When Big pup came home from school yesterday he had a sticker of a giraffe on his shirt. He said he got it in Library for being good. That reminded me of yesterday's big literary announcement, so I asked him, "Did y'all discuss the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature?" "I don't think so," he said. No, I guess they didn't. I mean, how could anyone forget a name like Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio?
The head honcho of the Nobel prize pickers, Horace Engdahl, caused an uproar recently when he said the the United States is too "insular and ignorant" in comparison to Europe's literary world.
Engdahl's comments in an interview with the Associated Press drew strong reactions in the U.S., where the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation offered to send Engdahl a reading list of American literature. (from the AP)
Please, in the name of Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and John Steinbeck, please don't put Nicholas Sparks on that list.
Engdahl later apologized (kinda, sorta), but I'm still waiting on an apology for A Walk to Remember.
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Wow I don't know what to say about that comment but I do have to agree about your Nicolas Sparks comments. I love his books but I wouldn't call them a work of literary genius more a Calgon take me away book.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know who won this years Nobel Prize but thanks to you now I do. Engdahl needs to get off his high horse and read a good book.
ReplyDeleteI almost blew orange juice out my nose. That would've burned. If ever I need a completely predictable, guaranteed I'll cry and be miserable book, I read Nicholas Sparks. Did you ever read James Patterson's Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas? It's Sparks-ish only more heart breaking.
ReplyDeleteI heard about this diatribe too, and I think it makes him sound just as insular and small minded.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that he apologized, when you know he didn't mean it.
Why would they make a permanent head of the selection committee? Why not a 10-year-term or something? I wonder if all Nobel committees are so stagnant and vulnerable to bitter/senile elderly folks.
This is your second post hatin' on poor Nicholas Sparks. I think I know what I'm going to get you for Christmas.
ReplyDeletepoor Nicholas Sparks, he does have a way w/ words though. I actually like him but can get bored w/ his books.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I like to curl up with a Nicholas Sparks book. Sometimes I just need to.
ReplyDeleteIs VC Andrews on that list??? LOL!
ReplyDeleteThank you for keeping me current!
ReplyDeleteNow as for pronouncing that name that will truly challenge me tomorrow when I try to explain the whole award to my children!