Nobel to US: Drop Dead
Looks like you can use those SAS frequent flyer miles for something else, Philip. All award nerds and bored literary columnists can thank Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the literature jury for the Nobel Prize, for stirring things up today with his comments that Americans aren't qualified for the big prize they haven't won since 1993:
Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States.... The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.
I had come to understand that no American (especially Roth) was getting the prize until Bush was out of office, but it looks like things may go deeper than that, and we in the provinces (where, admittedly, we could read a little more translated literature) will have to watch from the sidelines while Europe gives itself another one of those gold medals with the picture of the dynamite tycoon on it. David Remnick of the New Yorker gets the best response in the AP article: "And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike, and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola." Speaking of insular, it's worth noting that of the eight books by Americans in our editors' top 10 last year, three are by first-generation immigrants and one by the son of immigrants.
Does his contempt extend to Canadians? I've been holding out for Alice Munro for some time now, but it's true that her work shows no influence of the work of Michel Houellebecq, so she may be ineligible. --Tom
prosetech on September 30, 2008 at 11:18 PM
What is pathetic is that you are willing to debase your own culture(Coca Cola, mon Dieux!) to wipe the boots of your colonial masters. And what about all that pandering( sons of immigirants) nonsense? Do you mean to say that an American son of soil shouldn't be eligible for an award for literary excellence?
Fortunately, Noble Prize is not about literature anymore; like an old dowager piling on make-up to maintain a pretense of glamour, it's the last neurotic gasp of a rapidly disappearing Europe to maintain it's cultural viability. And they can only do that by bashing America.
FredTownWard on October 01, 2008 at 04:27 AM
The Nobel Prize for Literature is no more about literature than the Nobel Prize for Peace is about peace, and hasn't been for many years. Both are about anti-Americanism in particular and leftwing extremism in general.
It's actually something of a badge of honor that no American writers have been considered depraved enough to receive this award recently, particularly since during the same time period there have been a number of Americans considered depraved enough to receive the "Peace" award.
StuartDMT on October 01, 2008 at 05:35 AM
I first read of the comments by Horace Engdahl on the CNN website. I wasn't surprised by the stance, though I do not agree. Perhaps the gentleman could use a few well thought out reading lists to assist in his American Lit 101 course work. The idea that Americans can't or don't compete in the larger arena of high literature may, though, be more an issue of perception. Case in point: Engdahl's opinion was given voice to many Americans via the same venue that I frequent, i.e., CNN, which listed the article under entertainment. Yes, entertainment - along with Clay Aiken's coming out announcement and review of Tina Fey's most recent imitation of Sarah Palin. Now THAT's high brow culture for you.
Jack on October 01, 2008 at 06:07 AM
If you want to make any real money as an author you have to publish in the US market.
I lost all respect for the Nobel organization a long time ago. The live with blinders on.
MaggieW on October 01, 2008 at 06:10 AM
If the document awarded along with the check is on paper,
it might pass rigor for toilet paper.
The europeans must all be double jointed in their shoulders,
so they can perpetually pat themselves on the back.
MaggieW on October 01, 2008 at 06:11 AM
If the document awarded along with the check is on paper,
it might pass rigor for toilet paper.
The europeans must all be double jointed in their shoulders,
so they can perpetually pat themselves on the back.
MaggieW on October 01, 2008 at 06:11 AM
If the document awarded along with the check is on paper,
it might pass rigor for toilet paper.
The europeans must all be double jointed in their shoulders,
so they can perpetually pat themselves on the back.
MaggieW on October 01, 2008 at 06:11 AM
If the document awarded along with the check is on paper,
it might pass rigor for toilet paper.
The europeans must all be double jointed in their shoulders,
so they can perpetually pat themselves on the back.
MaggieW on October 01, 2008 at 06:11 AM
If the document awarded along with the check is on paper,
it might pass rigor for toilet paper.
The europeans must all be double jointed in their shoulders,
so they can perpetually pat themselves on the back.
BlogDog on October 01, 2008 at 06:12 AM
What a jackass. Neal Stephenson has more deep, richly contoured fiction that requires intelligence to read than perhaps any author in the last five years. Yet he'll be dismissed *because* he's American.
Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.
Dennis on October 01, 2008 at 06:12 AM
Who cares what the Nobel Prize wanks have to say? The Prize is meaningless. It has become nothing more than another political sideshow.
on October 01, 2008 at 06:13 AM
"mon Dieux!"
I studied German in school, not French, but I'm guessing that "Dieux" is the plural.
Now, back to my comic book. Thank you.
acadog on October 01, 2008 at 06:22 AM
Does it matter? The prizes that insiders still respect (Phys, Medicine, Chemistry, and Econ) are totally dominated by the US. So Peace and Lit, being the most subjective are the consolation prizes Europe gives to itself.
Diggs on October 01, 2008 at 06:32 AM
Give the Euros another ten years, and the only literature they will dare recognize for any prize is the Q'ran.
fgmorley on October 01, 2008 at 06:38 AM
In the American Rube vernacular--
Hey Horace, Stick your Nobel where the Sun Don't Shine!!
Pete on October 01, 2008 at 06:47 AM
Hard for me to feel sorry for American writers who will suffer for this. Like Joyce Catol Oates and Erika Jong and others who hve passed on but were denied like Vonnegut. Live by anti-American sword and die by it too.
They've fed the beast and now it feeds on them.
Which strikes me as something close to justice.
prosetech on October 01, 2008 at 06:55 AM
'"mon Dieux!"
I studied German in school, not French, but I'm guessing that "Dieux" is the plural.'
Maybe you should go back to school and study French because "mon dieux" is a perfectly acceptable phrase in French howsoever it translates in English.
HopeSew on October 01, 2008 at 07:13 AM
"Mon dieu" or "mes dieux" not whatever you said.
less on October 01, 2008 at 07:13 AM
Its hard to be modest when you're a Euro, what with being at the fulcrum of poetry and civilisation since the dawn of time, and stuff.
Understand that only the dregs of any culture or society came to the US in the first place, killing the redskins, enslaving the Negroes for the almighty dollar, inventing global warming for profit, etc.
Zero culture. Obama is the the Messiah. Do even the "samrtest" Amis realize this? Nope.
Tom on October 01, 2008 at 07:16 AM
Oh well. I guess Americans will have to settle for winning the prizes in Physiology (8 in the past 10 years), Physics (8/10), Chemistry (7/10), Economics (8/10), and Peace (2/10).
Steevo on October 01, 2008 at 07:16 AM
"What is pathetic is that you are willing to debase your own culture(Coca Cola, mon Dieux!) to wipe the boots of your colonial masters. And what about all that pandering( sons of immigirants) nonsense? Do you mean to say that an American son of soil shouldn't be eligible for an award for literary excellence?"
You've misunderstood. He's mocking Euro perceptions.
bee on October 01, 2008 at 07:30 AM
who cares when the award is not based on merit
Dave in Texas on October 01, 2008 at 07:34 AM
Dieux is most definitely plural, comme les dieux du grecque ancien, like the gods of ancient greece..
Mon Dieu is the correct spelling of My God....
perhaps the fact that the X is silent has confused prosetech.
Juan Gomez on October 01, 2008 at 07:37 AM
To Mr. Horace Engdahl,
The fact that someone of his "expertise" thinks of Americans, as "watered down" in their abilities to write is completely asenine. If you are going to judge our nation as a whole, don't judge us by what our president or government does. Let's face it, The Nobel Prize is nothing more than an award fueled by politics. The fact that Europeans think they are the best, doesn't surprise me. Look at the world cup, Europeans only win the world cup when it's held in Europe. And like someone said in a previous comment, give them ten years, we'll see how 'cultured' they will be, they can't even give citizenship to kids born in their countries whose parents aren't European. So keep your literary and "peace" prizes, after all, it was the U.S. that bailed out europe (both militarily and economically) in BOTH world wars, not to mention in the Baltic conflict as well.
Edward Sisson on October 01, 2008 at 07:50 AM
From the story: "Engdahl ... said U.S. writers are "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," dragging down the quality of their work."
Isn't he correct?