Comments on: No Nobel for Haruki Murakami

By: The Waiting Game

The Waiting Game — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:10:48 +0000

LOL! Murakami does not regularly write “light fiction’ and this left me wondering which of his works you read. Yes, Norwegian Wood might be described as “lighter” or the “lightest” of his works, at least the most accessible to a larger pop culture type of audience. But The Wind Up Bird, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Kafka could never be described as “light fiction” by any stretch.

By: The Overthinker

The Overthinker — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:44:35 +0000

“If it were up to you, our world would consist only of businessmen, stockbrokers and industrialists.”

No. Doctors, scientists, and academics. There’s no Nobel Prize for making the best-selling computer, or selling the most stocks.

By: concerned Filipino

concerned Filipino — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:04:08 +0000

Dismissing art, literature, and other aspects of civilization that don’t directly improve human life is a typically conservative attitude. If it were up to you, our world would consist only of businessmen, stockbrokers and industrialists. Unfortunately, they’re the ones who got the world into the present pickle, aren’t they?

Though I do agree that there seems to be a European bias in the awards committee.

By: Level3

Level3 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:08:38 +0000

Why all the fuss about the second-most meaningless Nobel?
[Peace Prize is first]

All other Nobels reward efforts that have changed the world.
Science, medicine, economics.

What’s the point of giving a million dollars to a writer who 99.9999% of the people in the world will never read? [That's a serious question, if someone could explain it, please do. I know some writers have affected the world via politics, Locke, Rousseau, and unfortunately Marx, but that isn't really "Literature" anyway, is it?]

The only useful purpose of this (and the Peace Prize) is to show just how looney and pompous the Euro-centric asses who control it can be.

Can we expect an American to “win” in 2009 if Obama wins, as a “reward”? Maybe.
If McCain wins, I think we can guarantee no Lit Prizes for the USA for 4 more years. No tears will be shed.
We can be happy taking the ones that MEAN something.

By: The Golden Rock

The Golden Rock — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:53:29 +0000

[...] Believe it or not, there’s actually been odds on Japanese author Haruki Murakami winning the Nobel Literature Pri… since 2006, even though he’s missed out on it for 3 years running [...]

By: boohoo

boohoo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:32:30 +0000

I agree… Murakami is good light fiction, but I’ve never considered it “literature” in the sense that Oe is. I would be pretty suprised if Murakami won a nobel.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:51:45 +0000

Considering that Nobel Academy Permanent Secretary Horace Engdahl, in the course of slagging off American writers, said, “You can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world,” it’s not surprising that a Frenchman won (not to detract from his work, which I’ve never read.)

On the other hand, although I’m a huge fan of Murakami, I’m not sure I’d put his oeuvre as a whole on the same level as Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, or Thomas Pynchon (to name a few oft-mentioned great living American writers for whom a Nobel would not be undeserved.) Over the past 15 years or so, Murakami has written engrossing urban fantasies (for lack of a better term), but his work has lacked the probing, illuminating quality that his early work had. He’s said he’s at work on “a big book, the biggest book I’ve ever written,” though. Here’s hoping it’s a tour de force. . .

By: Tengu Leavings

Tengu Leavings — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:50:27 +0000

I like Murakami in general and love The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in particular, but he’s been writing the same novel for the last ten years.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:00:52 +0000

He won it almost 15 years ago. What about him? Every single winner since him has either been a European or a naturalized citizen of a European country. Coetzee is one of the few that aren’t from Europe. Pamuk is kind of the odd man out, but Turkey is still considered Europe so..

Here’s a little article about some of the panel’s prejudices:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/nobel-literature-chief-ba_n_130619.html

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:38:32 +0000

What about Oe Kenzaburo?

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:14:20 +0000

Its no secret that the Nobel literature committee is a bunch of snobs who feel as though Europe is the rightful center of literature on the planet. I wouldn’t be surprised if next year’s winner was, yet again, another European.