

2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa - razin
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/

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bentoner
I like science fiction but it's felt for a while that I've read everything
good. Recently, I've found myself reading a lot of historical fiction (anti-
science fiction?). The two genres are quite similar in that they both examine
how humans behave in weird or unfamiliar settings. For example, Russia in
Tolstoy's time feels more different to me than an awful lot of science
fiction.

Vargas Llosa's "The War of the End of the World" is set in the wilds of 19th
century Brazil, and it's brilliant. It's one of my favourite novels. I found
"The Time of the Hero" fascinating but I can't remember if I enjoyed it. It's
about hazing rituals in Peruvian military school. I tried to read "Aunt Julia
and the Scriptwriter," which is set in more modern times, but I didn't get
very far.

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clueless123
try "Pantaleon and the visitadoras", it is very light and funny

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hugh3
The Nobel Prize in Literature is odd. Looking through the list of every prize
they've ever given out,

[http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/10/07/List-of-
Nobel...](http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/10/07/List-of-Nobel-Prize-
in-Literature-winners/UPI-87261286450156/)

I see a lot of names whom time has failed to vindicate.

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joshfinnie
I always thought that the Nobel prize winners are always very abstract. There
are better awards to look at for examples of books you actually want to
read...

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henrikschroder
The will explicitly says:

"one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the
most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency"

Think of it as the more technical academy awards. A movie that gets the Oscar
for best sound editing might not be a great movie or a box-office hit, but
still deserve the award.

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hugh3
But even if the Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to a terrible and unpopular
movie which happens to have good sound editing (e.g. Pearl Harbor, 2001) then
there's still a lot that can be learned about sound editing from that movie.
You can, for instance, hire the sound editor from Pearl Harbor to do the sound
editing on a good film.

I'm not sure what the authors of mainstream fiction can learn from Harold
Pinter, though.

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Vargas
He truly deserves it. I don't like his personality but it always seemed unfair
that Garcia-Marquez had it while Vargas Llosa didn't.

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gaius
I voted for Pablo Coelho.

~~~
c1sc0
Is it Pablo or Paulo Coelho? Or does Pablo == Paulo assert True in Portuguese?
Amazing writer, I was blown away by The Alchemist.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alchemist_(novel)>

~~~
Vargas
Pablo => Spanish. Paulo => Portuguese.

Spanish speakers tend to spanify Portuguese words, for convenience and for the
fun of watching Portuguese speakers get annoyed :P

Sao Paulo => San Pablo

~~~
vibragiel
I never heard a Spaniard referring to São Paulo as San Pablo.

~~~
Vargas
Spaniards are less than 10% of the Spanish speaking population.

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hugh3
Maybe so, but they're the ones who speak _proper_ Spanish, just like only the
English (specifically the Queen) speak _proper_ English.

~~~
galactus
I don't know if you are being serious, but the spanish language is defined by
the R.A.E, and it is influenced by other national academies, so it is more or
less supposed to be country-neutral. If, say, peruvians speak closer to
R.A.E's spanish than spaniards, then they are the ones speaking proper
spanish. It is also worth noting that for many spaniards the language we call
"spanish" is not their first language.

~~~
hugh3
I actually didn't know that, so thanks.

It's interesting the way English gets along just fine without an official body
making pronouncements about what is and isn't correct.

~~~
Vargas
It doesn't. English does not get along just fine.

Say 'cucumber'. The sound of the first syllable is very different from the
second, even though both are written the same.

Say 'stake' and 'steak'. Different graphs for the same phonemes.

Say 'E as in elephant'. Two different sounds for 'e'.

etc.

Present day English is so bad that written language is divorced from spoken
language, but it is not bad enough to unite all speakers behind a spelling
reform.

