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By D. W. O'Dell
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature. Pamuk’s novels, which have probably sold in the dozens, have been the source material for such noted films as Spiderman 2, Gremlins 3 and Zombie Cheerleaders Go To Gillgan’s Island. The Nobel Prize was inevitable once Oprah Winfrey announced that Pamuk was her favorite author after Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, and that a different Pamuk novel would be her book club pick for the next twenty-four months.
Yes, I am being sarcastic. When was the last time YOU rushed down to your local Barnes & Noble to snatch up the latest Orhan Pamuk novel hot off the presses? How many weeks have you been amazed that Pamuk continued to hold down the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list?
With Americans dominating the other Nobel prizes this year, I suppose it’s only fair that the Swedish committee in charge of these things gave the Nobel for Literature to Turkey’s greatest living author (quick, anyone, name the guy in second place). What with the historically rich literary tradition coming out of Turkey, it’s surprising that more Turkish novelists haven’t won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I am a fairly literate person; I actually read books. I own over 1,000...well over. So why is it I have only heard of four of the past twenty-five winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature? Harold Pinter (2005), Toni Morrison (1993), William Golding (1983) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982) are the only names I recognize on the prestigious list of past winners. Okay, I recognize the name Gunter Grasse (1999), but only as the author of the book that the film The Tin Drum was based on, not as an author in his own right.
I’m not proposing that Stephen King should win the award in 2007. It’s probably too early to give a Nobel Prize to Dan Brown. But since when has obscurity necessarily been equated with high quality? Would an occasional trip to the best seller list necessarily mean an author has sold out?
Elfriede Jelinek? Gao Xingjian? Dario Fo? Nadine Gordimer? Naguib Mahfouz? Who are these people, besides winning entries in a crossword game in Hell? Of course there is one possible explanation why I’ve never heard of them—I’m guessing they don’t write in English. You would think that if they were exceptionally good writers their works could be translated into English, and the translation could then be sold in America and make the Best Seller lists. But maybe not. [Editor's note: One can presume the works have been published in English but are not necessarily widely available.]
Given that by most estimates English is the second most commonly spoken language on Earth, it is amazing more English writers don’t win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mandarin is clearly the world’s most spoken language. English is neck-and-neck with Spanish for the number two slot, but if you throw in speakers’ second languages, then English clearly follows Mandarin in popularity.
You would think the language of Shakespeare would dominate the world literary scene, but writers working in English rarely win the Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, working in English appears to be a distinct disadvantage. Given that only four Americans have won in the past fifty years, being an English-speaking American is a disadvantage. In fact, one of the American winners, Isaac Bashevis Singer, worked in Yiddish. But then the people giving the award speak Swedish, so who knows what they read.
Writing in English used to be an advantage, back when Rudyard Kipling won. Historically, English is the most often used language of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, accounting for twenty-four winners (French and German are tied for second with twelve; Spanish being third with nine).
Actually, eight of the past twenty winners have written in English, including winners from Nigeria, South Africa, Ireland and Trinidad & Tobago, so I guess that’s not too bad. If any languages have a right to complain it’s Mandarin and Bengali, with only two awards between them out of 103 given out, despite currently having about 16% of the Earth’s population.
But congratulations to Orhan Pamuk! I am sure your novels will be #1 on Amazon.com very soon. Personally, I am going to hold out on reading your work until one of your books is turned into a movie starring Adam Sandler.
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