http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn-_m0gOLDlyXymX2CJHcV5HexsgD93HD1500

AP by Malin Rising

Nobel literature jury chief says American writers are "Too Isolated, too insular"

None of these poor souls, old or young,seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola.


I agree that the education systems and experiences of Americans keep them from understanding the big world view. What do you think?

Depends on where you are, and how you are educated, which depends on both the schools and the parents.  Too a degree I think that many American writers (we're talking fiction here, I think that the American non-fiction people, the historians and such are pretty good) have a tendency to see things in to narrow a light, and not make them universal enough.

Lit Wars. *sigh*

The best overall writing I have read over the past 30 years comes from Mexico to Chile, from the Balkans, or from a wide swath of the Middle East/Africa: like Morrocco to Iran and south to South Africa.

I've no doubt that Horace Engdahl is right as far as he goes in being critical of Americans. But he, and maybe thee, need to move out of what he calls "Europe" to find writing that will simply put to shame certainly anything that Norway or Sweden or GB have produced in decades!

Nikki

wait till i come into prominence 

the best writing is parochial, and in those small details seems to sum up universal things, if a writer aims for being universal they usually end up with dull or pretentious or both.

Quote from: Pica Pica on October 01, 2008, 04:26:58 PM
wait till i come into prominence 

the best writing is parochial, and in those small details seems to sum up universal things, if a writer aims for being universal they usually end up with dull or pretentious or both.

Hmm, yes, I see whatcha mean, Pica! >

but the point is still a good one, i suppose the great writers picked the right small details to resonate and that must come from some wish to speak wider.

The classic Dickens

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

seems eternal, because anyone who is thinking knows that its true.

What is real lit is true, because we can see ourselves in it.  But that depends on not just the writer, but also the reader.  I loved, and still love, Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude which always awes me.  But I've learned much about being who I am from Jane Austin also.

If you want to get published by a big publishing house, you need to be sensitive to the trends of the mass culture.  If you do that well, you make lots of money.  You may not be producing 'great' literature, but you are producing readable literature that will entertain millions and might even contribute to pop culture.

I do wonder if the person commenting about American culture has looked much further than the mass market in their search for 'great' literature.  You can find a lot of small press books that go beyond the norms and may touch on things that are 'universal'.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for his poetic adventure and "sensual ecstasy."

The Swedish Academy called Le Clezio, 68, an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."