Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?

[Bekah]

Ackshully it was because in the early days of the Nobel it was being awarded to authors showing an "ideal" view of mankind and society.  The judges were interpreting Alfred Nobel's instructions quite literally -  like the Pulitzer was supposed to be for works showing a positive view of the "American way of life."    That rather 19th century interpretation of both prizes has been loosened up.   So Joyce didn't really do it to himself so much as the rules were a bit different.  

But he's in good company -  Borges, Nabokov, Auden, Frost, Zola, Ibsen, Proust, Tolstoy and Twain never got the Prize, either.  

Interesting little list here: 
http://listverse.com/2009/09/16/10-brilliant-writers-robbed-of-a-nobel-prize/

Bekah


On May 5, 2013, at 4:37 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> By writing Finnegans Wake? joke.
> 
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
> Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 5:28 AM
> Subject: Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
> 
> 
> I can' recall if Ellmann addresses the Nobel, but his is an excellent biography of Jimmy. Espmark, Feldman, don't give definitive answers to the Nobel selections. 
> On Sunday, May 5, 2013, Rev'd Seventy-Six wrote:
> "Joyce never got a Nobel and there's some politics involved."
> 
> There always are with these things.  Borges being a perfect example:  the committee would take vocal supporters of Stalin, but not an established, well-regarded author who vouched for a pseudo-populist despot?
> 
> How did Joyce foul his chances?  I don't know this story.
> 
>