[W T Clark]

[quote=Andrew Frisardi;455535]As Tim Parks wrote in 2011, the year Transtromer won it, the international pretension of the Nobel Prize is ridiculous.




I never understood the outrage over Tranströmer. He seems like a great poet, a much greater poet than Glück. Americans seem always angry when they don't win, and even angrier when a poet they have never heard of wins. How is obscurity a negative? In all honesty I would much rather an obscure Tranströmer than a famous Glück.

[John Riley]

I want to second Anne Carson. I have some other poets and writers of fiction in mind but what is the point of throwing them out there?

[Andrew Frisardi]

I never understood the outrage over Tranströmer. He seems like a great poet, a much greater poet than Glück. Americans seem always angry when they don't win, and even angrier when a poet they have never heard of wins. How is obscurity a negative? In all honesty I would much rather an obscure Tranströmer than a famous Glück.

I didn't take Parks's article as being a protest about the choice of Transtromer. His topic is the Nobel Prize in general. Also, by the way, the American poets I know were thrilled with the choice of Transtromer, so I'm not sure where you're getting that. I have never met anyone who is angry that a poet they never heard of won the prize. I'm quite sure I have never lost sleep over any of the choices.