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,
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
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 .
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
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,
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.)
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.
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
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."
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!