal; I'm curious to read this guy.
 
Promises, promises :mad:

I want to see a crazed horde of Islamic fundamentalists burning the peaceful streets of Stockholm NOW! I can't wait another year.
 
I always wonder if there is any writer who would make a worthy Nobel laureate, living up to the criterium of having produced "the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", yet is so uncontroversial that no one will be able to claim it's a political statement.

And Rushdie's never gonna get it. At least not until the members of the Academy who refused to condemn the fatwa have died off.
 
Wintergreen said:
If you're going to place a bet, go for someone Scandinavian. They've won 13% of the time despite having only 0.5% of the World's population. It reminds me of the Eurovision Song Contest voting system.
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Last time it went to someone from scandinavia was 1974.
As someone mentioned earlier thats the only time it went to someone from scandinavia the last 50 years. At the beginning of the 1900's scandinavia had a unusually large amount of very talented writers, some of whom got the nobel prize. And i would not say they didnt deserve it.

But ofcourse to get the pize, the commitee has to know about your work. It doesnt help if 200 million chineese think you are a great writer if your work has not been translated.
 
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