Nobel Prize in Literature

tjportugal · Post by **tjportugal** » 26 Apr 2020, 17:28

I had an epiphany and realized that there is no better community to discuss this topic than OBC.

I hope this topic doesn't turn too aggressive. I just want to see if there are different points of view regarding this theme. I might be the one seeing things the wrong way...

What do you think about the Nobel Prize in Literature? Do you feel that it is overrated? Or bias (politics, ideologies, ...)?

I can't avoid thinking that there is something odd with the Nobel Prize, considering that authors like Tolkien, Dostoevsky or Mark Twain were never awarded the prize whereas some of the laureates are not that good or even famous. What do you think?

Bri C · Post by **Bri C** » 26 May 2020, 00:02

I don't think fame is a good indicator of worthiness for a Nobel Prize. Lots of books are famous that I think are horrific examples of literature. That said, I don't care much for awards in general, and at best think of them as a suggestion of something worth while to read.

Ignoring fame, do you find that you don't agree with most of the justifications they give for why they give out the prize to each person?

Bigwig1973 · Post by **Bigwig1973** » 11 Sep 2020, 08:52

Have you looked into the criteria for the prize? I'm not sure what it takes for a book to be "Nobel-worthy". Their standards might not be the same as the standard for "classic" novels. I recently ran into a video of CM Punk and John Cena WWE and WWF; the former uses Living Colors "Cult of Personality" as his or in his introduction - the lyrics contain the phrase "neon lights, Nobel prize". I googled the song and the wrestlers came up - regardless, maybe you're not the only one to wonder about how the Nobel prize works. Not that it's necessarily relevant to your question, but it just so happened that I had recently googled the song and it was fresh in my mind. Now I'm curious!