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glowing-fish posted:Perhaps the best example of the prize being awarded for dubious reasons. I'm going to say that this is pretty accurate, but also contains a bit of an internal condemnation of Harry Martinson, whose contributions to Swedish literature were absolutely immense. It's not a case where he didn't deserve to win - far from it, I feel like Aniara is a must-read, even in translation, as it hits on certain universal points that the Nobel council was trying to promote at the time. I don't doubt that there could have been better choices - admittedly, I'm not a fan of Nabokov, and most of the arguments I've gotten into regarding the 1974 prize have been over Nabokov's writing. Personally, I thought Borges deserved to win that year, as Martinson's writing in '73 was fairly weak compared to his earlier work, and part of the point of the prize is to honour the most influential writer of that year. So, I think I can help clear up some of the confusion on the part of the massive number of Scandinavians who've managed to win the prize, and point to some of the books you should read from them, because I'm pretty drat familiar with their work. Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer from the Modern Breakthrough - basically, the literary period of the 1870s-1890s where writers tended to comment on social change in a fairly naturalistic style, meant as a direct opposition to the sentimental romanticism that had caused some stagnation in Scandinavian literature. Of all the early laureates, I'm the least fond of him - his prose is interesting, but he gets somewhat sentimental and romantic around this time period. If anyone knows anything about him, it's that he wrote the Norwegian national anthem. If you're looking for a book, I'd say give The Newly Married or A Happy Boy a shot - they're early as far as his writing goes, but this prize was mostly based on his major contributions to the literature and intense political bullshit. Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish neo-Romantic writer whose prose can be an absolute joy to read. She's clever, she tends to have some interesting interplay with her symbolism and plot structures, and her books can be pretty funny. I'd recommend Gösta Berling's Saga and The Löwensköld Ring trilogy - Schenck's translation is the most modern, and the closest to her prose. There are some awful translations of her available, and they'll turn you off her writing if you read 'em, just because she relies a lot on the little details and touches in her writing. Funny story here, too - if you're looking for completeness in 1909 Laureates, you should also read Strindberg's Chamber Play cycle, completed in 1909. He was awarded the Anti-Nobel prize that year, with funds raised by a grassroots organization, due to his connection to the working-class Swedes and the immense popularity of his work. In terms of personal bias, I'm tilted towards Strindberg - it was purely politics that had Lagerlöf win the prize over Strindberg, but I can't argue with her writing too much. If you want to read the Chamber Plays, I believe that Paul Walsh's recent translation is available for free online, along with cultural annotations. Verner von Heidenstam should just be skipped. I can't think of anything that's translated from him, and even if you read Swedish, he's a bit of a slog. This doesn't stop me from having a first edition of Hans Alienus, but the year I spent dissecting that loving poem/novel was one of the shittiest in my life. This was purely a cronyism thing - he was pretty well-connected with the Royal Swedish Academy, and the stuff he published in 1916 was, frankly, complete poo poo, not even up to his early work. Sigrid Undset wrote Kristin Lavransdatter, which everyone should read - it's a beautiful series of historical novels with some excellent translations available for modern readers. Knut Hamsun, as pointed out above, won in recognition of his earlier work, but don't let that deter you. I feel lovely any time he's placed as an "unknown" - Hunger is one of the best goddamn books I've ever read, and if you haven't read it, you should feel bad. He was a big influence on Joyce, and it shows in Joyce's style - while I could go on for pages and pages on this stuff, I'd rather just agree with the above sentiments and say you should read Hunger, Mysteries, and Pan. Pär Lagerkvist is basically the literary equivalent of a rock star. Dude wrote plays, poetry, short stories, and novels, and all of them are tremendously awesome. If you're looking for poetry, I'd say his 1916 collection Angst is a pretty good way to go, although I can't remember if it's translated or not - if it's not, yell and I'll translate a few of his poems to the best of my (admittedly bad) ability. Otherwise, read The Dwarf - it's a great book in the wake of WWII. Tomas Tranströmer is a poet, and one of the Swedish language's finest living poets. His work is hauntingly beautiful - I'd recommend collections translated by Fulton or Bly, as they do a good job of capturing what Tranströmer is trying to say. One of these days, I'll get around to starting a thread on Scandinavian literature, because it's pretty drat fascinating stuff, especially when you see how the various eras relate to one another.
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Mar 3, 2014 00:45
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:That would be really interesting. I don't think I've read anything by a Scandinavian author that didn't have the word "saga" somewhere in the title. Even Hunger is perpetually sitting on my kindle, downloaded and not yet read, for which, yes, I am ashamed! Man, you owe it to yourself to read that immediately. It's an amazing book, although I really do need to ask who the translator is. There's an early translation that's wafting around that omits some of the crucial scenes, having been edited for sake of 'decency' back in the day. If it's the Egerton translation, just delete it and find one by Bly or Lyngstad. The Lyngstad is the best (and not coincidentally, the most recent), but Bly is at least a hell of a lot better than Egerton's, which is the version that crops up for free online most of the time. Alternate joke answer - ease yourself in with Lagerlöf's Gösta Berling's Saga, as it still has that in the name. I may as well start writing up a gigantic effortpost for a Scandinavian lit thread - I figure sharing the knowledge can be nice, plus I'd love to give people a place to start on reading this stuff. There's a lot more than just sagas when you take the time to read it - there's an incredibly rich tradition of ballads and folk tales from the Middle Ages, some of the earliest science fiction (In the form of Ludvig Holberg's Niels Klim's Underground Travels - though don't just read Holberg for that, as his Comedies are pretty drat hilarious), and a huge amount of interest in social debate and criticism from around the 1860s onward, which is part of why Nobel established the prize and entrusted it to the Swedish Royal Academy. As for Nobel laureates I haven't talked about, I figure I owe Eyvind Johnson a fair shake - yeah, there was clear cronyism at stake at the time, but he was at least a good writer. He's not as good as Martinson, however, so I give him much less of a pass in his writing. If you're looking to read his work, take a look at The Days of His Grace. It's good - nothing earth-shattering, but it's good. I honestly don't like his writing that much, as I find his prose is a bit "meh" in Swedish, and it fares slightly worse in translation I've glanced at. Still, "meh" in this case is being compared to some truly bombastic writers, so it's not bad by any stretch. Historical-ish novel (as he plays around with dates and commits several mistakes that would have Lukacs tearing out his beard), but pretty cool, and it won the Nordic Prize for Literature.
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Mar 3, 2014 02:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm pretty sure it's the Egerton, so thanks -- at one point a couple years ago I downloaded essentially *every* free kindle download and I grabbed it as one of those. I also have a paper copy somewhere a friend gave me but it seems to have floated behind a shelf or something and I can't find it. It's been on my list for a while now but books that I know are going to depress me tend to get bumped down and it doesn't exactly have a cheery title :P Yeah, it's a pretty depressing book. I really recommend having food handy, because I always find myself getting hungry whenever I re-read it. Hamsun is fantastic at those little details, and some of the work is a bit auto-biographical - he spent time as a starving artist, both in the United States and his home of Norway. His later history is depressing, and Norway had him forcibly committed and declared mentally diminished so they wouldn't have to execute him after WWII for his quasi-treasonous actions. On Overgrown Paths is one of the most depressing novels I've ever read, if only because it's so deeply connected with his post-WWII life and actions - he's considered an embarrassment to the Norwegian people, a traitor, and mentally unfit, and so he's lashing out in prose. To explain some of the Norwegian backlash against Hamsun, here's the (translated) quote that I think sums up the controversy perfectly. While the man was a wonderful writer, it's hard to justify quotes like this. Knut Hamsun posted:Adolf Hitler Yeah, that poo poo makes it really hard to critically examine his work without judgement creeping in from time to time.
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Mar 3, 2014 03:36
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rasser posted:Several short comments, some of them off topic. Sorry in advance. Johannes V Jensen is pretty drat good - I really recommend Fall of the King when you get a chance to sit down and read it. Madsen is pretty awesome as well - I actually got to help revise the English translation of See The Light of Day, which is good without context but becomes goddamn amazing when you read it through the lens of Kierkegaardian aesthetic philosophy. I really hope the introduction will contain "Rotation of Crops", because it's essential. No idea if the translation is out yet. I'm slowly preparing a gigantic effortpost for it. Problem, of course, being covering roughly a thousand years of literary history and making it somewhat accessible for folks. I see no problem discussing the whole GWTDT thing - it's brought more focus in an international context, and while the English translation is poo poo and there are problems with it, it's still a major book in the scene. I'm just going to recommend people read some Sjöwal and Wahlöö, Lapidus, or Khemri instead.
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Mar 21, 2014 19:32
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