[bksvol-discuss] Re: Nobel Prize winners in Literature from 1901 was Special COllections

  • From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:00:51 -0400

I prefer Dickens over Faulkner myself, but, also like you, Dickens is far from my favorite too. It is subjective though. Again, it is fine with me that other people like Faulkner. It is not fine with me that Faulkner readers look down on non Faulkner readers as if they were pond scum.


On 3/11/2012 5:37 PM, Cindy wrote:
If you read the criteria on which the prize was awarded to each author you can see the committee wasn't a Literary snob. My liking for a book is somewhat like Kim's. I tried to Faulkner but couldn't get "into": him. I never did like Dickens, and still don't, except for Tale of Two Cities (the other bks are too depressing fr me. We started watching the recent Masterpiece Theater production but gave up for that reason. I did enjoy the Sinclai Lewis book I proofed. It was a long time ago, but as I recall it satirized society and was was written. The Good Earth got me very in volved with the characters and,and ofcourse, like any good historical novel with the China of the time. I did proof one or 2 (2, I think), Booker prize winners. There your criticism, Roger, of the judging panel might be warranted. The 2 books were interesting more because of the different styles of writing--where they placed the characters in time and the very different construction of the plot and setting. One I found very interesting on a purely intellectual level; I admired the "differentness ": and cleverness of what the author did. The other was a sort of science fiction and I didn'dt like it; it wasn't really xcoherent, imo. and I couldn't get involved with the characters.Like Kim, I l ike to become emotionally involved with the characters.
 Ihaven't read any Doris Lessing
Cindy

    *From:* Kim Friedman <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    *Sent:* Sunday, March 11, 2012 1:16 PM
    *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: Nobel Prize winners in Literature
    from 1901 was Special COllections

    Hi, Roger, I think it isn't necessarily the snob appeal which
    might win someone a prize. I think William Faulkner won for his
    experimental writing style and how he tried to narrate the history
    in a pocket universe he created, Yoknapatawpha County. Just
    because he may not be your choice of reading matter, he must have
    appealed to some people who really enjoyed his style of writing
    and telling a story. It seems to me there are all kinds of folk
    who read for a variety of reasons: personally, I read for a good
    story and for me this involves caring about and identifying with
    the characters. I suppose other people have different criteria.
    Speaking for myself, I couldn't enjoy Virginia Woolf's To The
    Lighthouse because nothing really happened in the story. Sure, you
    found out about the interior thoughts and feelings of the
    characters, but for me, this wasn't enough to engage my interest.
    I suppose there are others who are first caught by the mechanics
    the author uses in telling a story and are willing to ferret out
    what makes the author appeal to them. They don't have to like the
    characters (if any), but they might be delighted in how the author
    describes the setting or his/her word usage. I think what really
    struck me about Winston Graham (I don't think he ever won the
    Nobel Prize) was how his word choice, dialog, and powers of
    description got me to know the milieu of his stories, his
    characters and the interest the author had in them and how he was
    able to make me share his interest. In other words, I like someone
    who can tell a story. I think readers of literature sometimes get
    so caught up in whatever they're experiencing with the author that
    they forget about the storytelling part which is so vital to most
    readers. I suppose there may be some folks who have snobbery about
    what constitutes literature with a capital L, but I wouldn't say
    that all English teachers forget about the value of storytelling.
    I also think that some works require the reader to have a bit more
    life experience so they can be fully appreciated. I think I
    appreciated Charles Dickens's works when I was older. When I was
    required to read Great Expectations in Junior High, I couldn't
    really get into the story. When I read him in my thirties, I was
    struck by how he used words in setting a scene and how his
    characters acted. He was quite theatrical. I'm certainly willing
    to concede there may be folks who are snobbish or pretentious, who
    might read something because it is the done thing or because they
    feel they ought to like something but I don't know that the
    majority of people are like that. I don't even know if the
    "intelligentsia" are like that. Regards, Kim Friedman.
    -----Original Message-----
    *From:* bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Roger
    Loran Bailey
    *Sent:* Sunday, March 11, 2012 8:44 AM
    *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: Nobel Prize winners in Literature
    from 1901 was Special COllections

    This kind of reinforces my disdain for literary awards. They are
    based on the subjective judgements of people who have gotten onto
    committees by way of their connections, that is, snob societies.
    If you happen to share the tastes of the members of the Nobel
    Committee then you will agree with their choices. If you don't
    then you are likely to think that the Nobel Committee chooses some
    incredibly boring authors. I would suggest that if you want to
    really enjoy books, that you follow your own interests in reading.
    If you want to feel superior to the reading rabble then read the
    award winners and, hopefully, you will not be turned off from
    reading like so many are by English teachers who assign Literature
    with a capital L as the only worthwhile reading material without
    regard to the students' interests.

    On 3/11/2012 6:52 AM, Cindy wrote:
    At first I thought you are right; then I began to think that
    maybe it was awarded for a body of work, so I went to a Nobel.org
site and found this: so I guess it's not one particular book. For Sinclair Lewis I found this:


          Sinclair Lewis

    The Nobel Prize in Literature 1930 was awarded to Sinclair Lewis
    /"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability
    to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"/.
    for Pearl Buck I found this:


      Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature

    On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and
    testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of
    prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As described in Nobel's will one part
    was dedicated to “the person who shall have produced in the field
    of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”.
    Learn more about the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1901 to 2011.

    That dosn't make it very clear, though; does "most outstanding
    work mean one book or body of work
    I checked the Nobel site for Sinclair Lewis and found this:


          The Nobel Prize in Literature 1930 was awarded to Sinclair
          Lewis /"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and
          his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of
          characters"/.

    For Pearl Buck I found this:

    The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 was awarded to Pearl Buck
    /"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in
    China and for her biographical masterpieces"/. , . for Pearl Buck
    I found this:
    The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 was awarded to Pearl Buck
    /"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in
    China and for her biographical masterpieces"/. and for Rudyard
    Kipling, this:



    The Nobel Prize in Literature 1907 was awarded to Rudyard Kipling
    /"in consideration of the power of observation, originality of
    imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for
    narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous
    author"/.I also learned that Kipling was the youngest author to
    receive the prize ( That year The Jungle Book was mentioned
    whenhe won. Doris Lessing was the oldest winner, age 88 (I think
    it was 2007, but now I don't remembered, even though I just read it.

    I don't hink we'd necessarily have to have all the books a
    prizewinner wrote, maybe just one or a few that are
    representative of the author. It's odd to hink that The Jungle
    Book was mentioned when Kipling won when he wrote so many
    others--or maybe I'm thinking og pems, like Kim (was that a
    book). I know Pearl Book wrot a lot of books about China because
    I've read most of them, especially her children's book, The
    Chinese Children Next Door). The award mentioned her biographies.
    I didn't know she wrote biographies. Her most famous book is
    probably The Great Earth, but there were sequels, too which I
    read--all very good.
    Cindy

        *From:* Sue Stevens <siss52@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
        <mailto:siss52@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
        *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
        *Sent:* Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:55 PM
        *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: Nobel Prize winners in
        Literature from 1901 was Special COllections

        Wow, Cindy!  Thanks for all this info!!
        Sue S.
        *From:* Cindy <mailto:popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
        *Sent:* Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:28 PM
        *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
        *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: Nobel Prize winners in
        Literature from 1901 was Special COllections
        For those who want more information about the Nobel Prize for
        Literature, here's some  general info,including a list of all
        winners since 1901.If anyone wants to make a project of
        scanning any of the books we don't have I'd be happy to proof
        them, although I don't know how we could do non-English books
        unless they have been translated. I knosw there'a at least
        one Sinclair Lewis book because I proofed it, and Kipling's
        poetry is in,because Amy scanned that and I proofed it. I
        don't know about his novels; and I'm sure, though I didn't
        check that The Good Earth must be in.
        Here's the info I copied from online:
        All Nobel Prizes in Literature
        The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 104 times to
        108 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2011. All Nobel Prizes
        in Literature
        The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 104 times to
        108 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2011.
        Here's the list:
        2011
        Tomas Tranströmer
        2010
        Mario Vargas Llosa
        2009
        Herta Müller
        2008
        Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
        2007
        Doris Lessing
        2006
        Orhan Pamuk
        2005
        Harold Pinter
        2004
        Elfriede Jelinek
        2003
        John M. Coetzee
        2002
        Imre Kertész
        2001
        Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
        2000
        Gao Xingjian
        1999
        Günter Grass
        1998
        José Saramago
        1997
        Dario Fo
        1996
        Wislawa Szymborska
        1995
        Seamus Heaney
        1994
        Kenzaburo Oe
        1993
        Toni Morrison
        1992
        Derek Walcott
        1991
        Nadine Gordimer
        1990
        Octavio Paz
        1989
        Camilo José Cela
        1988
        Naguib Mahfouz
        1987
        Joseph Brodsky
        1986
        Wole Soyinka
        1985
        Claude Simon
        1984
        Jaroslav Seifert
        1983
        William Golding
        1982
        Gabriel García Márquez
        1981
        Elias Canetti
        1980
        Czeslaw Milosz
        1979
        Odysseus Elytis
        1978
        Isaac Bashevis Singer
        1977
        Vicente Aleixandre
        1976
        Saul Bellow
        1975
        Eugenio Montale
        1974
        Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
        1973
        Patrick White
        1972
        Heinrich Böll
        1971
        Pablo Neruda
        1970
        Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
        1969
        Samuel Beckett
        1968
        Yasunari Kawabata
        1967
        Miguel Angel Asturias
        1966
        Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
        1965
        Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
        1964
        Jean-Paul Sartre
        1963
        Giorgos Seferis
        1962
        John Steinbeck
        1961
        Ivo Andric
        1960
        Saint-John Perse
        1959
        Salvatore Quasimodo
        1958
        Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
        1957
        Albert Camus
        1956
        Juan Ramón Jiménez
        1955
        Halldór Kiljan Laxness
        1954
        Ernest Miller Hemingway
        1953
        Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
        1952
        François Mauriac
        1951
        Pär Fabian Lagerkvist
        1950
        Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell
        1949
        William Faulkner
        1948
        Thomas Stearns Eliot
        1947
        André Paul Guillaume Gide
        1946
        Hermann Hesse
        1945
        Gabriela Mistral
        1944
        Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
        1943
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the
        Special Fund of this prize section.
        1942
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the
        Special Fund of this prize section.
        1941
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the
        Special Fund of this prize section.
        1940
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the
        Special Fund of this prize section.
        1939
        Frans Eemil Sillanpää
        1938
        Pearl Buck
        1937
        Roger Martin du Gard
        1936
        Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
        1935
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the
        Special Fund of this prize section.
        1934
        Luigi Pirandello
        1933
        Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
        1932
        John Galsworthy
        1931
        Erik Axel Karlfeldt
        1930
        Sinclair Lewis
        1929
        Thomas Mann
        1928
        Sigrid Undset
        1927
        Henri Bergson
        1926
        Grazia Deledda
        1925
        George Bernard Shaw
        1924
        Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
        1923
        William Butler Yeats
        1922
        Jacinto Benavente
        1921
        Anatole France
        1920
        Knut Pedersen Hamsun
        1919
        Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
        1918
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
        1917
        Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
        1916
        Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam
        1915
        Romain Rolland
        1914
        No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was
        allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
        1913
        Rabindranath Tagore
        1912
        Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
        1911
        Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck
        1910
        Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse
        1909
        Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf
        1908
        Rudolf Christoph Eucken
        1907
        Rudyard Kipling
        1906
        Giosuè Carducci
        1905
        Henryk Sienkiewicz
        1904
        Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray y Eizaguirre
        1903
        Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson
        1902
        Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen
        1901
        Sully Prudhomme
        And here's the list of all winners since 1901


        Cindy

            *From:* Mayrie ReNae <mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
            <mailto:mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
            *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
            <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
            *Sent:* Saturday, March 10, 2012 6:57 PM
            *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: Special Collections
            Hi Sue,
            Is Pulitzer Prize the same thing but by a different name?
            If so, you can find the list of books here:
            
http://www.bookshare.org/browse/collection/31/Pulitzer%20Prize%20Award%20Winners

            Hope that was what you're looking for!
            Mayrie
            *From:* bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
            <mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
            [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf
            Of *Sue Stevens
            *Sent:* Saturday, March 10, 2012 6:35 PM
            *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
            <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
            *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Special Collections

                Hi All,
            In checking the special collections I do not see the
            Nobel Literature prizewinners listed.  Am I just missing
            them, or do we not have them?
            Sue S.


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