SerStinger

Why are the odds on Ian McEwan so low? Doesn't he have much of a chance?

Have you guys looked at the website The Literary Saloon? The author speculates that Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Joyce Carol Oates are among the final five authors considered for the prize. This claim is based on the betting movements. Here's the link: http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/ Personally, I have a feeling that Ngugi is someone who just fits the bill for Nobel Prize, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he wins this year.

My impression of Nobel is that retiring is a bad thing to do to get the prize. I might be wrong though.

I'm not saying the controversy is stopping them, I'm saying they agree with it. It's not really snubbing if they think it's true. Pinter was controversial too. Although I believe Pinter is so great that his name honors Nobel more than the other way around, I'm sure the academy welcomes the kind of controversy he brought with him. No, it's not the controversy, it's that they hate Roth. Like the man-booker prize judge who resigned out of anger when Roth won in 2011.

Philip Roth is one of my literary heroes, and nothing would make me happier than seeing him win (unless a "genre"writer wins, or even someone for something which expands the definition of literature, a songwriter, a blogger, a screenplay writer, whatever, but I'm not even hoping for that, I'm not that stupid). However, I think the reason for the academy not giving him the price is simple. They don't like his works. I don't think it's bias. In the recent years I don't know of any politically incorrect writers to have won recently, Roth is very controversial, and not in the way the academy welcomes it. He's been called a self-hating Jew, a misogynist, hater, things like that. Although I strongly disagree with all of these criticisms, I feel that the academy judges are just the type of the snobbish intellectuals who would agree with these criticisms. I hope I'm proven wrong though.

Sorry for double post