The Nobel prize for literature has been a bad joke almost from the outset.
I wish I could give you chapter and verse on an essay titled “The Ignoble Nobel” I read back in the 1980s, which argued that the literature prize committee has a long-standing preference for mediocrities.
My personal observation is that in recent years, multicultural considerations seem to prevail over merit.
There have been a few good recent picks, like V.S. Naipaul. But if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s Indian-Trinidadian-British, he probably never would have been considered.
Naipaul is a great fiction writer and an even better journalist. His two travel books about the Islamic world “Among the Believers” and “Beyond Belief” were published before terrorism really ramped up, so they might come across as a bit low-key compared with the horrific truth we know today.
But Naipaul showed how Islam has inflicted cultural confusion upon non-Arab countries like Pakistan and Iran. Naipaul argues that Islam is a distinctly Arab religion that can best be understood in the context of the desert culture from which it originated.
Islam is simply a bad fit when grafted onto other, frankly more civilized, cultures — particularly Persia/Iran. These societies have paid a heavy price to become, if you will, pseudo-Arabs.
My least favorite recent Nobel laureate was Elfriede Jelinek, a radical feminist from Austria. Her work strikes me as simply the ravings of a madwoman.
It’s not just the prize for literature that is a joke. Even the process for science prizes is corrupt. If you’re not a member of their circle, you’re not going to get a prize.
Remember the song by Aerosmith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EreTeb0ZT6k