The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” This will likely go down in history as the most controversial and polarizing Nobel award, if not across all the categories, then certainly in Literature. Most obviously it is a challenge of sorts to what the word “literature” really entails. Dictionary definitions and references to ancient oral traditions aside, the word “literature” carries with it connotations of the written word; of dusty tomes and erudite classics, and of a tradition stretching back thousands of years, connecting people across time and space in an attempt to intimate some sense of “the human condition.”
As Michael Orthofer points out, Dylan received a Pulitzer in the Special Awards category, and not the Letters/Music categories. There is little doubt that Dylan is one of the most celebrated and accomplished musicians of the past century, with an incredible legacy that "emanates directly from the North American post-Protestant gnosis" (according to Harold Bloom) and looking forward to the new era of rock and folk, connecting the past and the future. The Nobel Literature Prize purports to recognize individuals who have produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". It is certainly no stretch to argue Dylan’s work can be said to fit this definition, and as an artist and a creator he is more than qualified by pretty much any standards of taste and aesthetics one wishes to accord.
Nevertheless, the decision to award Dylan with the Nobel is a mistake. The Nobel prize, from its very description, is unavoidably and irrefutably ideological and political to some extent, at times more clearly than others. Its reputation and influence has moved it beyond a simple book award to something that dictates and sets the tone of cultural discourse. I’m sure the Swedish Academy is cognizant of this fact (more on this later), which is why I (and many others) are so surprised and understandably dismayed by the 2016 decision.
Outside of the Nobel Prize, literary awards are not particularly high profile events. The Man Booker gets a nod or two (and a prominent sticker in bookstores trying to entice potential customers), but names like the Neustadt, the Goncourt, the Akutagawa, etc. etc., tend to be low on the notoriety scale, and these are all very major awards within literature. The MacArthur Fellowship, colloquially known as the “Genius Awards,” often recognizes literary achievements, but is on the whole a general science and culture prize. For better or for worse, the Nobel Prize is the honor of the literary world that has widespread recognition. Who receives the Nobel Prize, then, is as much a matter of literary quality as it is of communicating a message about the state of literature to the world.
>>8627735
Get over it already
>>8627742
T. Cultural Marxist
Within literary circles, is J.K. Rowling considered a good (not necessarily great) writer?
Why do you care?
>>8627666
Which ones?
>>8627673
Why do you care why I care?
I'm not a prude however I feel like sex has seeped into every facet of society. What are some books that are completely devoid of sex/sexual acts? I can tolerate romance but nothing too extreme.
>>8627617
More or less everything written in the 19th century and earlier, unless you go out of your way to find erotica.
>>8627617
>What are some books that are completely devoid of sex/sexual acts?
Your diary by the sound of it desu ;-)
>>8627617
Sex was always present in every aspect of society.
Read Foucault's book on Sexuality
Fiery gems like the following, yet 90% of Schopeposting is about On Women, trolling or not. We can't do better?
> Every individual, every human apparition and its course of life, is only one more short dream of the endless spirit of nature, of the persistent will-to-live, is only one more fleeting form, playfully sketched by it on its infinite page, space and time; it is allowed to exist for a short while that is infinitesimal compared with these, and is then effaced, to make new room.
Is Schopenhauer the Wolverine of philosophy?
>>8627576
Anything he said about roastwhores, really.
The man was a fuckin genius and totally redpilled.
'On Women' will be studied for millennia
le meme
Was he really a good writer or were his stories just overblown?
>>8627535
For his racism alone, he's a fucking legend in my book
Not sure. I like his ideas though.
>>8627540
DIdn't he write a letter on his deathbed renouncing his ways?
I need some redpill tactics to rise to the top of the self publishing world. I want to sell one million books. No strategy is off limits. How how how?
>>8627510
>redpill
Kill yourself
>>8627519
Don't tell me there are not tricks, the problem is they all keep it to themselves and say 'there's not any tricks'. It's a lie.
>>8627521
Stop with the pill memes, retard
What do you want from life, /lit/?
What are your literary ambitions?
>>8627437
Be happy and rich.
What.
>>8627437
To secure the future of the white race
I don't think I'm literary in the sense I don't like clever wordplay or stories about how some ugandan teaches white people the magic of her culture and how diversity enriches us all.
If it's enjoyable to read, if it's smart, if it gives an interesting perspective on life, that's good enough. Just don't get bogged down in labels for their sake alone.
I think I just want people to have fun with my work. If they learn something, that's great, but I think that if they wanted knowledge or life lessons they really should be going to somewhere that specializes on that.
Lets have a thread about living philosophers and intellectuals. Beyond the usual five that are constantly posted on /lit/. Share talks, lectures, essays, books, and discussion pertaining to the current zeitgeist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdb-GTjggTg
Roberto Mangabeira Unger:
>Roberto Mangabeira Unger (born 24 March 1947) is a philosopher and politician. His work is seen to offer a vision of humanity and a program to empower individuals and change institutions. He has developed his views and positions across many fields, including social, political, and economic theory.In legal theory, he is best known by his work in the 1970s/80s while at Harvard Law School as part of the Critical Legal Studies movement, which is held to have helped disrupt the methodological consensus in American law schools. His political activity helped bring about democracy in Brazil, and culminated with his appointment as the Brazilian Minister of Strategic Affairs in 2007 and again in 2015.
He's kind of a wacky guy, but I appreciate where he's coming from. Very Batillian. Any Brazilian anon's know anything about the curriculum he's been developing?
>>8627417
Schopenhauer's 'On Women' is all you need.
Effectively ended philosophy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okwJB3FRDo8
Roberto Calasso is a fantastic living author and intellectual. It will take years for his work to be fully appreciated.
Mario Bunge is the best philosopher alive tbqh.
What does /lit/ thinks about Michel Houellebecq?
>>8627364
One of the most important living authors.
Also a funny lad that knows how to smugly play the media game.
>>8627364
Ugly bitter man that hates everyone.
>>8627364
Cuck for Islam
Incredibly ugly
in your opinion
Kripke
Me
How does he stack up, /lit/?
>>8627308
Stop posting things on social media you get outraged about.
Discuss works of literature that you actually enjoy
>>8627318
I'm not outraged at all.
I love Kojima and Abe.
>>8627323
Read Western males instead of cuck weeb shit
I have no Idea whether or not you guys help with dumb ass high school essays but i have a comparative essay that I have to do with this d00ds poems ([i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
and
[love is more thicker than forget])
my first paragraph was their common use of some literary devices and the how they used them
my second involved their theme and how the poems conveyed em
and I have no idea about my third
So I guess its a no then.
Gayan if see this.
fuck you
this is the wrong board for academic help.
do two things: get a better poem and go on shmoop
I just got a Kobo. What's the best place to pirate epubs?
>>8627213
Mobilism forum, epubs for days. Have to make an account to use search but it's no big deal.
>>8627213
Yer local gov. kept Public Domain archive.
Like this one for Brazil : http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/PesquisaObraForm.jsp
...You can find some shit that's not in portuguese there, really.
>>8627213
I can get you a bibliotik invite for $5,000
>Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel will soon become a Disney movie
>The studio has assigned the Don Quixote adaptation to screenwriter Billy Ray, of The Hunger Games and Captain Philips
>Disney honchos want the movie to have 'madcap and fantastical' tones reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3841242/Disney-producers-developing-Don-Quixote-adaptation-Pirates-Caribbean-feel.html
>get ready for the spin-off television series, video game and the "revised edition" of the book that's "based on the hit movie" and "updated for modern readers".
JUST FUCK THE GREATEST NOVEL OF ALL TIME UP
>>8627168
>"updated for modern readers"
uh-oh
>>8627168
>GREATEST NOVEL OF ALL TIME
This is kind of a weird thing to ask, but here goes: do you write for an audience?
When you write, do you write to get the work out, or do you imagine someone reading your work? Are you consciously writing to entertain, please, educate someone other than yourself, or are you writing only for yourself? Is it production, or communion?
>>8627111
To get to lick the buttholes if cute girls
>>8627111
I tried to find that nice Stirner quote about this but I couldn't.
>>8627111
It happens in stages. I write for myself first, and I then attune it consciously knowing others will read it. That's where the twofold process of writing then rewriting comes in.