7 ms·

Since influential people are on this forum, someone should get Bill Watterson nominated for the Nobel prize in literature. His work deserves that honor as much

Since influential people are on this forum, someone should get Bill Watterson nominated for the Nobel prize in literature. His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan.

mdp2021 2y ago
Berkeley Breathed could feel left out - and one of his collections was named "Classics of Western Literature".
- bell-cot 2y ago
  Nobel Prizes leave lots of people feeling left out.
- JasonFruit 2y ago
  He should. His work has political and cultural significance, and only that: no literary value. I say that as someone who put too much time into reading Bloom County when I was younger.
  - mdp2021 2y ago
    > literary value Not everyone has to be Joyce - there is literary value in more humble works and intentions, and Breathed's Bloom County was sublime in its preposterous ideas. Not perfect, not an Everest - a "local maximum", relatively a peak, if dwarfed by other works in more specialized, high-brow efforts.
lostlogin 2y ago
> His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan. Could you explain why? I love Calvin and Hobbes. However Dylan played a role in political and human rights movements at a key time. I don’t see this sort of influence in Calvin and Hobbes and Watterson was apparently fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct).
- mdp2021 2y ago
  > fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct) You should also have noticed from that source that Watterson majored in political science (he initially wanted to be a political cartoonist), and also that unfortunate job was related to local politics. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind". This was interpreted into broad qualities (so, including but not reducing to promoting «human rights»). See the list of Nobel Laureates and the formal justifications for the award, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit...
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    > The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind". They should award one posthumously to Gene Roddenberry then. After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing, and the show itself is one of few examples of aspirational and inspirational writing in modern sci-fi.
    - lupire 2y ago
      What is a utopia that "actually works"? Star Trek is "What if Communism but it wasn't influenced by human nature?", and totally avoided thinking about how the trillions of humans not in the military lived.
      - tomrod 2y ago
        ST:TNG goes into quite a bit of on-the-ground imagining of the lives of Federation individuals and Star Fleet. Colonies, research stations, etc. Though the only earth-side I remember is Jean Luc's winery and estate or when the admiral was mind controlled by some kind of pest.
readthenotes1 2y ago
If you look at the list of nominees it's not exactly a mark of lasting impact https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nominees_for_the_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nominees_for_the_Nob...
- dhosek 2y ago
  Nominees don’t really mean that much. The list of nominators allows for a lot of people to be put forward. The list of actual laureates is probably better to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit... And given the global nature of the award, it’s not necessarily surprising if many of the names are unfamiliar. I’m pretty familiar with writers in English, but would have a hard time naming more than a dozen German authors and more than three or four Scandinavian authors. Scanning the list for authors who wrote exclusively in English the only unfamiliar names were Wole Soyinka and Abdulrazak Gurnah which is as much an indictment of my unfamiliarity with African writers as anything else.
  - readthenotes1 2y ago
    I knew of less than half the winners and I read a fair amount. If they were impactful, they would have been translated...

Since influential people are on this forum, someone should get Bill Watterson nominated for the Nobel prize in literature. His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan.

mdp2021 2y ago

Berkeley Breathed could feel left out - and one of his collections was named "Classics of Western Literature".

bell-cot 2y ago
Nobel Prizes leave lots of people feeling left out.
JasonFruit 2y ago
He should. His work has political and cultural significance, and only that: no literary value. I say that as someone who put too much time into reading Bloom County when I was younger.
- mdp2021 2y ago
  > literary value Not everyone has to be Joyce - there is literary value in more humble works and intentions, and Breathed's Bloom County was sublime in its preposterous ideas. Not perfect, not an Everest - a "local maximum", relatively a peak, if dwarfed by other works in more specialized, high-brow efforts.

lostlogin 2y ago

> His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan. Could you explain why? I love Calvin and Hobbes. However Dylan played a role in political and human rights movements at a key time. I don’t see this sort of influence in Calvin and Hobbes and Watterson was apparently fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct).

mdp2021 2y ago
> fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct) You should also have noticed from that source that Watterson majored in political science (he initially wanted to be a political cartoonist), and also that unfortunate job was related to local politics. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind". This was interpreted into broad qualities (so, including but not reducing to promoting «human rights»). See the list of Nobel Laureates and the formal justifications for the award, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit...
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  > The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind". They should award one posthumously to Gene Roddenberry then. After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing, and the show itself is one of few examples of aspirational and inspirational writing in modern sci-fi.
  - lupire 2y ago
    What is a utopia that "actually works"? Star Trek is "What if Communism but it wasn't influenced by human nature?", and totally avoided thinking about how the trillions of humans not in the military lived.
    - tomrod 2y ago
      ST:TNG goes into quite a bit of on-the-ground imagining of the lives of Federation individuals and Star Fleet. Colonies, research stations, etc. Though the only earth-side I remember is Jean Luc's winery and estate or when the admiral was mind controlled by some kind of pest.

readthenotes1 2y ago

If you look at the list of nominees it's not exactly a mark of lasting impact https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nominees_for_the_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nominees_for_the_Nob...

dhosek 2y ago
Nominees don’t really mean that much. The list of nominators allows for a lot of people to be put forward. The list of actual laureates is probably better to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit... And given the global nature of the award, it’s not necessarily surprising if many of the names are unfamiliar. I’m pretty familiar with writers in English, but would have a hard time naming more than a dozen German authors and more than three or four Scandinavian authors. Scanning the list for authors who wrote exclusively in English the only unfamiliar names were Wole Soyinka and Abdulrazak Gurnah which is as much an indictment of my unfamiliarity with African writers as anything else.
- readthenotes1 2y ago
  I knew of less than half the winners and I read a fair amount. If they were impactful, they would have been translated...