Once again this year, there is mention of Mahmoud Darwish and Adunis, but I don’t think it will go to them. (Why the academy has never selected an Arab poet is beyond me.) Michael thinks that Orhan Pamuk is too young, at 54, to get the prize. But Gabriel García Márquez was 54 when he got his. Plus, Pamuk has had a great year and with Turkey in the news over its ridiculous censorship law, that might just tilt the judges’ votes in his favor.
I don’t think Pamuk should get it either. I’m not a great fan of poetry generally (my loss, it’s just I don’t quite appreciate it, especially since my Arabic is not good enough to appreciate poetic constructions in the original) but Darwish or Adonis certainly have the right stature, even if I wish my favorite Arab poet, the Iraqi Abdul Wahab Al Bayati, were alive to claim one. There are Arab novelists who would be worthy, too, although some of the most worthy (e.g. Abdel Rahman Mounif) are now dead. On another note altogether, I don’t think they should reward Middle Easterners only because it’s the topic of the moment. How about a science fiction writer? Or a detective novel writer? Surely if they were alive Georges Simenon, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells or Isaac Asimov would be worthy of inclusion.
Still, a Lebanese or Palestinian recipient would certainly be nice if only that it would draw attention to those countries’ plight.
Regarding MoorishGirl’s predictions, I think most of us who read and enjoy fiction in the Arab/Muslim world have reconciled ourselves to the fact that since Naguib Mahfouz quite luckily won it back in the 1980s, the Nobel establishment has put a full stop to the recognition of all creative accomplishments taking place there, and there are plenty.I wonder when she talks about Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis and Pamuk, she never talk about the late Pramoedya Ananta Toer or the late Abdel Rahman Munif, who many critics say were more deserving of the Nobel than Mahfouz.And of course Toer was Indonesian and Munif was Arab.And staying in the Arab world, I think the most suitable candidate this year, given the carnage in Lebanon wrought by Israel would be the gifted Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, who I think has a richer oeuvre than Pamuk.I mean if someone like V.S.Naipaul (who I think is a pretty gifted writer anyways) can be awarded one days after 9/11, I am sure Khoury could also be a beneficiary.I also beg to differ with Moorish Girl’s contention that what Arab artists do best is poetry.There are too many Arab novelists who have written some amazing novels scattered all over Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Sudan.I am sure you will agree that poetry is just one aspect of how Arab people (or any people beset by decaying dictatorships) identify with their political and social problems.I am going through Assia Djebar’s latest collection of short stories THE TONGUE’S BLOOD DOES NOT RUN DRY (Seven Stories Press) and based on my readings of her earlier work, I dare say that out of all Arab novelists writing today, Assia Djebar is perhaps the most deserving, although I wish she would not have ceased writing her great works in Arabic.Wouldn’t you agree more?I mean Djebar just got elected to the exclusively white French preserve of the French Academy, what more taboos will she break??
And staying within the Muslim world, in Turkey, I am not sure Orhan Pamuk is a better or deserving candidate for the Nobel than his far more superior compatriot Yacer Kemal, who champions the Kurds and thus may have effectively ruled himself out for the Nobel because of that…
I wish more would be written about South Asian novels and novelists, because no South Asian since the great Tagore has won the Nobel so far, the most likely candidate is of course Salman Rushdie, who produced some stunning novels in his earlier, saner, exiled days…I think his proximity to imperial power and interests of the market plus easier conditions to write in have markedly affected his prose, and maybe, just maybe that is the sole reason the Nobel Academy might decide to award him this year,because he is clearly no longer the incisive Rushdie as we knew him to be in his earlier days.
So these are just my random thoughts on a very interesting theme, and I am sure you will be waiting with baited breath when the literature Nobel is announced hopefully on the 15th of October.
P.S.There are some other novelists I would love to see get a Nobel but I would eat my shoe if even one of them was ever honoured this way:Juan Goytisolo, Haydar Haydar,Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, John Berger, etc, etc…
Just to throw another name in the ring, watch out for Nurudin Farah. Not exactly Middle Eastern, but I think his chances as an outsider are increasing year after year.
This will neither be popular here nor with the Nobel prize comittee, but I think it’s time for an American writer to make it.
Or Frank Herbert.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy writers deserve to be given a chance. Of course, I cannot imagine that happening anytime soon.
Tayyib Saleh should hopefully win it one year, though the whole thing is silly.
Frederik, quite on the contrary I completely agree. Mailer totally deserves it for a lifetime accomplishment type of thing, and trying to kill his wife and getting away with it.
Faisal, as much as I love Dune I don’t think Herbert can qualify on the Dune series alone. Which is perhaps why Clarke, not a great writer but a very influential one, is perhaps most deserving. Or at least if he didn’t have those rumors of pedophelia surrounding him.
Raza, thanks for the long comment. Will have to look into those books.
I hope Pamuk never wins. Politics aside, his books are a bore! I tried reading My Name is Red and put it down halfway through. I picked up a copy of Snow when I was in Turkey–being there inspired me to give the guy another shot, because he has such a sterling rep. I managed to get through it, but hot damn, the man can bloviate.
As for Rushdie–Raza, I’m not so sure he ought to be discounted, quality-wise. Shalimar the Clown wasn’t the best, and neither was Fury (though Fury was pretty entertaining, I thought), but I bet he has some great novels in him still. Everyone who has creative output for decades is going to hit a low at some point. Admittedly I haven’t read The Ground Beneath Her Feet yet… I suppose if I find that one disappointing too, I’d be more likely to think he’s in decline.
Issandr, I’m pretty sure Clark was cleared convincingly of those charges. Or at least I vaguely remember reading that was the case.
I love Salman Rushdie, although his last three books have been bad. Ground Beneath Her Feet was alright, but those that came after were pretty poor, especially the one set in New York. But Midnight’s Children to the Moor’s Last Sigh are, altogether, Nobel-worthy. Still, he’s not that old yet, is he? Also it’d be pretty badly interpreted in the Islamic world, where the campaign against him is still quite strong (even though nearly no one read the Satanic Verses).
On the Arabic fiction side, one thing that clearly needs to be done if more Arab writers are to get the Nobel is to translate and market more of their books. Surely you could find rich Arabs who are interested in being patrons of the arts?
I meant to add also that French-language North African literature also has its fair share of Nobel-worthy figures. (As long as they’re not Tahar Ben Jelloun).
i would suggest yasmina khadra, but i’m not sure he’s suitable for the Nobel.
by the way, i don’t know half the authors you’re talkin about, so thanks for this post.
oh, and I started to read Pamuk (snow) yesterday, not bad so far.
Actually, Issandr, were Rushdie to get the Nobel Prize it would probably be a combination of not just literary merit but also because of late, he has been supporting the US ‘War on Terror’…remember how they gave it in 2001, just on the heels of 9/11, to that Muslim-hating Trinidadian V.S.Naipaul, who I think is a pretty original novelist.And Issandr, Rushdie may have failed to shine in his last 3 books, but the Nobel is usually given for either maintaining a consistent streak in a literary career or for one book which is cited. E.g. Mahfouz was cited for The Children of Gebelawi, his most controversial work, so I guess Rushdie could be considered for The Satanic Verses or Midnight’s Children. Also,you didn’t include his other great political novel, SHAME, which is an unmatched satire on Pakistan’s late military dictator Zia ul Haq and how he brutalized pakistani society and culture in his 11 year long reign of terror.
To add some more, I really hope no American wins this year because I hear they have already bagged 3 Nobel Prizes this year (even though Mailer, Pynchon and Powers are all worthy candidates).
Issandr, the one candidate from Francophone North Africa who towers above all the rest is the Algerian Asia Djebar, who I mentioned in my earlier post, I hear she is a strong favorite to win since the last 5-6 years.Plus its always refreshing when a female wins it, so being an Arab and a female plus a brilliant writer will really serve to reuce Mahfouz’s loneliness as the only Arab Nobel literateur….granted it is Yasmina Khadra who makes the waves (alongwith Ben Jelloun) but it the likes of Djebar who really bring forth their people’s history and memory.
I hope that Alaa Al Aswani can continue what he started in The Yacoubian Building and doesn’t succumb to commercial proclivities.He might fill the gap left by Mahfouz, although we shouldn’t fret if he doesn’t bag the Nobel!
As far as Egyptian writers go, Aswany has a long way to go yet — his next novel comes out soon. How about Sonallah Ibrahim, whom I like a lot although I recognize that he’s rather mad. Ibrahim Aslan? Both are in their 60s, have published extensively, and are post-Mahfouz authors.
Yasmina Khadra? Haven’t read his books, but he only has three aside from the detective novels. Saw him on TV the other day getting into a huge fight with a couple of French neo-cons about supporting the Iraqi resistance.
Raza, you’re quite right about Shame. I didn’t mean to leave it out, it’s probably his finest although I have a soft spot for the more fabulist Haroun and the Sea of Stories. But clearly Rushdie is/was one of the greatest living English-language writers, and the whole fatwa episode makes him even more worthy — more than Naipaul. I’m not sure whether the Nobel lit panel would “reward” him for supporting the US war on terror (Rushdie has kept some pretty bad company lately, although I don’t know what he said exactly) since last year Pinter got it.
re: Americans bagging a lot of other Nobels this year, well what do you want: they spend money on scientific research. It’s about time this region does too (well the Israelis do, they have a lot of pioneering scientists).
“…I really hope no American wins this year because I hear they have already bagged 3 Nobel Prizes this year…”
But those were scientific nobels, for scientific achievment. What on earth do they have to do with the Lit prize?? The Arab world would be racking them up too if they spent their money on physics and chem experiments.
As far as I know, Rushdie doesn’t support the US “War on Terror” so much as insist on not letting extremists threaten free speech, even offensive speech, with violence. At least, I don’t recall hearing him support the Iraq war. He has said he thought Western governments’ responses to the Danish cartoon incident, for example, were sad/weak, and I got the impression, if he was the West, he’d have told the rioters and anyone upset to suck it up cos it’s only a cartoon. Like, the only thing to be intolerant of is intolerance. He’s been talking along those lines (I base all this on the few interviews I’ve seen/read, since the publication of Shalimar, and one reading in which I was half asleep for reasons having nothing to do with Rushdie himself–so for all I know I’m horribly misrepresenting). Naturally what he actually said was much more articulate. I think you can find, on PBS’s website, an hourlong interview Bill Moyers did with him, on “Faith and Reason”, which probably sums up Rushdie’s opinions, of late.
Oh and, Issandr — ditto about Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I loved Moor’s Last Sigh, and Midnight’s Children of course–but Haroun is perfect.
Oh, here is the link to that PBS program. Again though, I’m not sure how relevant it is to this discussion (I saw it months ago, whenever it came out), but I recall thinking it was like an overview of his ideas, of late, especially about religion, Islam, etc.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/portraits_rushdie.html
There’s an option to view the whole program or read the transcript, top right.
Issandr, I too think Sonallah Ibrahim is a first-rate Egyptian novelist, but then he is a non-conformist and a leftist and the Nobels very rarely award non-conformists (Pinter was an exception).Among other Egyptian names I would like to add Edwar al-Kharrat, a great favorite of the late Edward Said, Nawal El-Saadawi and even Gamal al-Ghitani.What do you think?
Yasmina Khadra needs to mature a bit more before he can come up to the standards of his lesser known but better compatriots like Assia Djebar and the late Kateb Yacine.I hear his next novel, coming out in English next year, is about the US war in Iraq and I hope it is better than his previous ones.
Issandr and Dan, my remarks about Americans getting too many Nobels wasn’t related to the fact that they spend the greatest amounts on research and development.Surely for the Nobel Commitee, this is not the criteria for the award..I was merely saying that the Nobels should be more balanced in giving out the awards, and more so in Literature..after all, despite all that spending, do North America and Europe have an exclusive monopoly on talent and skill?Most of their research base is composed exclusively of immigrants – Arabs, Latinos, Chinese and South Asians…..I was very happy when Ahmed Zewail co-won the Nobel two years ago….
So back to literature….not only Arabs but Latin Americans also need to be recognized.Who would argue with a Nobel case for the Mexican maverick Carlos Fuentes (well, he’s a harsh critic of US imperialism so maybe he might not have his chance)
Staying within the Middle East, I am sometimes shocked why Iranian literateurs have never been considered…people like Simin Daneshvar, Mahmud Daulatabadi as well as the stunning Shahrnush Parsipur (who lives in exile in the US) Probaly because the Nobels still want to stay on the right side of the political establishment……
All in all it’s time for the aging dons at the Nobel Literature Committee to recognize the changing reality of world fiction; our literature is not now dominated by American or North American heavyweights as it once was and that showed in the award of the Nobels.Some of the best literature is coming ou of the Arab world, Latin America, East Asia and Africa, quite a lot from immigrants settled abroad but also from resident writers in the third world.If the so-called 60s generation of the Djebars, Darwishes, Adonises, Nuruddin Farahs, Fuentess, Mo Yans and the rest isn’t recognized, we shouldn’t hold out high hopes for their successor generations.