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Nobel Prize in Literature 2025: László Krasznahorkai
- jelsisi 1y agoJust a one sentence description? When all other categories this week got a detailed essay on what they discovered?
- haunter 1y agoYou can't mention Krasznahorkai without Béla Tarr. Tarr's main filmography is basically Krasznahorkai's main bibliography: Damnation (1988), Sátántangó (1994), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), The Man from London (2007), The Turin Horse (2011). I honestly say the films from Tarr are arguably the best book-to-film adaptations ever, especially Sátántangó, he is the master of literary filmmaking where the spirit of text comes across the screen perfectly.
- BryantD 1y agoIt is not easy to commit seven hours to a single movie; for me, Sátántangó was worth it. Warm up on Werckmeister Harmonies which is a short two hours since Bela Tarr isn't and doesn't need to be for everyone. That said, Sátántangó is in my top four movies of all time because of how well it reflects humanity and how much it says about how we interact with each other. (The cows are a metaphor for HN, obviously.)
- jklinger410 1y agoYes, Sátántangó is quite the experience. Seven hour investment for one film, and I actually want to do it again.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoTry Out 1: Noli Me Tangere at 14 hours Satantango was screened with a full dinner break in the middle (long enough to see another movie in the interim) when I saw it, but this one I went to had to be spread out over two days
- BryantD 1y agoSame here. I’ve been dedicating New Year’s Day to a long movie for a few years now —- Trenque Lauquen last year —- and the habit is working out quite well.
- towolf 1y ago> I honestly say the films from Tarr are arguably the best book-to-film adaptations ever, especially Sátántangó, he is the master of literary filmmaking where the spirit of text comes across the screen perfectly. If that is so, then these are books that you read to experience ultimate ennui? I know the films, I've watched them all, but doing e.g. Satantango in book form sounds not so enticing?
- xhevahir 1y ago"Doing Satantango in book form?" The book is the original.
- kkukshtel 1y agoThey truly feel like a match made in heaven. Krasznahorkai's own writing is lovely and lyrical, and Tarr's interpretation of it projects the same ideas onto the films but also in a way that makes it stand distinct as a medium. I could watch this scene from Werckmeister Harmonies every day for the rest of my life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d5X2t_s9g8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d5X2t_s9g8 And The Turin Horse as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPCkjN3n6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPCkjN3n6s Think of some magical Tarr adaptation of Seiobo There Below...
- mrsvanwinkle 1y agoThank you so much to you and original commenter for the passionate rec.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoTry to see Tarr's movies on film. Except for the last couple that got Bluray releases there are only horrible quality DVDs available. But they come around on 35mm in cities like NY somewhat routinely. When Turin Horse came out I saw it at the NYFF (with an hour long talk in a small room with the director) and then another 3 times in theaters afterward. I've been lucky to catch Satantango and Werckmeister on film. Tarr also mentored a young Chinese director, Hu Bo. His two works are very good: An Elephant Sitting Still and Man in the Well. Tarr came out to TIFF to introduce and eulogize the latter with an impassioned speech. edit: Forgot that Criterion finally released a new edition of Werckmeister recently.
- squidsoup 1y ago> Krasznahorkai's own writing is lovely and lyrical I would describe his writing style as relentlessly oppressive, and hypnotic.
- kalap_ur 1y agooh wow, i sense a bojler elado, here.
- moralestapia 1y ago>Sátántangó >Running time: ~8 hours Yeah, I'll pass.
- squidsoup 1y agoIronically, I think Sátántangó might be one of Kraznahorkai’s shortest novels.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoHow many Netflix series have you ever binged?
- moralestapia 1y agoI don't know, a couple. What does that have to do with this?
- wahnfrieden 1y agosame investment, or less
- xhevahir 1y agoI've loved those novels of his that I've read, particularly War & War, and haven't watched a single one of those films. Krasznahorkai's work stands on its own perfectly fine.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoYou shouldn't dismiss them - they are not only adaptations, their screenplays were written by Krasznahorkai and he collaborated with their production. Turin Horse is an original work by Krasznahorkai without being an adaptation, too. (I've seen that one 7 or 8 times, 4 during its festival & cinema run.) To dismiss them would be like to dismiss his works with Max Neumann (AnimalInside being one of his best!) because they combine writing with painting instead of being pure literature.
- squidsoup 1y agoIn a similar vein, the novelist/film maker collaboration between Kobo Abe and Hiroshi Teshigahara was very fruitful, and produced some beautiful films.
- BrtByte 1y agoTarr and Krasznahorkai are basically artistic soulmates
- TheAceOfHearts 1y agoI've never heard of them. Does anyone have a top suggestion for checking out his works or standout book? And for those of you that have read him, what did you get out the experience? Should I just read Satantango?
- giraffe_lady 1y agoSatantango or the melancholy of resistance are good places to start. His books aren't all the same but there are some qualities they all share. They're intricate, reference-heavy, postmodern novels with a lot of the emotional intensity purposely occulted behind the prose style. If you like Gass or Sebald you'll have fun.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoHis recent works are also incredible and very different from the early works. Try Seiobo There Below. You can also appreciate him through his screenplay work on Bela Tarr's movies.
- giraffe_lady 1y agoOh good to know, I actually haven't read anything of his since war and war. Not for any particular reason, just there are a lot of books.
- wahnfrieden 1y agoI also recommend the illustrated novella AnimalInside but you'll need to find a PDF, just found out only 2000 were printed and my copy goes for $300 now :0 Do you have a GoodReads that you'd share?
- jaccarmac 1y agoI've loved all of the work I've read except Satantango, so if you bounce of that novel I would recommend the rest. That said, I started with the short story collection The World Goes On and thought it was brilliant.
- redbell 1y agoA little bit of history.. In 1974, The Swedish Academy was heavily criticized for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to two of its own members. One laureate, Harry Martinson, was so shaken by the backlash he committed suicide 4 years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Martinson#Later_life_and_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Martinson#Later_life_and...
- b2ccb2 1y agoI am a bit confused as to why he was chosen. Not to diminish his tremendous body of work, but rather by the definition of the rules laid down by Alfred Nobel in his will: "All of my remaining realisable assets are to be disbursed as follows: the capital, converted to safe securities by my executors, is to constitute a fund, the interest on which is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind … one part to the person who, in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an ideal direction;" Has anyone any insight on this? https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/full-text-of-alfred-nobels-will-2/ https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/full-text-of-alfred-...
- MLR 1y agoThat's not the basis the award is decided on, I presume it may have been in the early years of the award, but generally it's given as a lifetime achievement kind of thing - the recipients are often decades removed from their most influential work.
- pavlov 1y agoThe Nobel Prize in all fields has become an award for lifetime achievement, even though the wording of Nobel's will could also be interpreted as meaning that it should be awarded for work that had the greatest impact during the preceding year.
- simonh 1y agoI don't know, but I suspect the interpretation is that the impact should be during the preceding year, the wording doesn't say the work has to occur in the preceding year. So arguably the work could have been decades ago, but if the impact has only recently become apparent that counts. I think that's fine. Often it's not really possible to assess the impact of a contribution until long after, it takes a lot of context to be able to do that.
- justonceokay 1y agoI don’t think we should consider too strictly the intention of someone who has been dead for 130 years.
- krasznahorkai 1y agoI knew it would happen eventually! I've been waiting for his award. Long time fan. My favorite is War and War (Háború és háború) because the confusion of the world and the endless struggle of trying to be understood represented so well.
- kome 1y ago[flagged]
- gjm11 1y agoThere's some prior art for important books involving a weird obsession with whales.
- kome 1y ago[dead]
- DiggyJohnson 1y agowhat's wrong with obsessing about whales?
- zpeti 1y agoConsidering the amount of threats and hate jewish people with no connection get about Israel vs Palestine, you don't think there's at least some legitimacy for his position? Considering there was literally just an attack on a UK synagogue by an arab, after which many people protested on the side of the attacker in London, you don't think there's a tiny legitimacy to his views? Of course this is a rhetorical question, because your obviously don't think his views has legitimacy.
- cool_dude85 1y agoCan you give some info on people "protesting on the side of the attacker in London"? That is, people coming out in support of the attack on the synagogue?
- OskarS 1y agoYour argument is that it’s not ok to think of all Jewish people as a monolithic group, and therefore his statement where he considered all arabs as a monolithic group is ”legitimate”? Seriously? Just like it’s not ok to see all jews as part of the same murderous conspiracy, it’s not ok to see all arabs as part of one either.
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- Maro 1y agoWe're on fire! 2025 - László Krasznahorkai - Literature - for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art. 2023 - Katalin Karikó - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. 2023 - Ferenc Krausz - Physics - for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter. To be fair, there are only 2 others since 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hungarian_Nobel_laureates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hungarian_Nobel_laurea...
- madcaptenor 1y agoHungary is a relatively small country, so that's quite impressive!
- bobcostas55 1y ago"The Atomic Bomb Considered As Hungarian High School Science Fair Project" https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-considered-as-hungarian-high-school-science-fair-project/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-consid...
- czhu12 1y agoThis was one of the most fascinating things I've read all year. Thank you for posting
- mihaaly 1y agoIt is difficult to say 'we' here for me, when the common ground with these remarkable people are only the country of origin and most of the time the language spoken. Also when it is based on achievements that are mostly theirs, which I have nothing to do with. I am glad that these people could achive so much coming from a place like Hungary, that is providing inadequate possibilities for these kinds of achivements so they reach it in other countries too many times. Or sometimes even put obstacles in their ways - which is actually good/ok in the end as they seek out the places allowing their success. But I am glad for any Nobel price winners, regardless of their origins. They give us so much.
- animanoir 1y ago[dead]
- wahnfrieden 1y agoHe's my favorite working author! (Well, maybe that's Pynchon) I recommend not only his early works like Satantango but also his recent ones like Seiobo There Below (lucky to have a signed copy of this one). The short ones are interesting too. Animalinside (with Max Neumann), The Last Wolf. Interested in checking Chasing Homer which has musical accompaniment: "Publishers Weekly described the book as a cross between a Jean-Claude Van Damme film and the works of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka"
- slibhb 1y agoSeiobo There Below was really hard to get through. Earlier stuff is much less so.
- lanfeust6 1y agoShould I start with Satantango?
- wahnfrieden 1y agoSure, it's a fine place to start You might also try A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East as a very short one of his later works Wow I just found out that I have quite a valuable collection of his works - the surprisingly expensive ones that I had casually picked up when they were new: - The Last Wolf 1st edition, $300 - Satantango 1st edition, $200 - Music & Literature No. 2, unknown value (no record of secondary market resale) - AnimalInside, $300, only 2000 copies published Time to encase these in something...
- prinny_ 1y agoΤhe melancholy of resistance is a book that shaped my understanding of conflict and apathy. I am happy this man got the Nobel, he is a tremendous writer.
- derbOac 1y agoCan anyone comment on the translations of Krasznahorkai's works into English? Every time I read a translation of highly regarded literature I can't help but wonder if I'm getting some inadequate rendition that is missing something critical to why the originals are so highly regarded. This isn't meant to be a criticism of translators, just that I think their job is very difficult. Of course, I still happily read and enjoy translations; there's just this shadow cast for me all the time by the originals.
- seizethecheese 1y agoHis works were in Hungarian. If we are being honest, he probably won the Nobel for his translated works as much as his originals. Or, how many Nobel committee members are fluent in Hungarian?
- kruffalon 1y agoFor me this is todays new conceptual thought! Or something like this, just trying to express that I've never really thought about it like that. That we don't really interact with original works when we read/listen to translated works and thus we can't really say anything about the originals. Small mind blown moment!
- jaccarmac 1y agoI'm biased because I lived down the street from a bookstore connected to a translation publishing house, but I can't recommend translated fiction enough for opening one's eyes to the weird relationship between a person, their language, and the works they read.
- SpicyUme 1y agoThere is a bookstore in Vancouver with a section of translations which is reliably fruitful when I visit. The last book I bought there was a translation of Yuri Herrera's Season of the Swamp. I devoured it, even though I agree that I wish it were more fleshed out. It made me think about reading some of his work in Spanish even though it would be a long process for me. I enjoyed the effort in spanish literature class, maybe I can do it again. https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/season-swamp https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/season-swamp On the topic of the OP, I struggled with Satantango on more than one occasion over the last 12 years. For whatever reason I couldn't get through it, but I've carried the book around through several moves. Maybe I'll try again.
- more_corn 1y agoCould have sworn the Nobel for fiction was going to go to RFK jr.
- BrtByte 1y agoHis prose is like wading through a fever dream