Nobel Prize for Literature?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Tom Head, Oct 9, 2002.

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  1. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    At 11am tomorrow (Thursday) morning, the 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature will be awarded. For those of you lurking tonight: Any guesses on who might get it?



    Cheers,
     
  2. Lawrie Miller

    Lawrie Miller New Member

    Who are the nominees? Is it on E! ?


    Lawrie Miller
    BA in 4 Weeks
    http://geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks

    .
     
  3. My choice: J.M. Coetzee

    The real winner: Rushdie. It's a conspiracy to enrage the Muslim world.
     
  4. Jack Tracey

    Jack Tracey New Member

    Re: Re: Nobel Prize for Literature?

    As I understand it, there are usually about 200 nominees each year. The field is narrowed to 5 and then a final determination is made. As you might guess, there are authors that are nominated year after year after year after...but the list of nominees is never made public (especially the top 5). If I were eligible to nominate someone then I think I'd nominate Thomas Pynchon. He may not ever win but he's long been one of my favorites.
    Jack
     
  5. Peter French

    Peter French member

    1. Bears Guide

    2. A left field dissertation from KW-U or PWU re presented as a work of fiction

    :)
     
  6. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    The Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey.
     
  7. Lawrie Miller

    Lawrie Miller New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Nobel Prize for Literature?

    Meant my remarks to be a grain of social satire, Jack, nevertheless, thank you for the Thomas Pynchon reference.


    Lawrie Miller
    BA in 4 Weeks
    http://geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks

    .
     
  8. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    Hey, I would go for Coetzee. I am going to be utilizing his works for my MA at UNIZUL...
    I really liked Disgrace.

    But, then again, I liked Harry Potter, too.... so what does that say about my taste????

    clint
     
  9. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Turned out to be Kertesz Imre.
     
  10. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    You mean I didn't win for the 50th straight year.
     
  11. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Kertesz Imre is Ermi Zsetrek spelled backwards.
     
  12. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    Well, you're each about half right--it's Imre Kertesz (b. 1929), Hungarian novelist and Auschwitz survivor, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history":
    http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/2002/index.html

    I'm not familiar with his stuff, but the bio-bibliography leaves me suspecting that he's well worth a spot on my reading list.


    Cheers,
     
  13. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Whaddya mean half right? I said it was Kertesz. (Sorry I don't know how to do accent marks in these posts; there should be one,of course, over the second e.)
     
  14. bgossett

    bgossett New Member

    Imre Kertész

    (cut-n-paste)
     
  15. Homer

    Homer New Member

    I have become thoroughly confused by this discussion. Thus, I am forced to maintain my original belief that the winner was, in fact, Lee Ermey.
     
  16. Jack Tracey

    Jack Tracey New Member

    Hi Tom - I wouldn't try to talk you out of reading the works of any Nobel prize winner but if you're interested in reading the works of a Holocaust survivor then I'd recommend Primo Levy. He's a better writer (IMHO) and more deserving of "The Prize" except that he's no longer living (suicide, I believe) and the rules state that the winner must be living at the time of ?nomination. In any case, good luck to the winner, whatever his name is.
    Jack
     
  17. Tracy Gies

    Tracy Gies New Member

    The only holocaust survivor I am aware of reading is Tadeusz Borowski, survivor of Aushwitz and Dachau. He did commit suicide in 1951. He is known for the way he reveals the ironies of living in places where others were being sent to their death. One of his best-known works is a short story entitled "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen." From a review at The Book Report:


    The politeness of the title reflects a historical fact: Nazi guards and their prisoner accomplices (who did most of the dirty work) very often maintained an air of cordialty which kept the imminent executions of new arrivals a secret from them until the moment when gas, not water, issued from the showerheads in the "bath house."
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 12, 2002
  18. Bill Highsmith

    Bill Highsmith New Member

    Next year's winner: Martha Stewart's attorney
     
  19. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Primo Levi did indeed commit suicide, as have many other holocaust survivor writers. One thinks also of Paul Celan, whose German-language poetry is not only stellar in this group of writers, but arguably the best German-language 20th century poetry period. Given that holocaust survivor-writers often commit suicide, and given the propensity of Hungarians to commit suicide (highest rate of any country in the world, traditionally), it is perhaps a minor miracle that Kertesz Imre is still alive, well, and writing.
    Ad multos annos!
     

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