Skip to main content

Nobel Goes To?

Tomorrow, another Nobel for a writer.  The buzz is for Franzen.  If a poet (in English, to be parochial for a minute), the following have a shot: Les Murray, Bill Manhire, Paul Muldoon, Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill, and John Ashbery - each is a major figure, and is worthy.  I can only guess at the many other-languaged poets out there.  Again, prose writers in English who are deserving include Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, and John Banville.  It probably should go to Murakami.  We shall see...
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/05/nobel-prize-literature-bob-dylan

Duncan
Wed Oct 05, 08:55:00 pm 2011
EYEWEAR said…
Duncan, thanks for this. Bob Dylan is a lyrical genius. But doesn't the Nobel Prize for Literature, in the first instance, have to go to someone who has published most of their work in written not performed form? Notably, no screenwriter has won - though arguably the writers of The Wire deserve such a prize, as well. The Nobel should have an Arts prize that encompasses painting, music, dance, etc - but such awards are covered elsewhere. Perhaps Dylan will just have to accept Grammys.
Wed Oct 05, 09:58:00 pm 2011
Brian Busby said…
Todd, of those you mention, I think Banville is most deserving. I note two Canadians on your list: Carson and Atwood. Just imagine, the first Canadian to be so honoured (it seems no one ever counts Saul Bellow). Frankly, if I could give it to a countryman, it would be Leonard Cohen.
Wed Oct 05, 10:48:00 pm 2011
Giovanni Tiso said…
Dario Fo won, didn't he? And to my knowledge he never wrote anything except for performance.
Thu Oct 06, 06:31:00 am 2011
Anonymous said…
It's about time song lyrics were recognized as literature:
http://scarriet.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/forever-green/

Duncan
Thu Oct 06, 06:37:00 am 2011
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more