Nobel Consideration (was Re: Ideal and idealistic)

[jd]

I'm going to say that I don't see it happening unless this new book
manages to be on the level of GR...  at that point it might be tough
for them to explain why they wouldn't, if his name does come up, but
then again maybe they'd rather give it to a lesser-known author who
hasn't been what they would consider disrespectful about accepting
prizes in the past.  Seems you've got to play the game they call in
order to get the prize.  Frankly, and I'm sure many would disagree, I
think that it's possible that William Gaddis deserved a Nobel more
than Pynchon before he died, or if nothing else then they were on the
same level.  I can't say entirely why I believe this, but it does
occur to me.

Further, regardless of sex, I don't think that the Nobel people are
really into what Pynchon is selling necessarily... the paranoia, the
attraction of facism, etc...  it seems a somewhat more dismaying
commentary on humanity than Hemingway's noble protagonists or Bellow's
works, or Faulkner even (though I haven't read Sound and the Fury yet,
how is that possible, I need to get on that), authors who did show a
darker side of life but sides of life that weren't quite so happily
dark, whose darkness was almost, in a way, comforting.  Like how when
you're not feeling quite so hot Samuel Beckett sounds like he's right
on and it's affirming to read it...  You might get all teary-eyed when
Robert Jordan dies but it's almost like a romance novel for guys
(which, for the record, I love, not saying it isn't good).

And from what I've read of Saramago I'm not entirely sure i know why
he's on there... I enjoyed Blindness quite a bit (though his new
sequel to the novel sounds rather... bleh...  I guess I shouldn't
judge before reading) but man, I tried to read I think it was The Cave
and I thought it was horribly written... couldn't get through it.

Not sure I entirely managed to make my point here, we'll see.

On 8/1/06, Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I concur.  Also, too many white guys in recent years.
> Let's just hope the Swedish Academy gets 'round to him
> before [insert knocking on wood sound here] ...
>
> --- davemarc <davemarc at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > I have my doubts about this year being the year for
> > Pynchon, but I think that Against the Day could
> > prove to be a decisive factor in subsequent years.
> >
> > I admit this is very speculative. I don't think
> > I've ever predicted any Nobel Prize correctly.
>
> If only I'd put money on Oe, Grass and, as I recall,
> even Kertesz, (and had I had to put money on the line,
> I'd likely have hedged my bets, at least, with Naipaul
> in 2001; I knew it'd be a Chinese author in 2000, had
> Bei Dao sign a book for me, but ...) ...
>
> Some interesting stats here ...
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature
>
> Though as always, and, of course, as we in particular
> know well with the Wikipedia, caveat lector ...
>
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