Nobel Prize for Literature 2018/2019

[fum]

I find that unfair to the translater. I live in a small country, Denmark, and there is only 5-6 million native speakers. A lot of what i read, is translated. And many do a very good job in translating. You can, off course, come with examples of poorly translated novels, but they are few.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by fum

I find that unfair to the translater. I live in a small country, Denmark, and there is only 5-6 million native speakers. A lot of what i read, is translated. And many do a very good job in translating. You can, off course, come with examples of poorly translated novels, but they are few.

How is that unfair? Of course, a bad translation will completely ruin things. I didn't even think about bad translations. From what I have seen, the English translations of Handke are very good. At this moment, unable to convey the difficulties with my own words, I would borrow a translator's words.

From: http://goaliesanxiety.blogspot.com/2...novel.html?m=1 (bold mine)

The repetitive rhythm of the first three sentences, each with a phrase between commas after the stated subject, begs to finds its way into a translation. In German, the third sentence's verb begins with "wird erzittert" which could mean that the house is shaken. The final part of the verb (haben) doesn't come until the end of the sentence, so not till that point does a reader realize that the tense is future perfect instead of present. That tension, which I can't reproduce in English, draws attention to the fact of narration.

What Peter Handke writes is modern German, current spelling, correct grammar, regular word order. And yet you will be hard pressed to find anyone talking like that. He is pushing the language to the limit. And sometimes it is no longer translatable as the limits are different between languages.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Is it anymore? I suspect that winning other literary prizes tends to move sales a lot more than the Nobel prize does.

What prize is bigger?

I can remember them giving it to Bob Dylan a few years ago and he skipped the presentation ceremonies.

Well, he is the freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

[rkomar]

Tokarczuk wrote "Anna in the Catacombs" for the Canongate Myth series, but it was never translated into English. I'm hoping that this event will trigger a translation for that book, because I like that series and this novel sounds good.

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I can remember them giving it to Bob Dylan a few years ago and he skipped the presentation ceremonies.

Yep... and that's when they lost all credibility for me.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What prize is bigger?



Well, he is the freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Some of that depends on the genre. In the US, I suspect that the Pulitzer Prize is.

[rkomar]

Most of the other prizes mentioned are for specific books, while the Nobel is more of a lifetime achievement award. They are recognizing different things.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Most of the other prizes mentioned are for specific books, while the Nobel is more of a lifetime achievement award. They are recognizing different things.

Perhaps, but we were talking about importance and moving the needle. My point is that the noble prize for literature doesn't really seem to be as important to the general public with regards to someone saying "Hey, so and so won the X prize, I need to try one of his/her books".

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Perhaps, but we were talking about importance and moving the needle. My point is that the noble prize for literature doesn't really seem to be as important to the general public with regards to someone saying "Hey, so and so won the X prize, I need to try one of his/her books".

Why do you feel that prizes exist for no other reason than to create extra sales?

[FrustratedReader]

Most literary prizes are an echo chamber for Literary Critics and snobs.

Something winning an award is actually starting to be a negative point now for some readers.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Is it anymore? I suspect that winning other literary prizes tends to move sales a lot more than the Nobel prize does. I can remember them giving it to Bob Dylan a few years ago and he skipped the presentation ceremonies.

Bob's old, and was on tour.

I'll cut him slack.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Why do you feel that prizes exist for no other reason than to create extra sales?

Why would you think I feel that way? I certainly never said such a thing. What I said was that maybe the Nobel Prize is not the most important literary event in writing and gave a couple of reasons why it might not be.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Why would you think I feel that way? I certainly never said such a thing. What I said was that maybe the Nobel Prize is not the most important literary event in writing and gave a couple of reasons why it might not be.

Because you said it right there:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Is it anymore? I suspect that winning other literary prizes tends to move sales a lot more than the Nobel prize does.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Because you said it right there:

You know when you chop out a section of a post, you can totally change how it reads. The rest of the quote was " I can remember them giving it to Bob Dylan a few years ago and he skipped the presentation ceremonies. "

So I was giving two different points on why I thought that maybe the Nobel prize wasn't the most important event in literature.

You asked "Why do you feel that prizes exist for no other reason than to create extra sales? " which is not even remotely what I said. I gave two reasons why it might not be the most important event in the literary world, I never said nor implied that the only reason a prize exists is to create extra sales.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Most literary prizes are an echo chamber for Literary Critics and snobs.

Something winning an award is actually starting to be a negative point now for some readers.

I don't know about that. Maybe that's true for the Puppies groups in sci-fi, but I don't think it's true overall.