17 ms·

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014

67 points by yarapavan 12y ago

bertil 12y ago
He's a fantastic author, but beware: most of his books say… nothing? It's about someone, possibly a man, to whom something happened. And he meets someone he used to love at the time. Not sure he still love her. She looks more beautiful now. That's it: I just spoiled the entire plot, in every detail. And there's a house, too. Looks smaller now. I believe that makes it easier to translate (I read them in the original French) but the absolute lack of detail, story line, makes it incredibly either relatable (if you are in that mindset) or frustrating (Whyyy?! Why did she leave him? Or he left? Did he? You can't tell.) I love it - but beware, it's very tacit.
- keehun 12y ago
  I've never read any of his literature, so I may be either really misinformed/clueless but hopefully with some objectivity. I think that your comment corroborates the Nobel committee's decision: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation" Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that.
  - mindcrime 12y ago
    Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that. It's not necessary for a book to have a great plot, to be a great book. I haven't read any of this guy's work, but Murakami has a similar "thing" going on... the plots in his books are often fairly dull and leave a lot of plot-lines unresolved... but yet the books are very enjoyable and thought provoking. It's almost like it's the atmosphere that matters, not the plot itself. Perhaps this author writes something similar?
    - keehun 12y ago
      Yes, and as a musician, there are strong and compelling parallel aesthetics. I totally understand it. I would love to check out this author's work now.
- leephillips 12y ago
  The lack of a conventional plot is nothing unusual in literature since Joyce. I've never heard of him, and would be more interested in learning what you find fantastic in him - can you compare him with some other authors, perhaps? (Aside from what we know from the fact the he won the Prize: that he espouses leftist politics, for example.)
  - bsenftner 12y ago
    So, this is the literary "Seinfeld"?
- platz 12y ago
  reminds me of some of the criticisms against Murakami, who is also pretty international.
  - mturmon 12y ago
    I read a literary essay years ago touching on plot and how it affects narratives. Basically, the essay claimed that plot can be a trap. You introduce characters and actions and they must be explained. The reader wants to know what comes next. You frustrate them if you don't tell them. You started out, perhaps, with other goals, but you've become tied up in explaining how and why everything happens.
    - 0xdeadbeefbabe 12y ago
      Exactly! Do you have a link? Maybe the following illustrates your point: for me, watching an episode of curious george is much more fun than watching curious george the movie because the former has a plot and the latter has a PLOT.
  - u124556 12y ago
    Read two books by him, both had the same exact plot except for locations. There's a man, loses his cat, loses his wife, loses his job, and then there's something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war.
    - lobster_johnson 12y ago
      The only Murakami novel that has the author lose a cat, his wife and encounter "something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war" is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I can only assume you read it twice by mistake. Several of his novels do feature a man with a cat, and several novels feature distant women. But if I remember correctly, the only other married narrator is the protagonist in South of the Border, West of the Sun, and there is a character in 1Q84 who is married and divorced. To say that the plots of any of his books have exactly the same plot would be a huge mischaracterization, though. The only two books that are even vaguely similar are Wind-Up and the earlier Dance Dance Dance (the last part of a quadrilogy about the "Sheep Man"); the latter feels a lot like a preliminary sketch for the vastly superior Wind-Up, in particular the fascination about hotel rooms and shared dreams. But the plots are completely different.
jjgreen 12y ago
Modiano is a genius, one of several fantastic writers coming from France in the last 20 years -- see also Marie Darrieussecq, Sylvie Germain, Camille Laurens, ...
- carlob 12y ago
  > the last 20 years He won the Prix Goncourt 36 years ago. He's not that recent.
- stephancoral 12y ago
  Add Pierre Michon to that list. Just finished reading his novella, "Origin of the World" (translated by Wyatt Mason) and am still in awe. The density of thought he is able to pack into his sentences, some of which go on for pages but yet remain wholly comprehensible and focused, is incredible.
  - jjgreen 12y ago
    Thanks for the recommendation, on my list!
bmj 12y ago
Worth reading: Jean-Paul Sarte's reasons for declining the prize when awarded to him in 1964: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-...
- mcguire 12y ago
  With the recent fluff-up on H.P. Lovecraft and the World Fantasy Awards, that is an interesting read. I particularly like his first reason: "A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own—that is, the written word. All the honors he may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable. If I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner." ...especially after Pres. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for simply not being G.W. Bush.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
daturkel 12y ago
A heads up that Honeymoon, Missing Person, and Catherine Certitude (a children's book) by Modiano are all available from David R. Godine, Publisher, for those looking for English translation. [0] To the best of my knowledge, English translations of Modiano are actually shamefully rare and these might be the only available editions at the moment. Disclosure: I'm an intern at Godine. [0]: http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano
- u124556 12y ago
  No ePubs?
  - daturkel 12y ago
    We don't currently have ebooks available for our Modiano titles unfortunately, though reprints are already being scheduled so it's possible ebooks might be a part of that. I can't personally make any promises. Edit: The office is very much aware of the interest in an ebook edition!
elorant 12y ago
As a side note, in Greece, Thessaloniki, there is a building that bears his family name. His family was a prominent part of the local Jew community and in 1922 they built a gallery as part of a building known as the Modiano Market. It’s one of the most important sightseeing places in the town partly because most of the shops inside remain as they were when they were built and for many decades served as the main marketplace of the town. There is also a gathering of living family members every two years in the town.
krylon 12y ago
Another year goes by, and once again the Nobel prize comitee fails to award the prize to Thomas Pynchon. Really. If I was president of the US, I would declare not awarding the prize to Pynchon (or maybe Cormac McCarthy) an act of war and threaten to nuke the hell out of Sweden if Pynchon does not get the prize (just imagine the delicious irony if Barack "Nobel Peace Prize" Obama did that!). That is not to say that whoever got it this year does not deserve it. But still.
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  Bah, Pynchon can get in line behind Borges. The Nobel committee is becoming a standing joke. Their general incompetence and overt political bias is even evident in the physics category these days. (Blue LEDs? Really?)
  - crimsonalucard 12y ago
    What's wrong with Blue LED's?
    - walexander 12y ago
      I think he's implying that they awarded it to blue LEDs in order to promote low power consumption/green tech.
      - CamperBob2 12y ago
        That's part of it, yes. But on what planet does it make sense to award the prize to the blue LED guys when the original developer of commercially-viable LEDs didn't receive it?
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - Panoramix 12y ago
    Blue LEDs, and the more general Gallium Nitride film technologies have tremendous impact in our everyday world. Enormous, tangible energy savings in lighting. Enabling of zillion medical applications. Blu-Rays, high density DVDs, high mobility transistors...seriously, what discovery do you have in mind? Secondly: There are different committees for each category. The Peace prize (which I agree it's a joke) is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel committee. I strongly disagree with your claim that the other prizes, specifically physics and chemistry, are either incompetent or obviously biased.

67 points by yarapavan 12y ago

He's a fantastic author, but beware: most of his books say… nothing? It's about someone, possibly a man, to whom something happened. And he meets someone he used to love at the time. Not sure he still love her. She looks more beautiful now. That's it: I just spoiled the entire plot, in every detail. And there's a house, too. Looks smaller now. I believe that makes it easier to translate (I read them in the original French) but the absolute lack of detail, story line, makes it incredibly either relatable (if you are in that mindset) or frustrating (Whyyy?! Why did she leave him? Or he left? Did he? You can't tell.) I love it - but beware, it's very tacit.

keehun 12y ago
I've never read any of his literature, so I may be either really misinformed/clueless but hopefully with some objectivity. I think that your comment corroborates the Nobel committee's decision: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation" Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that.
- mindcrime 12y ago
  Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that. It's not necessary for a book to have a great plot, to be a great book. I haven't read any of this guy's work, but Murakami has a similar "thing" going on... the plots in his books are often fairly dull and leave a lot of plot-lines unresolved... but yet the books are very enjoyable and thought provoking. It's almost like it's the atmosphere that matters, not the plot itself. Perhaps this author writes something similar?
  - keehun 12y ago
    Yes, and as a musician, there are strong and compelling parallel aesthetics. I totally understand it. I would love to check out this author's work now.
leephillips 12y ago
The lack of a conventional plot is nothing unusual in literature since Joyce. I've never heard of him, and would be more interested in learning what you find fantastic in him - can you compare him with some other authors, perhaps? (Aside from what we know from the fact the he won the Prize: that he espouses leftist politics, for example.)
- bsenftner 12y ago
  So, this is the literary "Seinfeld"?
platz 12y ago
reminds me of some of the criticisms against Murakami, who is also pretty international.
- mturmon 12y ago
  I read a literary essay years ago touching on plot and how it affects narratives. Basically, the essay claimed that plot can be a trap. You introduce characters and actions and they must be explained. The reader wants to know what comes next. You frustrate them if you don't tell them. You started out, perhaps, with other goals, but you've become tied up in explaining how and why everything happens.
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 12y ago
    Exactly! Do you have a link? Maybe the following illustrates your point: for me, watching an episode of curious george is much more fun than watching curious george the movie because the former has a plot and the latter has a PLOT.
- u124556 12y ago
  Read two books by him, both had the same exact plot except for locations. There's a man, loses his cat, loses his wife, loses his job, and then there's something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war.
  - lobster_johnson 12y ago
    The only Murakami novel that has the author lose a cat, his wife and encounter "something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war" is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I can only assume you read it twice by mistake. Several of his novels do feature a man with a cat, and several novels feature distant women. But if I remember correctly, the only other married narrator is the protagonist in South of the Border, West of the Sun, and there is a character in 1Q84 who is married and divorced. To say that the plots of any of his books have exactly the same plot would be a huge mischaracterization, though. The only two books that are even vaguely similar are Wind-Up and the earlier Dance Dance Dance (the last part of a quadrilogy about the "Sheep Man"); the latter feels a lot like a preliminary sketch for the vastly superior Wind-Up, in particular the fascination about hotel rooms and shared dreams. But the plots are completely different.

jjgreen 12y ago

Modiano is a genius, one of several fantastic writers coming from France in the last 20 years -- see also Marie Darrieussecq, Sylvie Germain, Camille Laurens, ...

carlob 12y ago
> the last 20 years He won the Prix Goncourt 36 years ago. He's not that recent.
stephancoral 12y ago
Add Pierre Michon to that list. Just finished reading his novella, "Origin of the World" (translated by Wyatt Mason) and am still in awe. The density of thought he is able to pack into his sentences, some of which go on for pages but yet remain wholly comprehensible and focused, is incredible.
- jjgreen 12y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation, on my list!

bmj 12y ago

Worth reading: Jean-Paul Sarte's reasons for declining the prize when awarded to him in 1964: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-...

mcguire 12y ago
With the recent fluff-up on H.P. Lovecraft and the World Fantasy Awards, that is an interesting read. I particularly like his first reason: "A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own—that is, the written word. All the honors he may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable. If I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner." ...especially after Pres. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for simply not being G.W. Bush.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

daturkel 12y ago

A heads up that Honeymoon, Missing Person, and Catherine Certitude (a children's book) by Modiano are all available from David R. Godine, Publisher, for those looking for English translation. [0] To the best of my knowledge, English translations of Modiano are actually shamefully rare and these might be the only available editions at the moment. Disclosure: I'm an intern at Godine. [0]: http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano http://www.godine.com/search.asp?search=modiano

u124556 12y ago
No ePubs?
- daturkel 12y ago
  We don't currently have ebooks available for our Modiano titles unfortunately, though reprints are already being scheduled so it's possible ebooks might be a part of that. I can't personally make any promises. Edit: The office is very much aware of the interest in an ebook edition!

elorant 12y ago

As a side note, in Greece, Thessaloniki, there is a building that bears his family name. His family was a prominent part of the local Jew community and in 1922 they built a gallery as part of a building known as the Modiano Market. It’s one of the most important sightseeing places in the town partly because most of the shops inside remain as they were when they were built and for many decades served as the main marketplace of the town. There is also a gathering of living family members every two years in the town.

krylon 12y ago

Another year goes by, and once again the Nobel prize comitee fails to award the prize to Thomas Pynchon. Really. If I was president of the US, I would declare not awarding the prize to Pynchon (or maybe Cormac McCarthy) an act of war and threaten to nuke the hell out of Sweden if Pynchon does not get the prize (just imagine the delicious irony if Barack "Nobel Peace Prize" Obama did that!). That is not to say that whoever got it this year does not deserve it. But still.

CamperBob2 12y ago
Bah, Pynchon can get in line behind Borges. The Nobel committee is becoming a standing joke. Their general incompetence and overt political bias is even evident in the physics category these days. (Blue LEDs? Really?)
- crimsonalucard 12y ago
  What's wrong with Blue LED's?
  - walexander 12y ago
    I think he's implying that they awarded it to blue LEDs in order to promote low power consumption/green tech.
    - CamperBob2 12y ago
      That's part of it, yes. But on what planet does it make sense to award the prize to the blue LED guys when the original developer of commercially-viable LEDs didn't receive it?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- Panoramix 12y ago
  Blue LEDs, and the more general Gallium Nitride film technologies have tremendous impact in our everyday world. Enormous, tangible energy savings in lighting. Enabling of zillion medical applications. Blu-Rays, high density DVDs, high mobility transistors...seriously, what discovery do you have in mind? Secondly: There are different committees for each category. The Peace prize (which I agree it's a joke) is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel committee. I strongly disagree with your claim that the other prizes, specifically physics and chemistry, are either incompetent or obviously biased.