Nobel for Haruki Murakami?
10/07/2005 @ 3:00 pm
I am going to go out on a limb and write it down here for the entire world to read on Japundit.
Haruki Murakami is going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, and the announcement will be coming soon from the Swedish Academy in Sweden.
Murakami, 56, will be cited for his novels, short stories and nonfiction works, taking home a
prize worth US$1.3 million in cash, a gold medal, a diploma and, of course, a huge boost in sales.
You read it here first!
Too popular perhaps?
Academy head Horace Engdahl said last week…the Nobel’s aim was to “direct the attention of the reading public to great writers that are sometimes only appreciated in their country of origin or known only to a small circle of cognoscenti.”
Bookmakers favour Syrian poet Adonis and “US novelist Joyce Carol Oates is bookmaker Ladbrokes’ second favourite. Two more poets are high in the stakes — Ko Un of South Korea and Swede Thomas Transtromer — since no poet has won since Chinese-born Gao Xingjian in 2000″
October 7th, 2005 at 5:33 pmDo you honestly think Murakami deserves it?
October 7th, 2005 at 6:36 pmWell, that would be interesting. It would be good for Murakami of course, and perhaps good for Japan, though I understand he is still more popular as a novelist in the US than in his homeland.
October 8th, 2005 at 12:14 amWell, Murakami is certainly a great author. I’ve always found that his books paint the best pictures of contemporary Japan, despite (or maybe because of) their surreality.
But Wikipedia says that the prize goes to authors who write “the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.” Not quite how I would characterize Murakami (his take on today’s capitalism is quite fun to read and makes the reader think, but it’s definitely not optimistic). What makes you think he’s got it in the bag? Good rumors? Just speculation?
October 8th, 2005 at 1:12 amForgive my ignorance, but what did he write?
October 8th, 2005 at 2:04 amGeroge, he wrote NORWEGIAN WOOD, among many others.
October 8th, 2005 at 2:17 pmI doubt Danny’s prediction this year. They will announce the prize next week, like around October 13 or 14, and I highly doubt Murakami will get it this year. He is too young. But the idea is interesting, and I think you are right, Murakami will get the Nobel Prize someday, maybe when he is 65 or 70 years old, to recognize his life’s work, but not this year. Too young. He is just a boy. Give it another 10, 20 years, sir. Come back then with your out on a limb predictions. Surely, you jest!
October 8th, 2005 at 2:20 pmMy mandatory Murakami reading list would include, in this order:
1) A Wild Sheep Chase
2) its sequel, Dance Dance Dance
3) Sputnik Sweethearts
…all of which are available in the original Japanese and in English translation (and probably other languages, too).
October 9th, 2005 at 7:22 amBetter luck next year, Murakami-san.
It would seem that anti-American doggerel written by faded British playwrights is more to the committee’s taste, so Harold Pinter gets the nod.
October 21st, 2005 at 2:57 amWell, I went out on a limb with that prediction, just a wild guess, and I was flat out wrong, once again. Pinter got it for a lifetime of playwriting and at 75, with cancer still in him, he is not long for this world, so it’s good to see Harold P. get the nod this time. NEXT YEAR IN STOCKHOLM….IT WILL BE MONSIEUR MURAKAMI! stay tuned….
October 21st, 2005 at 2:21 pmIt took 2 years - but you were finally given right, albeit not by the Nobel committee but by a small library in Hyogo Prefecture.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:11 amHaruki Murakami congratulated on Nobel Prize by Ashiya library