This morning’s announcement reminds me of an author I’ve yet to read any works from:
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”.
The press release is here. I hope to hear more about this man and his work next week. I’m organizing the Nobel Lunches again this year (and event I told you about last year that I started with the support of the College Commons) and so I will be spending the next several days trying to find people among my colleagues in various fields who will stand up and say a few words about the prizes, speaking to Who, What, Why. Stay tuned.
John Freeman at NPR’s blog Monkey See had some reflections on today’s prize, and you can find that here. There was also a nice conversation about it on NPR’s Morning Edition, but that won’t be available until later today.
-cvj
Ngugi wa Thiong’o should have won that prize
I’m a fan of his work although he’s always received less attention than Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Carlos Fuentes. I read ‘La Ciudad y Los Perros’ more than twenty years ago while traveling in Peru, and it was like seeing the country in x-ray; he is really astute, funny, and real. I’ve read several of his books since and would highly recommend them. I often find myself quoting the storyline of ‘El Hablador’. Peru is not a cartoon: his work adds depth to the popular image.