Nobel Committee Member Quits over 2004 Literature Pick

Some people take their art very seriously. Knut Ahnlund just resigned from the Swedish Academy, which hands out the Nobel Prizes, because he really hated last year’s literature award. Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won, but Professor Ahnlund said, “Last year's Nobel Prize has not only done irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art.” Her work, he said, was a “mass of text shoveled together without artistic structure.” Bet he isn’t a member of Oprah’s Book Club.

The literature prize the Swedish Academy awards is the most awkward to decide. The scientific awards carry a load of subjectivity in terms of deciding what piece of physics or medicine is more important than others. However, the literature award is the comparison of apples and oranges because the artists aren’t working in the same language. The beauty and rhythms of German are distinct from those of Russian, of Spanish, of Mandarin, of Urdu and so on.

Frau Jelinek works mostly in Austrian-German, and so much of her workn is know throughout the world (to the extent it is known at all) through the filter of translation. While Professor Ahnlund’s linguistic talents make him capable of assessing her work, one doubts his talents for foreign tongues allows him to consider authors working in more than a couple dozen languages. He publicly doubted whether the 18 academy members have read more than a fraction of her work in any language. Even with perfect understanding of all languages, there's just so very much to read.

That said, what sort of passion must an author create in the heart of a member of the Swedish Academy to cause such a vehement and drastic move? “After this, I cannot even formally remain in the Swedish Academy. As of now, I consider myself an outsider,” he said in the daily Svenska Dagbladet when he announced his resignation. At the age of 82, he clearly still cares deeply about writing regardless of what one thinks of Frau Jelinik’s work.

But why wait until now to quit? On Thursday, the 2005 recipient will be announced. Could it be that he really hates this selection as well? Or could it be that he has won himself? Or maybe, he just finally decided he was tired of playing nicely with others. If nothing else, it will spark some debate about what is and isn’t good literature.

Meanwhile, the Peace Prize still holds the record for the worst selections of all. No matter how bad Frau Jelinik’s writing is, giving Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, Yassir Arafat, Menahem Begin and Mikhail Gorbachev a peace prize is beyond insane.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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