Apologies and retry (Was: Parochial Plea)

[Mark Kohut]

Engdahl's remark also struck me this way: That the Academy had already decided against TRP, the American who after his last work, Against the Day, was so World-Hostorical in themes that no one, not even he, could generalize if TRP was actively under consideration. 

My oft-expressed 'theory" is that they 'know'---with feelers---that he would not come to get the Prize. And, they won't have that.

And, I might think they now thinl Mr. Roth has gotten narrower again. But, just a wild surmise there. 

--- On Wed, 9/30/09, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Apologies and retry (Was: Parochial Plea)
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 3:38 AM
> 
> My apologies for a couple of html-encrusted posts: Hotmail
> added a new
> autosave feature which messes with plain text settings. The
> feature
> can't be disabled, of course. Anyway, I'll try reposting a
> previous 
> message:
>  
> ------
>  
> Page:
> 
> > Might this be the reason someone (forget the name) on
> the Nobel committee
> > said that no American writer would receive the Prize
> for Literature because
> > they were too provincial=2C too focused on America?
>  
> No, Horace Engdahl said that because he is a pompous
> buffoon who dislikes
> America and Americans. And his statement was pretty stupid,
> since some of
> the strongest American contenders for the Nobel (Pynchon
> and Roth) are
> anything but insular: Pynchon because the world is his
> scene, and Roth
> because he has done much to introduce foreign novels to an
> American
> audience. Plus which, as Rich pointed out, much European
> fiction is just
> as provincial and insular as American fiction. And this
> insularity
> is often even more visible in European novels: When an
> American writes
> about America, he's still working on a large tapestry: When
> a Swede writes
> about Sweden or a Dane about Denmark, matters quickly turn
> very claustrophobic 
> indeed.
> 
> Fortunately, Horace Engdahl stepped down as the permanent
> secretary of
> the Swedish Academy in June. The man is really quite
> insufferable.      
>         
>           
>   
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