Thursday, October 9, 2008

And The Nobel Goes To . . .


French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.

What do you think?

I have no opinion, because I've never read anything he has written. I suppose that's because my reading habits are too isolated and insular.

Wev.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

And maybe because very little of his work is available here. I don't think he has been featured in Oprah's book club.

Bitty said...

I left my glasses at home and am squinting through my day.

I thought Kevin Bacon just won the Nobel.

Although he was cruel to my beloved Carl Sandburg (and I heard TWO public radio putdowns of Sandburg this week!), Garrison Keillor otherwise did a great smackdown on Nobel's taste in literature on last weekend's Prairie Home Companion.

Any uncorrected typos are the fault of my temporary semi-blindness.

Comrade Kevin said...

We cater to the lowest common denominator, that is true. What is probably truer is that in this country for ever good writer, there are a thousand hacks.

And there are many writers who Nobel wishes to deify whose literary reputation dates quickly and after a time are simply never read anymore.

Brave Sir Robin said...

Seventh sister - And maybe because very little of his work is available here. I don't think he has been featured in Oprah's book club.
LOL! nice, very nice.

btw - I was trying for snark. I thought it was highly inappropriate for a member of the comitte to make those comments.

Lest we forget, Joyce, Proust, and Nabokov never won one either. (Or Vonnegut, or Updike, or Salinger . . .

Bitty - I LOVE Sandburg.

Bee said...

Radio 4 did a program on the Lit Nobel this morning . . . and since no one seemed to know much about this author, they spent most of the time discussing the controversial comments about the provincial Americans. Apparently, "we" mostly write about the experience of what it means to be an American because we live in a "new" country; and therefore, our literature isn't universal. I think that was the thesis. One of the commentators considered that, actually, Philip Roth deserved the award . . . but that it was a "misery" to sit with him at a dinner party. As you say, wev.

The English are provincial, too; they haven't heard of the French guy either.

Brave Sir Robin said...

Bee -

I totally forgot to put Roth in my list of overlooked authors.

Robin said...

Bee and BSR--

Yeah, you two are sooooo insular. (rolls eyes and winks at you both)

I'd heard the opinion expressed on the radio about us "Yanks" and I actually agree with it. I don't think our literature reflects that as much as it used to (think Mark Twain, Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Upton Sinclair). But our national need for instant gratification and our general short-term reactions without considering long-term consequences is youthful. The US is a teenager compared to many nations, and it acts that way sometimes. I'm speaking in broad general terms, of course, but I'm thinking mainly of our political system.

Oh, and Bitty, I agree, he looks just like Kevin Bacon.

Brave Sir Robin said...

I think he looks like Peter Fonda

Unknown said...

Whoever he looks like, I think he's hot.