2019 Nobel in Literature Discussion Thread

[Mike Bentley]

The Nobel Prize is Literature is coming up this week and we're missing the traditional thread on this. Here's one list of odds I found:

Anne Carson 4/1

Maryse Condé 5/1

Can Xue 8/1

Haruki Murakami 8/1

Lyudmila Ulitskaya 8/1

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o 8/1

Margaret Atwood 10/1

Marilynne Robinson 10/1

Olga Tokarczuk 10/1

Péter Nádas 10/1

Adunis 14/1

Gerald Murnane 14/1

Mircea Cartarescu 14/1

Ya Hua 14/1

Ismail Kadaré 17/1

Javier Marías 20/1

Jon Fosse 20/1

László Krasznahorkai 20/1

Milan Kundera 20/1

Peter Handke 20/1

Yoko Tawada 20/1

César Aira 25/1

Yang Lian 25/1

Ko Un 33/1

Ernesto Cardenal 50/1

George R. R. Martin 250/1

Not sure how these take into account there will be two winners this year due to the scandal that resulted in no prize last year.

[ValenciaQBowl]

HOW DARE YOU BOGART MY THREAD MIKE BENTLEY!!!!

But yeah, I was remiss. Honestly, I thought about it yesterday morning while walking to class, wondering if the prize was being given this year or not; I didn't know if it was just a one-year hiatus.

It's crazy that there will be two winners, especially if we were taking seriously the effort to bet on it. The Swedes have always had their own favorites and vendettas and political angles in their selection process, and facing the prospect of choosing two winners I can imagine a lot of horse trading.

Some things I think we can say for sure: it 100% won't be an American, and it probably won't be an English-language writer. Ishiguro won the last prize, and Dylan won the one before that, so the Swedes will likely be looking elsewhere. I'm disappointed that Ladbrokes, the English bookies, don't have their odds up this year--not that there's are more accurate, but they're usually more thorough.

Anyway, I'm putting my first hypothetical $20 on Ko Un. I don't know anything more about him than that he's an aged Korean poet, which makes him seem like an attractive candidate to the Academy. My second hypothetical $20 is on Lazlo Krasznahorkai, as I like to think about how happy that will make Will Nediger. My hypothetical payoff will be $1060! But as always, I will be wrong.

Who you got?

PS--Amusing line from an article from "The Week": "A litany of the laureates, on the other hand, often reads like a list of missed trivia answers: Naguib Mahfouz, Imre Kertesz, Odysseas Elytis, Heinrich Böll?" Haha, quiz bowl, your college novice-level answers (certainly at least bonus hard parts) of Mahfouz and Boll are just trivia no one knows!

[Mike Bentley]

HOW DARE YOU BOGART MY THREAD MIKE BENTLEY!!!!

But yeah, I was remiss. Honestly, I thought about it yesterday morning while walking to class, wondering if the prize was being given this year or not; I didn't know if it was just a one-year hiatus.

It's crazy that there will be two winners, especially if we were taking seriously the effort to bet on it. The Swedes have always had their own favorites and vendettas and political angles in their selection process, and facing the prospect of choosing two winners I can imagine a lot of horse trading.

Some things I think we can say for sure: it 100% won't be an American, and it probably won't be an English-language writer. Ishiguro won the last prize, and Dylan won the one before that, so the Swedes will likely be looking elsewhere. I'm disappointed that Ladbrokes, the English bookies, don't have their odds up this year--not that there's are more accurate, but they're usually more thorough.

Anyway, I'm putting my first hypothetical $20 on Ko Un. I don't know anything more about him than that he's an aged Korean poet, which makes him seem like an attractive candidate to the Academy. My second hypothetical $20 is on Lazlo Krasznahorkai, as I like to think about how happy that will make Will Nediger. My hypothetical payoff will be $1060! But as always, I will be wrong.

Who you got?

PS--Amusing line from an article from "The Week": "A litany of the laureates, on the other hand, often reads like a list of missed trivia answers: Naguib Mahfouz, Imre Kertesz, Odysseas Elytis, Heinrich Böll?" Haha, quiz bowl, your college novice-level answers (certainly at least bonus hard parts) of Mahfouz and Boll are just trivia no one knows!

Ko Un has been subject of a prominent #MeToo allegation (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/201 ... ered-poet/). Given that the prize was not given last year for similar reasons, it would be in particular bad taste to award it to him this year.

I think there's an outside chance that Olga Tokarczuk could win it. She'd be a good way to signal disapproval of the growing nationalist regimes in Europe.

It seems somewhat poor timing for Murakami given the sort of tepid response to his last novel, Killing Commendatore.

[$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy]

nah it won't be Ko Un because he's cancelled: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/201 ... ered-poet/

edit: oof scooped

[Tippy Martinez]

László Krasznahorkai 20/1

Justin French has entered the chat

[Auks Ran Ova]

It seems somewhat poor timing for Murakami given the sort of tepid response to his last novel, Killing Commendatore.

Ah, but that would make it so much more trollish if he wins. Only makes the odds get better, I think.

Also looks like with Dacia Maraini not among this year's favorites, the position of "middle-odds possibility whose name is misspelled" has fallen to Yu Hua.

[ValenciaQBowl]

As I noted when taking a shot with Ko Un, all I know about him is that he's a Korean poet. Thanks for the update about his skeevy behavior, which I agree makes him unlikely.

I'll go with Billy Bragg as my second choice, as he should win just for "Greetings to the New Brunette." Anyway, I reckon we'll know soon.

EDIT: Oh, snap: I should've checked before writing this; we have winners: Peter Handke (20-1 for those of you with vested interests), and Olga Tokarczuk (10-1).

exciting

EDIT TWO: So I reckon it's fitting that the award would go to Handke in our current American-European political climate, as he's an apologist for Slobodan Milosevic and Serbia's actions in the Yugoslav war. Good times.
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-apol ... Z8qjnsnaM8

[Mike Bentley]

I'm going to take credit for winning this thread with my Tokarczuk prediction. If only I put actual money on it!

That being said, I started reading Flights last year and it wasn't really for me. Maybe her Books of Jacob (described in this profile: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 ... ationalism) will be more to my tastes.

[UlyssesInvictus]

I'm going to take credit for winning this thread with my Tokarczuk prediction. If only I put actual money on it!

That being said, I started reading Flights last year and it wasn't really for me. Maybe her Books of Jacob (described in this profile: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 ... ationalism) will be more to my tastes.

In fairness, Handke also winning it sort of defeats your argument about it being as a rejection of the nationalist climate :P