I have been reading about some guy in Sweden who said American literature is too provincial to merit a Nobel Prize. I first saw some reference to this a few days ago, and my reaction was, "So?" But of course I knew that there would be a bunch of replies from Americans who got their feelings hurt.
I don't get prizes anyway, so maybe I should just let this go. But it seems to me that these Nobel prizes are like a death sentence. They come at the end of a career and bring a bit of honor and some cash (hey, maybe that's what it's all about), and then the prizewinner dies, and everyone else forgets. Now did Faulkner get one or not? Who was the last American prize winner? Didn't they give one to Sinclair Lewis? Does anyone outside of college English courses ever read Sinclair Lewis? How about Faulkner? Hemingway? I don't know.
Well, I think the Swedish guy probably got it right. I know I don't pay much attention to contemporary European literature. Oh, wait, I don't pay much attention to contemporary American literature either. So, I guess I'm really provincial. I'm just now catching up with the literature I'm currently interested in, mostly British lit from about 1900 through the 1960s. I never got around to reading that stuff while I was in college and grad school. Back then I was immersed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Did Shakespeare ever win any prizes?
1 comment:
There was an witty, incisive comment in Der Spiegel about this, more or less taking our side against the Nobel committee. Sweet of them, i thought and they did have a few good points.
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