This year's prize goes to Elfriede Jelinek of austria, who writes plays against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Who is this person? I've never heard of her. Also the co-winner is Kenya's Wangari Maathai (big on your reading list, right?) who suggests that AIDS is a biological weapon that the West planted in africa to wipe out the black race.
Here's a list of literature laureats:
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/
What percentage are recognized great authors? It appears that the best way to get this award in the current era is to criticize white people, the U.S., the West, capitalism, etc, and be from a third world country. The literature can be paltry and idiotic - what counts is does it pass the PC filter. It's kind of funny that the swedish academy thinks that there are all these ultra-wise primitives running around in the jungle who can teach the honkies a thing or too. I lived in Sweden for half a year and generally developed an affection for the swedish people and culture, but they repeatedly impressed me as rather naive. Up on the scandinavian penisula, there was actually a feeling of remoteness even from most of europe.
An aside: This apparent attitude sort of reminds me of Benjamin Franklin visiting the court of Versailles during the american revolution, patiently trying to coax troops and money out of the french to support the war. He was a big hit at court with his manner and witticisms. Since he came from america, he was judged to be a primitive, and his wisdom was thought to be some kind of miracle - like what you hear from idiot-savants. Franklin played on this "barbarian" sterotype and wore a coonskin cap around Paris, although he wouldn't have in a million years in Philadelphia. Of course, some of this same attitude of euros toward the US survives to the present day - apparently a permanent feature of euro outlook.
Here's a list of literature laureats:
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/
What percentage are recognized great authors? It appears that the best way to get this award in the current era is to criticize white people, the U.S., the West, capitalism, etc, and be from a third world country. The literature can be paltry and idiotic - what counts is does it pass the PC filter. It's kind of funny that the swedish academy thinks that there are all these ultra-wise primitives running around in the jungle who can teach the honkies a thing or too. I lived in Sweden for half a year and generally developed an affection for the swedish people and culture, but they repeatedly impressed me as rather naive. Up on the scandinavian penisula, there was actually a feeling of remoteness even from most of europe.
An aside: This apparent attitude sort of reminds me of Benjamin Franklin visiting the court of Versailles during the american revolution, patiently trying to coax troops and money out of the french to support the war. He was a big hit at court with his manner and witticisms. Since he came from america, he was judged to be a primitive, and his wisdom was thought to be some kind of miracle - like what you hear from idiot-savants. Franklin played on this "barbarian" sterotype and wore a coonskin cap around Paris, although he wouldn't have in a million years in Philadelphia. Of course, some of this same attitude of euros toward the US survives to the present day - apparently a permanent feature of euro outlook.
