Last night I actually got geeky sympathetic butterflies thinking that the Nobel Prize for Literature would be awarded today, and hoping that Philip Roth would win. As you no doubt have already heard by now, the prize went to Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. She is the tenth woman to win the Nobel, a pathetic track record that it seems this win is to ameliorate. It reeks to me of quotas, which is a lousy way to award such a prize. Or maybe I’m just cheesed off because when reached for comment, Jelinek remarked “ich verspüre eigentlich mehr Verzweiflung als Freude” (“I feel more despair than happiness”).
For more knowledgable commentary and excellent links, check in with the Literary Saloon and Maud Newton.
UPDATE: I realize I know nothing about Ms. Jelinek or her work so should really forbear from issuing opinions that seem to judge her worthiness for the honor. I think I’m reacting to the idea (read about here) that the committee was looking to award the prize to a woman this year, which raises a lot of complicated emotions in me, as a female writer. On the one hand, good-o, of course (and while we’re here, could we have a few more witty women on the New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs page too?). On the other, the idea of a quota is demoralizing in a way that I can’t quite assign words to yet, but my thoughts are running along the lines of “aren’t we ready to be judged with the big boys yet?” Perhaps that’s what Jelinek meant by “more despair than happiness.”
On a cheerier front, please visit Jelinek’s deliciously surreal homepage.
“I feel more despair than happiness –” how irresistibly Germanic! She sounds like Isabelle Huppert’s nihilist character in I Heart Huckabees. Which by the way is a much, much better movie than anyone’s giving it credit for. Have you seen it yet?
As for the quota question: I was thinking about that just this morning in the library, when a book called “Poetry by Arab Women” caught my eye. My first thought was, cool, I’d like to read some poetry by Arab women. Then I thought how weird it would be to actually have your writing anthologized in that book — to work so hard to create a unique body of work, then be cheerily served up as the representative of a region and a gender. It’s a puzzlement. On the one hand, good for Elfriede. On the other, the idea of the committee going through files, muttering, “A broad, goddamn it, we gotta find a broad,” is not so heartening.
Comment by lizpenn — 10/7/2004 @ 2:58 pm
I think she deserved to win. Not that I’ve read any of her work (don’t be silly). I’m guessing that she’s ancient (isn’t that a requirement for the Nobel?) and yet by the look of it, she had Jeff Koons design her homepage – with such an arbitrary award, that seems as good a reason as any.
Comment by Kevin Wignall — 10/7/2004 @ 5:41 pm
[...] 7;s relative. ** – Seriously, stop hoping, it’s not gonna happen. No matter what. If not Philip Roth, at least someone who would, you know, have the grace to leave off the despair for a da [...]
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