Usual Suspect Nobel Prize.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ay0YNs.bWOP8

How many Nobel Prize Laureates for literature since 1962 can you name? Two?

The only qualifications seem to be 1. chronic angst in your life, and 2. be a perfesser somewhere.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Why isn't there a Nobel Prize for smut?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Why isn't there a Nobel Prize for smut?

Good idea!

Youre about the only human I trust to be impartial and competent to judge such an award, so why not organize a committee to do it. You could call it THE SMUT DEATH PANEL or something.

 

[Liar]

How many Nobel Prize Laureates for literature since 1962 can you name? Two?

Since you asked...

Doris Lessing
Derek Walcott
Toni Morrison
Octavio Paz
Gabriel Garcia Marques
Dario Fo
Elfride Jelinek (or something like that)
Wole Sonyika
William Golding
Joseph Brodsky
Saul Bellows
Some japanese named Oe

And a handful more if I get a few minutes.

How many have I actually read? Then 2 seems about right.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

LIAR

Yep. I recognized Golding and Saul Bellows; Toni Morrison is the affirmative-action recipient. I wont read any black newer than Zora Hurston becuz of the A.A. patina.

 

[trysail]

JBJ poses a fair question.

I am embarrassed to say that prior to checking a list, I could only name two winners ( with absolute certainty ). Most of us could, of course, throw out a list of prominent writers with a random chance of hitting laureates ( particularly those of half a century ago when the names were FAR MORE mainstream ).

There's little disputing that the Nobel Committees show their political stripes when naming winners in the "soft" ( i.e., non-science ) categories. That tendency is a recent phenomenon. The list of winners from 1901 through, say, 1970 are— by and large— recognizable household names. After that, there are a lot of very obscure names.

Answer JBJ's question honestly, then go have a look here:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/

 

[JamesSD]

Well, today's winners are often the books today's children will be reading in high school and college, so by the time they are in their middle age, many of the newer books *will* be household names.

There have been some good articles written about why the current American novel style just isn't compatible with what the Nobel committee tends to look for.

International prizes in literature are tricky, and certainly rife with politics and infighting I'm sure. Anyone who has read the classic Russian novels in English knows that the quality of a translation can make or break a novel.

Finally, the average American reader is dumb. Go to Target or Walmart and browse the book section. For every "good" book, there are dozens of teenage vampire stories, lame ghost-written celebrity books, etc. I'm not saying I haven't read the Harry Potter series (I have), but Americans at this point in time just don't have the appatite or attention span for quality literature as a whole.

 

[ishtat]

JBJ poses a fair question.

After that, there are a lot of very obscure names.

You could substitute non-American for "very obscure". The Panel does seem to have a down on US authors and has awarded a lot of nonentities.

Alternatively maybe Americans tend not to read foreign authors?

There is a case in some years for awarding no prize at all.