Nobel Prize for JKR?

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" 
<naama_gat at h...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "joywitch_m_curmudgeon" 
> <joym999 at a...> wrote:
> > --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> 
> wrote:
> 
> which is still an accomplishment, but an easier one to obtain.  
> And, actually, I believe that the Nobel Prize for Literature is 
> given only to dramatic, not humorous, novels.  

While there is humor in the HP books, there is plenty of drama too.  
And many other dramatic novels contain large doses of humor, 
especially the writing of John Irving and Tom Robbins.  Classic 
works by Jane Austen are VERY humorous, and George Eliot's writing 
is full of biting wit.  And then there are plays, such as those by 
Tom Stoppard, which contain humor but whose literary merits are 
considerable.  Much "serious" literature may be humorless, but not 
all of it is.  (Although I could have used more humor in OotP.)  I 
doubt that the committee disregards anything with humor in it based 
just on that.
 
> Winston Churchill won Nobel prize for literature - mainly, I 
> think, for his monumental seven volume history of WWII. So, I've 
> never quite understood what types of literary works are eligible 
> for the prize.

Are there separate prizes for fiction and nonfiction?  If so, he may 
have received the prize for nonfiction.  Or there may be only one, 
for either type of work.  I've never looked into this closely, 
having never found that an author winning the Nobel Prize made me 
want to rush out and buy their work.  I've often been mystified by 
winners of the Pulitzer, too, even when I've read and enjoyed the 
winning work (**cough**JaneSmiley**cough**).  And then some winners, 
like Toni Morrison, just make me happy that more people will read 
their work because of the prize.  In the end, I guess it all 
balances out.  The Pulitzer for plays is another story, let alone 
classical music composition.  I can't figure out how those prizes 
are decided.  I've yet to see rhyme or reason there.

> > One interesting note, though -- the decisions of the Nobel 
> > committee are sometimes questionable.  For example, one year the 
> > Literature prize went to William Golding, the author of The Lord 
> > of the Flies, a decidedly second-rate literary work, IMO, and 
> > also in the opinion of many critics.  
> 
> Really? I thought it excellent. Hits you right in the solar 
> plexus, no?
>  
> Naama

Well, it's probably not the individual merits of a work that are 
being decided in a vacuum.  For instance, John Nash won the Nobel 
for economics many years after he wrote the thesis for which he won 
the prize.  It was given based on the impact his work had on the 
field (and other fields), and certainly, no one would have been able 
to predict that impact when it was first written.  The impact of a 
work like "Lord of the Flies" was probably considered in addition to 
any literary merit a critic might find in it.  

That's why I think it's premature for anyone to consider JKR for a 
Nobel Prize for literature, and it certainly should not be for one 
work (OotP).  When the entire series is completed, I think the 
impact of all seven books will be considerable, and that sometime in 
the future she will be a serious contender based upon all seven.  
However, I think that the impact of the full series will need to be 
felt first, and that the committee should not just immediately hand 
her a prize upon its completion.  That the HP phenomenon has already 
had a huge impact on the entire world is indisputable; whether the 
Nobel committee should or is likely to give JKR any recognition of 
that while the series is still being written is something with which 
I disagree, and it would be out of character for the committee 
anyway.  It's taken them forty plus years, after all, to recognize 
the scientific accomplishments of some very influential people.  I 
think that for JKR, the Nobel will be a long time coming--but will 
very likely eventually come.

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
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