Slog - Comments on Stupid European: "Blah Blah Blah." http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah Nobel literature head: US too insular to compete. STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing. Counters the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation: "Put him in touch with me, and I'll send him a reading list." As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year's award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said it's no coincidence that most winners are European. "Of course there... Copyright 2008 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:29:04 -0800 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:56:15 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Dougsf Sweden is somehow less insular than we are?

]]> Dougsf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154242 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154242 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:32:44 -0800 Comment by Balt-O-Matt Macho Man's dead, yo.

]]> Balt-O-Matt http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154247 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154247 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:38:47 -0800 Comment by ellarosa but presumably not as ignorant.

]]> ellarosa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154248 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154248 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:39:02 -0800 Comment by Bryan Europe is down to about a half a testicle. It almost isn't worth crushing that last bit.

]]> Bryan http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154256 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154256 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:45:44 -0800 Comment by Ryno In case you needed to know why Philip Roth hasn't gotten the nod yet. Worse than the Oscars.

]]> Ryno http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154260 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154260 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:49:46 -0800 Comment by la23ng Before you Americans get all worked up, last year's literature Nobel Price winner Elfriede Jelinek thinks it is a joke she got the Nobel Prize and not Thomas Pynchon:

FAZ interview with Elfriede Jelinek

(In German)

]]> la23ng http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154314 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154314 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:23:35 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe Troops out of Iraq and into Sweden, please. We'll give you something to write about.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154315 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154315 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:23:41 -0800 Comment by michael strangeways European Literature died about 50 years ago...about the same time their importance to fashion, food and film died as well.

Or to be precise, August 12, 1955 when Thomas Mann died.

]]> michael strangeways http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154320 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154320 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:27:22 -0800 Comment by DOUG. This is stupid. Most European books aren't even in English!

]]> DOUG. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154321 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154321 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:28:34 -0800 Comment by Paul Constant I (heart) DOUG.

]]> Paul Constant http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154331 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154331 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:36:05 -0800 Comment by Simac I think I've heard of this "Europe" before.

]]> Simac http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154339 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154339 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:43:28 -0800 Comment by Matthew One word: Updike.

]]> Matthew http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154375 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154375 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:00:16 -0800 Comment by max solomon the nobel hands out literature awards based on politics, not art.

]]> max solomon http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154386 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154386 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:02:46 -0800 Comment by Greg You stay classy, Sweden.

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154396 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154396 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:05:17 -0800 Comment by ashy trashy potato mashy saying that America is trashy just makes you look trashy.

]]> ashy trashy potato mashy http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154403 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154403 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:07:31 -0800 Comment by Jeff Stevens Dude obviously hasn't read Hunting Mister Heartbreak, and therefore doesn't get why Jonathan Raban chose to move to the States. (To Seattle, even!)

Enough to make me wanna renounce my Scandinavian-via-Ballard ethnic heritage--almost. Instead I think I'll just hurl all over my copy of The Prose Edda.

Sorry, Jerry Lundegaard!

]]> Jeff Stevens http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154433 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154433 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:25:02 -0800 Comment by DrJim Let's see O'Neill, Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Morrison, Buck, Eliot, Sinclair Lewis are/were all American. And a good portion of the rest spent a good deal of time in the U.S. sucking up American academic dollars. Nope, no literature here.

]]> DrJim http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154435 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154435 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:26:13 -0800 Comment by Dougsf #17 - they good still be smarting that Sinclair Lewis rejected his prize. Probably not though. I bet the truth is closer to what #13 said.

]]> Dougsf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154443 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154443 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:32:10 -0800 Comment by R Philip Roth does not deserve this award. At all. Stop with that shit. And not Updike, either.

David Foster Wallace, had he lived and published another brick like IJ, would've been my pick for the next American to win.

]]> R http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154498 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154498 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:42:36 -0800 Comment by Chris B To quote a stand-up comic I heard many years ago: "I don't want to brag, but I've been to Europe! Excellent country. We beat them in World War II, y'know?"

]]> Chris B http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154670 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154670 Books Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:23:40 -0800 Comment by Andy the Macho Man reads Grishman?

]]> Andy http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154712 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1154712 Books Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:32:03 -0800 Comment by PdxRitchie Yo Balt-O-Matt, Macho Man is going to kill you for saying that.

]]> PdxRitchie http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1156786 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/stupid_european_blah_blah_blah#c1156786 Books Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:56:15 -0800