Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Hot off Yahoo, the Nobel P for Lit is supposed to be announced today (Thursday). Here's an excerpt:

American writer Philip Roth and Israel's Amos Oz were odds-on favorites for the Nobel Prize in literature ahead of Thursday's much-hyped and ballyhooed announcement by the Swedish Academy...Perennial favorites for the prize include Syrian poet and essayist Adonis, the pseudonym for Ali Ahmad Said Asbar; Sweden's Thomas Transtromer; and Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. American Joyce Carol Oates would likely be a strong candidate if the committee decides on a woman, which it has done only three times in the last 15 years, most recently in 2004 when Austrian Elfriede Jelinek won the prize and its accompanying $1.5 million check.

Murakami was also mentioned somewhere in there.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Since the Swedes won't let me vote, I decided to make my own (last minute) poll.

I voted for Mario Vargas Llosa, mainly because his book 'The War of the End of the World' blew me away.

VanIslander · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 2:58 am Post subject:

I don't like Roth, dunno Oz and Transtromer, really have been wanting to read Llosa.

I like Murakami (Kafka on the Shore more than Sputnik Sweetheart though absolutely hate both titles and only read them on advice from a friend) but my vote goes to Oates for We Were the Mulvaneys, one of the best books I've read in a long time: straightforward, powerful prose, not overly descriptive, not too subtle, with a clear voice that's very American, a short story writer whose novels move along without trite plot devices or grandiose storylines. It'd be pulp fiction if it wasn't so real and well written.

slothrop · Joined: 03 Feb 2003

xtchr · Joined: 23 Nov 2004

I think it will be Doris Lessing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7039100.stm

(But I can't comment on the 'should' part, because I haven't read anything by any of those authors Embarassed

).

peppermint · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:43 am Post subject:

I like Murakami, though he's probably too accessible to win the Nobel.

it went to Doris Lessing this year, anyway:

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Thomas Transformer, if the Transformers movie this summer is any indication.

Sincinnatislink · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Location: Top secret.

Philip Roth publishes books with Swatsikas on the cover.

That automatically makes you at least a little bit of a hack.

These people all suck.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Spilt some dressing on Doris Lessing! The first sci fi writer to win a Nobel.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I'd vote for Llosa mainly for the breadth of his writing (and that has been a trend with many recent winners - journalism, essays, academic stuff, short stories, poetry, political manifestos, historical documenting....)

But my posthumous vote/nudge would go to Gyorgy Faludy, a Hungarian. Nobel or not, he'll stand the test of time unlike so many other Nobel winners.

DD

The_Eyeball_Kid · Joined: 20 Jun 2007

Philip Roth is well deserving of the prize, but it should really go to Thomas Pynchon.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

OK, I've heard her name vaguely somewhere before, but I'm not familiar with any of Doris Lessing's work.

Who can recommend anything?

pugwall · Joined: 22 Oct 2006

Philip Roth really deserves the award. Espeically as a lot of people said that last years decision to hand it to Orhan Pamuk was politically influenced. Philip Roth is the bestest ever!!!!!!! Razz

contrarian · Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Location: Nearly in NK

Noe of the above. I am hoping this is the year for escapist trash to win the Nobel, insread of this pretentious crap that we usually get.