I totally forgot until this second that Coetzee won the Nobel Prize, weird
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:37 (seven years ago) link
Anyway, Laxness's "Independent People" is one of the most magnificent things I've ever read, thank you Nobel committee for bringing it to my attention.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:38 (seven years ago) link
Mann - very boring technocratic prose in laying out of the issues in Magic Mountain. Musil was 10x better than this. I want to read his last novel tho'. Death in Venice is great and I do look for the edition of his diarie
You might respond differently to the translator and Joseph and His Brothers, which I finished three weeks ago and wanted another 1500 pages of. The mountains of historical detail reinvented by a self-consciously 20th century narrator provoked the right kind of dialectical thinking.
otoh Thomas Mann exists so that he can win Nobel Prizes.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:41 (seven years ago) link
Kipling's short stories are rather good: terse little things with a good ear for dialect that I'll pick over Hemingway's these days.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:42 (seven years ago) link
who is someone who could write fiction and poetry as well as he could? i can't think of anyone.
― scott seward, Friday, October 14, 2016
Hardy and Lawrence.
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn1972 Heinrich Böll1973 Patrick White
boy have I given these three a number of chances. Am I reading the right White? What's a good start?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:46 (seven years ago) link
I feel like Kipling and Yeats are the most imperishable here, but I haven't read most of the list. Kawabata is one I want to check out.
― jmm, Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:49 (seven years ago) link
otoh Thomas Mann exists so that he can win Nobel Prizes.― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
He was born for it! Even now absolutely encapsulates what the Nobel for lit is about and...its not pretty.
I don't know, historical novels ain't my bag. My line on translation is that someone who speaks to me will do so even if I come across a translation that is regarded as bad. So if I'm not liking something its either because its something I am not disposed towards or its bad, or I am but I don't like the writing, or these are things I am not ready for just now (on that one Dostoevsky passed me by at 17 but now I'm good with him)
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:54 (seven years ago) link
Historical novels aren't mine either, but I loved the Joseph story as a kid and read Harold Bloom's The Book of J in college.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 12:56 (seven years ago) link
I'm surprised Milan Kundera didnt get a Nobel Prize
― Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:21 (seven years ago) link
or Joyce!
― Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:22 (seven years ago) link
Saul Bellow is the only writer on the list I'm not keen on
― Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:23 (seven years ago) link
Felix Krull is a hoot
― salthigh, Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:32 (seven years ago) link
yep
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:34 (seven years ago) link
making people listen to Patti Smith is kinda mean, Zim
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 11 December 2016 16:17 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AxfGzW7AdY
this prize wasn't as unjustified as people were saying last year
― treeship 2, Sunday, 7 January 2018 14:47 (six years ago) link
Louise she's all right she's just nearShe's delicate and seems like veneerBut she just makes it all too concise and too clearThat Johanna's not here
this is so mean. has to sting anyone who's been a "rebound"
― treeship 2, Sunday, 7 January 2018 14:57 (six years ago) link
It's more unjustified than people were saying last year, because in the interim Ashbery died and now can never win
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 7 January 2018 16:07 (six years ago) link
Probably fairer to say he has won the only nobel prize that counts
― very stabbable gaius (wins), Sunday, 7 January 2018 16:10 (six years ago) link
An argument for giving Dril the Prize for Literature - though I suspect this would be complicated by the fact that, iirc, multiple people actually run that account.
The point of the Nobel Prize in Literature is — according to its own stated aims — to honor an author from any country who has produced, as the original Swedish puts it: “den som inom litteraturen har producerat det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning,” or, as this line is usually translated: “in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”In the past, this translation has been fraught with controversy. The Swedish word “idealisk” can apparently be translated either as “ideal” or “idealistic”, but either way, no one is quite sure what it means. In the award’s early years, writers who had dedicated their careers to aesthetic realism (as opposed to idealism) tended to be passed over. Thus the French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme won the award in the Nobel's first year, 1901, but his countryman Emile Zola, whose work has proved far more enduring, was never honored. More recently, the phrase “ideal direction” has been interpreted to mean something more like the championing of certain liberal, humanitarian ideals, hence why so many laureates seem to be awarded the prize, at least in part, for their political commitments and beliefs — Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn or Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka challenging the authoritarian regimes they lived under; British playwright Harold Pinter taking a vocal stance against the Iraq War.So does Dril's work move in an “ideal direction”? Upon proper consideration of his work, it would be hard to argue that it doesn't. Dril is a remarkable writer whose work not only helps us understand but helps us to respond to the world in which we are forced to exist.
In the past, this translation has been fraught with controversy. The Swedish word “idealisk” can apparently be translated either as “ideal” or “idealistic”, but either way, no one is quite sure what it means. In the award’s early years, writers who had dedicated their careers to aesthetic realism (as opposed to idealism) tended to be passed over. Thus the French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme won the award in the Nobel's first year, 1901, but his countryman Emile Zola, whose work has proved far more enduring, was never honored. More recently, the phrase “ideal direction” has been interpreted to mean something more like the championing of certain liberal, humanitarian ideals, hence why so many laureates seem to be awarded the prize, at least in part, for their political commitments and beliefs — Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn or Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka challenging the authoritarian regimes they lived under; British playwright Harold Pinter taking a vocal stance against the Iraq War.
So does Dril's work move in an “ideal direction”? Upon proper consideration of his work, it would be hard to argue that it doesn't. Dril is a remarkable writer whose work not only helps us understand but helps us to respond to the world in which we are forced to exist.
https://theoutline.com/post/7245/give-the-nobel-prize-to-dril
― Simon H., Tuesday, 26 March 2019 14:12 (five years ago) link
Thought it was one person.
In any case scientists often share the prize for a single discovery.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 14:41 (five years ago) link
Longtime co-authors or collectives should absolutely be eligible for a literature prize. dril is Luther Blissett
― A funny tinge happened on the way to the forum (wins), Tuesday, 26 March 2019 17:16 (five years ago) link
oh it's a twitter account? Lmao
― brimstead, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 17:31 (five years ago) link
give it simon hedges
― PaulDananVEVO (||||||||), Tuesday, 26 March 2019 18:13 (five years ago) link
This annual piece feels a bit recycled now.
Anyway good to see Michon make it to the bookmaker list.
Why are people pissing and moaning about this @alex_shephard thing on the Nobel? It's really funny, y'all need to take more drugs or something. https://t.co/rBszYNRdPp— Adrian Nathan West (@a_nathanwest) October 4, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 07:57 (one year ago) link
So I love Tokarczuk, Saramago, used to love Ishiguro but his last two were rubbish, read one Gurnah which was pretty good, Marquez is fine, Munro is fine but I prefer novels, don't really care for Lessing, not bothered about Coetzee, don't want to read Naipaul... who should I try next?
― ledge, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 08:22 (one year ago) link
sir winston churchill 👶🏻
― mark s, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 08:54 (one year ago) link
1922 Jacinto Benavente
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 08:57 (one year ago) link
Actual answer. I am not going to read it, but I hear good things about it.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451279/kristin-lavransdatter-by-undset-sigrid/9780143039167
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:03 (one year ago) link
ideal choice - female author, "attempted human sacrifice, floods, fights, murders, violent suicide, a gay king, drunken revelry, the Bubonic Plague", and it will beef up my pre 1980 album which only has half a dozen stickers in (pasternak, camus, steinbeck, faulkner, hesse, hamsun).
― ledge, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:28 (one year ago) link
In the early days there's a lot of Scandinavian names so you get the accusations that it was parochial.
But here you have one of them that's been plucked from obscurity, re-packaged as post-Ferrante.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:41 (one year ago) link
yep, congrats to the penguin marketing department on that one.
― ledge, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:42 (one year ago) link
I believe there was a somewhat recent film adaptation of it as well, directed by Liv Ullmann.
― Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:43 (one year ago) link
1995. Time flies.
― Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 09:45 (one year ago) link
Tagore's short stories are good.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 10:12 (one year ago) link
Tagore kind of lives on through the Satyajit Ray connection.
― Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 10:45 (one year ago) link
also not wanting to give the Nobel ppl undue credit but 1913 is pretty early to consider going beyond the eurocentric, no?
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 10:47 (one year ago) link
Anyone read any Claude Simon? One of those nouveau roman writers I've never tried
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 10:49 (one year ago) link
Ha, no, but I remember he was on my list once as well to investigate.
― Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 10:53 (one year ago) link
Yes, Simon is great. Check out Flanders Road, it's been reissued.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 11:09 (one year ago) link
Will do!
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 11:21 (one year ago) link
simon is great, yes - i found 'the flanders road' brilliant in places but a little inscrutable at times - multiple narrators, asynchronous narrative, i found it difficult to find a through line. his middle period experimental works 'conducting bodies' and 'triptych' were significant reads for me. 'conducting bodies' is republished by ubuweb here under a new title: https://ubu-mirror.ch/ubu/simon_properties.html
― dogs, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 12:10 (one year ago) link
Most likely the next Nobel Prize winner is not on my list (although Glück, Tokarczuk & Handke were on it), but I created this mosaic as a thank you for your comments & support (and as an apology for flooding your timelines for 33 days). It includes every name I mentioned. Cheers. pic.twitter.com/UhQ0jiBn89— Luis Panini (@TheLuisPanini) October 4, 2022
― Fizzles, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 19:04 (one year ago) link
BREAKING NEWS: The 2022 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the French author Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” pic.twitter.com/D9yAvki1LL— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 6 October 2022 13:04 (one year ago) link
Haven't read her but she sounds better than the last two French winners.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 6 October 2022 13:11 (one year ago) link
Pierre Joris:
Oh, well. Another weirdo Nobel Prize in Lit: Annie Ernaux, a good, competent, though pedestrian & safe, French writer of autobiographical fiction. So yes, the prize went to a woman, which is good. But this is a totally safe, intra-european gimmick. Actually this is ridiculous in an era when a really great novelist, Salman Rushdie, suffered from an assassination attempt, when Adonis, the greatest poet & writer in the Arabic language, would have been only the 2nd Nobel (after the novelist Naguib Mahfouz in 1988) in that language, when there are.... oh, forget it, the list of major writers who could/should get it is large & very international.
― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:30 (one year ago) link
is this guy fucking kidding? Ernaux is utterly incredible and I say this as a reader who generally shuns memoirs.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:35 (one year ago) link
The Nobel have not given the award for a writer of autofiction before, and looking at the list they are quite good at representing most facets of modern fiction.
Also the Nobel regards literature as mostly European, male affair. So giving it to more women is good, not bad. Even if Ernaux is European.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:41 (one year ago) link
Shame how Adonis isn't even mentioned now (he was looked at during the height of the Syrian civil war). Assumed he was dead, but no he is 92.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:48 (one year ago) link
I'm at the library and several of her books are here translated. Gonna check out Happening.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 6 October 2022 15:55 (one year ago) link
That's a relief.
I got The Bridge Over the Drina out of the library now.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:43 (one year ago) link
Finished Jenny by Sigrid Undset. It's very good, doesn't deserve its reputation - seemingly forgotten in English, though there was a new translation in 1998. It doesn't start too auspiciously - lots of description of clothes as well as landscapes, the characters use first names and surnames more or less at random so it's hard to tell who's who. But it soon develops into a rich psychological work. It feels very transitional - for an early 20th century novel, there are young women living independent lives, they stay out all night drinking, they sleep around (or their male friends do - it's still quite coy about this). Of course people have been doing this since the dawn of time, but in 19th/early 20th century novels, not so much. But they speak like characters in a 19th century novel, very romantically, with that almost artificial sounding articulateness. Jenny in particular is trapped by her idea of a romantic life - this is the driving force of the novel, really. It's ambiguous in many ways - modern and old fashioned, moving and melodramatic, clear at times and at other times quite opaque, the characters sometimes eliciting sympathy, sometimes being quite bewildering. But it's beautifully written and ultimately very moving, even heartbreaking.
― ledge, Friday, 9 June 2023 13:28 (eleven months ago) link
I recently read Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk from 1956, the first novel in his Cairo trilogy, about a family in Cairo during the British occupation in WWI in 1917, with the patriarch of the family imposing restrictions on his family during the war, and his children finding different ways of rebelling
― Dan S, Friday, 9 June 2023 23:19 (eleven months ago) link
Annie Ernaux doc making the rounds in London - The Super 8 Years. Basically her husband bought a camera in the early 70's and this is all footage of their lives from then to their break up in the early 80'. Ernaux narrates over it and if you dig her writing you'll dig this. They went on holiday a lot, often choosing their destinations with gauchiste awareness - so very cool footage from Chile, Albania, Soviet Union. Also a bit of London and even a little Portugal, but clearly by the time they went there they were in such a marital crisis that no one felt much like filming, alas.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 26 June 2023 09:41 (eleven months ago) link
Excellent piece on Cela's The Hive
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n14/tim-parks/buttockitis
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:10 (eleven months ago) link
I alas found it a grind after about fifty pages.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:56 (eleven months ago) link
Will try it again in a few weeks.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:58 (eleven months ago) link
Probably the first essay that talks about what Ernaux is doing in her fiction in pretty good length.
For me a French author: working class or not, diaristic, a woman, using life, writing flatly...is a thing I have seen before but Haslett talks about how she is able to replace the 'I' with 'We', and she really is very interested in showing how the lived is transformed by the diaries she has issued.
https://harpers.org/archive/2023/10/all-the-images-will-disappear/
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 18 September 2023 18:23 (eight months ago) link