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March 29, 2024, 07:48:10 AM

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And the Nobel Prize for literature goes to....

Started by Monsieur Verdoux, October 05, 2017, 12:07:17 PM

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Funcrusher


#2
Quote from: Funcrusher on October 05, 2017, 12:25:36 PM
Martin Amis is probably quietly fuming.


"Looks like I've beaten you again, Martin. You tosser."

Blinder Data

Interesting choice. I haven't read his books but is he outstanding in his field, or established new and influential styles and forms like previous winners? It's debatable.

I'm not batting for Murakami, but I'd have put him ahead of Ishiguro as a more likely candidate.

EDIT: I'm trying to work out a way that doesn't show me as a racist for instantly comparing the two. They are kind of similar in style, aren't they? Are they just seen to be competing because they're Japanese? I dunno

Well, Murakami was the name most people put forward as their preferred choice last year during the controversy about Bob Dylan, so that's why he might spring easily to mind.

Wet Blanket

I've only read Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go but neither struck me as great works for the ages. I'd had him down as a sort of Ian McEwan figure writing potboilers for the middlebrows.

Blinder Data

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 05, 2017, 02:14:20 PM
I've only read Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go but neither struck me as great works for the ages. I'd had him down as a sort of Ian McEwan figure writing potboilers for the middlebrows.

Yeah, this is my feeling too. Considering previous winners have been literature giants or really good at Norwegian folk poetry or whatever, this choice feels strangely middle of the road.

HOT TAKE: He's arguably less deserving than Bob Dylan.

Petey Pate

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on October 05, 2017, 02:42:32 PM
HOT TAKE: He's arguably less deserving than Bob Dylan.

Funnily enough, Ishiguro is also a songwriter and guitarist.

popcorn

I think he's rubbish.

Never Let Me Go is a fucking brilliant idea for a story but it's so weirdly written. I seem to recall every chapter ending with something like "And so everything was fine. That is, until we discovered the boat..." Or "And everything stayed that way. At least, until the parcel came..." In this transparently page-turning way. It's basically Goosebumps.

He actually writes, repeatedly, "He did a small laugh". You what? He did a small laugh? It's one of those things that truly makes me wonder if I'm missing something, like is it deliberately written in such a weird, stilted way as part of some bigger theme? Is the narrator using weird, almost childlike English to reflect her exiled position in society? I thought about that but I couldn't make it work. She doesn't consistently use words like that. It's just fucking weird.

Bhazor

So with his books do you start on the back page and read right to left?

And how many futas are in it?

Serge

I've never got around to reading his stuff, though this thread isn't encouraging me to bother! I will expect several dozen requests for his books at work tomorrow.

Blinder Data

Quote from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41521260For years, many in Japan have hoped he would clinch the biggest prize in literature, and waiting for the Nobel announcement has become an annual, and heavily reported, ritual.

Cue the "Harukists" - acolytes who would gather across the country to peruse their dog-eared copies of Murakami's books, sip on whisky (a motif in his writing) with jazz playing in the background (also a motif), all under the spotlight of television cameras.

At one such gathering on Thursday night at a Tokyo shrine, about 200 "Harukists", surrounded by reporters, readied their celebratory party poppers in anticipation, while watching a livestream of the announcement.

But it was not to be - British writer Kazuo Ishiguro was declared the winner instead. A chorus of sighs erupted from the crowd which, after a beat, burst into polite applause, reported newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

Weirdos