10 Membranes

Nobel Literature Head: US writers to insular to win

Err, this is stupid. The head of the Nobel Literature committee thinks US literature is to insular to win the award, and that Europe is way ahead. What? This is crazy. Yes English speaking countries might not read as much literature in translation as might be healthy. The suggestion that Europe is ahead though is laughable when one thinks of the great American writers from the past 50 years. Aside from (a random selection of) obvious greats- Updike, Mailer, Heller, Roth, Bellow (winner), DeLillo, Pynchon etc- the US is still producing innovative, exciting and awesome writers that just can’t really be matched.

Two examples: the recently deceased David Foster Wallace and his epic INFINITE JEST and Neal Stephenson, with his even more epic BAROQUE CYCLE. No English writer certainly is producing such monumental, intelligent, all embracing work. The attitude of the Horace Engdahl (the nobody who runs Nobel Literature) explains why all the best writers from the 20th century never won an award: amongst others, Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Conrad…and the list goes on and on.