Comments on: nobel choices

By: commonbeauty

commonbeauty — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 11:36:11 +0000

In any case, Coetzee won. Which is nice for him, and not so nice for Roth.
My basic prediction this year was that an English language novelist was due for the prize. I like the Swedish Academy: they’ve generally got their heads screwed on straight.

By: moorishgirl

moorishgirl — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 20:10:39 +0000

Good point about the timing. As I understand it, Naipaul had been rumored to have been on the shortlist several times before, but only won in 2001. I could be wrong. Thanks for the link!

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:53:52 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. I guess I was just imagining that by mid-September most if not all of the committee’s deliberations would likely have happened already–but in fact I don’t know anything about the specific workings of that committee, only a bit about how the NBA and NBCCs work. If they in fact settled on Naipaul after the fact, then I agree it is pretty smelly.

Since you sound interested, here’s a URL for Mod Phil:

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/MP/journal/contents/v100n4.html

By: moorishgirl

moorishgirl — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 18:15:45 +0000

Laura–that’s not what I said. The choice of Naipaul was political (someone who was sharply critical of religion in general and Islam in particular) and I disagreed. The choice of Adonis is being to *reported* to be political (to appease the Arabs), and I disagree with that too. Sorry if my post wasn’t clear.

The article in Modern Philology sounds really good. Thanks for the pointer.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 16:33:59 +0000

Does it seem inconsistent to say that in Adonis’s case the choice should be a pure, aesthetically motivated one but in Naipaul’s case politics and world events should have been a factor?

FYI, there’s a fascinating discussion by Harvard prof Steven Owen in Modern Philology (May 2003) of the (of course inescapable) politics of awarding this prize. He makes the point that the writers who get nominated from outside the West aren’t necessarily the best or most representative from their respective countries, but the ones who have managed to get translated into English or French–and who gets translated is to some degree determined by, well, how translatable and how appealing to Western tastes their work is. Fascinating stuff.

By: Jos

Jos — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:41:07 +0000

Dear CommonBeauty, you

By: moorishgirl

moorishgirl — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:23:58 +0000

I like Philip Roth. I wouldn’t mind if he won, either. Though of course an Adonis win would be great too.

By: commonbeauty

commonbeauty — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 14:02:35 +0000

Nice pages. I’ll be sure to visit frequently.

Tomorrow: I’m hoping Philip Roth wins it. About time the American sentence got some respect.