Nobel Literature Prize Speculation: Jon Fosse

[Ran]

I've not read Ernaux, but can very much recommend the film Happening (L'événement) based on her semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. I discussed it here back in June.

[Myshkin]

Welp, the Swedish Academy has missed their chance on Milan Kundera.  RIP

[Gaston de Foix]

On 7/13/2023 at 12:45 AM, Myshkin said:

Welp, the Swedish Academy has missed their chance on Milan Kundera.  RIP

And Cormac McCarthy too. 

From the perspective of Subcontinental/Indian literature, the literature Nobel doesn't track either popular or vernacular sentiment.  It's irrelevant.  It's awarded too rarely, and too randomly, to have much meaning at all.  Rabindranath Tagore and VS Naipaul are supposed to reflect 100 years of literature.  Give me a fucking break. 

[Myshkin]

So… Thursday. I have no feel for who will win this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being Christopher Nolan. Although, I believe he’s an American citizen. So, whoever the French Christopher Nolan is

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I have the feeling this might be Rushdie's year.

[Myshkin]

24 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I have the feeling this might be Rushdie's year.

That would be very cool. It might even be enough to restore a small bit of respect for the SA in me

Edited October 2, 2023 by Myshkin

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And the award goes to...

...Jon Fosse.

Am I the only one who has drawn a blank there?

[Gaston de Foix]

5 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

And the award goes to...

...Jon Fosse.

Am I the only one who has drawn a blank there?

Eurocentrism wins again. 

It's amazing how despite 9.32% of the global population Europe continues to produce at least 50% of the world's greatest literature.  The number would be higher but there's clearly an informal rule requiring prizes be awarded to favorite European writers only once every two years.  

What a joke.  When they didn't give a nobel prize to Gandhi it was the prize that lost prestige.   

[Gaston de Foix]

10 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

And the award goes to...

...Jon Fosse.

Am I the only one who has drawn a blank there?

He's Henrik Ibsen come again, and a 100 years from now we'll all be reading his plays in the bath...or something.  

[Ormond]

23 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

And the award goes to...

...Jon Fosse.

Am I the only one who has drawn a blank there?

Though I haven't read any of his works, I know I have seen his name mentioned in speculation about the Nobel literature prize for several years now, so it really isn't a big surprise to me. 

[Myshkin]

So… Jon Fosse. His name has been bandied about for a decade or so now, but still a boring choice. That’s two boring Europeans in a row 

[Kyll.Ing.]

Ah, Jon Fosse. Scourge of any high school class of Norwegian literature.

Let's just say his writing style is a bit peculiar. Like modernist gray-box architecture or foul-smelling cheeses, it's probably genial if you're into that sort of stuff, but from the outside perspective, it stands out as monumentally boring. The average high schooler would find more entertaining reading on the nutrition label of a packet of peanuts than a play by Jon Fosse. We had to read and discuss one of them in, I believe, 12th grade. It was like watching paint dry. Monotonous, un-engaging, and endlessly repeating to stretch a five-minute story into a two-hour play.

The high school curriculum is never going to get rid of him now.

[Rorshach]

Tiny correction: there is no curriculum in Norwegian schools. 

Though I guess most teachers will read Fosse now.