The Nobel Prize in Literature from an Alternative Universe

[pegkerr]

Ted Gioia indulges in a lovely daydream:

"I had a hunch a woman writer living in England would win the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. But I still wasn't prepared for the thrill I experienced when I learned that J.K. Rowling had won the coveted prize. After all, who has done more for the cause of reading in recent decades? The last time a British woman had received this honor was back in 1966 when Dame Agatha Christie shared the award with Jorge Luis Borges. I expect Rowling's acceptance speech will rank among the most memorable. (Although it's hard to imagine anything topping that moment in 1997, when Dr. Hunter S. Thompson mounted the podium in Stockholm to share his surprising sentiments with the audience.) . . ."

No, this is not the real Nobel Prize in Literature, but the way the award might exist in an alternative universe -- a world in which such honors are exempt from pettiness, politics and tokenism. Imagine a Nobel Prize in which the contributions of Proust, Kafka, Nabokov and Joyce are not forgotten. Imagine a Nobel Prize in Literature in which genre writers have a chance. Imagine a Nobel Prize in Literature that doesn't bend over backward to exclude native born U.S. writers (only three honored during the last 52 years!). Ah, don't just imagine . . . read about it here.

For my part, I'm just happy the committee from the alternative universe honored Philip K. Dick three years before his passing.

Well? What do you think of his proposed list of winners? (J.K. Rowling wins it for the year 2007.)

Comments

[naomikritzer]

That one made me choke up.

If anyone has a harder time being taken seriously than genre writers, it's children's writers.

And yet Dr. Seuss wrote a book about racial discrimination and prejudice that was published in 1960 with apparently no controversy whatsoever -- I've never once seen The Sneetches on a "banned/challenged books" list, although The Butter Battle Book and The Lorax came late enough that people had started to notice he wasn't just writing frivolous funny rhyming stuff with no wider significance. He wrote brilliant, incisive social commentary that flew far enough below the radar that it reached the children of the very people he was criticizing, and none of them noticed. (The Sneetches deals with discrimination and segregation. What Was I Scared Of deals with prejudice. And I am convinced that The Zax is actually a metaphore for the U.S. Senate. I haven't been able to come up with a larger significance for Too Many Daves, alas.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

He also said that Yertle the Turtle was actually Adolph Hitler.