
Swedish Academy Won’t Award Nobel Prize in Literature This Year - dcgudeman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/swedish-academy-wont-award-nobel-prize-in-literature-this-year-1525419104
======
stochastic_monk
Off-topic:

I’ve been hoping for Cormac McCarthy to win the Nobel Prize in literature for
a number of years. I still think he deserves it, but I’m starting to lose
hope.

~~~
galfarragem
Someone that also deserves is Lobo Antunes [1]. Also a Portuguese like José
Saramago, but IMHO, is way more interesting: a psychiatrist that served in
Colonial War.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Lobo_Antunes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Lobo_Antunes)

~~~
paganel
Strange, I though that Saramago had already won it. Yeah, he certainly
deserves it.

~~~
trgv
He did win, in 1998. Even if he hadn't, he's dead now, so he wouldn't be
eligible.

------
estomagordo
They expect to award two recipients in 2019.

------
baalimago
The correct decision, following all the turmoil surrounding Svensk Akademin,
any prize given this year would be a lesser one.

------
denzil_correa
Press Release from Swedish Academy :
[http://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/press/the-swedish-
academy-...](http://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/press/the-swedish-academy-
postpones-the-2018-nobel-prize-in-literature)

Non Paywall Coverage

BBC : [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-43999240](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43999240)

Guardian : [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/04/nobel-prize-
fo...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/04/nobel-prize-for-
literature-2018-cancelled-after-sexual-assault-scandal)

CNN: [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/04/europe/nobel-prize-for-
li...](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/04/europe/nobel-prize-for-literature-
swedish-academy-postponed-intl/index.html)

------
Moodles
I don't understand why the Nobel prize is so prestigious. It's the same with
the Oscars: it's just some arbitrary committee of people somewhere that decide
who wins it. It's not like your peers decide if you win. So why does anyone
actually care about the award? It's prestigious because we all agree it's
prestigious.

~~~
torstenvl
It's spelled "prestigious" because we all agree it's spelled "prestigious."

The word has meaning because we all agree it has meaning.

Corporations exist because we all agree that corporations exist.

Money has value because we all agree that it has value.

The United States of America exists because we all agree that it exists.

Yes, there is a difference between objective reality and intersubjective
reality. But I think you're making too much of that difference.

A huge amount of our everyday world is based entirely off broad mass
agreement. The vast majority of the things we interact with in modern life
would immediately cease to exist if all the people who believed in them just
vanished one day - if an extraterrestrial species arrived on Earth the day
after, they would not be able to observe almost anything about our lives. That
doesn't mean our reality is fake or that our interaction with it is arbitrary.
It just means that it is geopolitically and/or culturally defined.

Bottom line: Yes, social science is hard, but lighten up.

~~~
sspiff
Your comparison with corporations and nations is not entirely fitting. Money
and words work out fine.

In the case of nations, we don't have to agree for them to be real. For
example, China (the Peoples Republic of China) does not agree that Taiwan (the
Republic of China) exists or vice versa, yet both are undeniably real. The
same with Serbia and Kosovo.

Some things exist only because of convention or an agreement between people,
like the value of a Nobel prize or money.

Other things exist because we can empirically prove that they exist, like
protons and gravity. If we all agree that they don't exist, it doesn't make it
so.

~~~
kelnos
I think you're just splitting hairs here. You didn't invalidate the parent's
point by finding a few counterexamples; on the contrary I think you just
reinforced it by showing when it does and doesn't apply. The parent never
claimed that _all_ things in the world are subject to mass agreement.

------
marvelous
And I was sure they would give it to Archimboldi this time!

------
yitchelle
This episode from the freakonomics podcast is apt as it shows some of the
inner workings of the Nobel prize selection.

[http://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-win-a-nobel-prize-
a-n...](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-win-a-nobel-prize-a-new-
freakonomics-radio-episode/)

------
majewsky
Non-paywalled coverage: [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/04/nobel-
prize-fo...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/04/nobel-prize-for-
literature-2018-cancelled-after-sexual-assault-scandal)

~~~
fwdpropaganda
Alternatively, here's a tiny firefox extension that replaces your referrer
with "Facebook" whenever you try and access the WSJ or the Financial Times:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-
wsj/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-wsj/)

~~~
s3m4j
Or under the submission you can click the "web" link which sends you to a
google search and through that you'll have non-paywalled access. (JFYI, since
that link is there on HN, and it's periodically forgotten)

~~~
infinite8s
The web link no longer works with the Wall Street Journal.

~~~
venning
It did for me just now. Android phone, _web_ link into Incognito Mode, open
AMP link. Full text.

------
radoslawc
'Accused' \- whatever happened to not guilty unless proven otherwise?

~~~
InclinedPlane
There is a difference between the actions of the criminal justice system and
of civil society. People routinely lose jobs and experience other consequences
without being convicted of a crime or even without committing a crime. Indeed,
the vast majority of job firings, for example, do not even involve criminal
behavior.

~~~
radoslawc
Agree, but when firing is because supposed criminal behaviour, then it's only
fair to mention that he was fired because of involvement in such case against
him, that it puts commitee in bad light etc. Otherwise it's just passing
sentence without tribunal.

~~~
InclinedPlane
No, that's not how this works. Firing is for behavior, and an org can decide
on its own what standards it wants to set on proof, evidence, etc. of that
behavior, and this is completely independent of whether that behavior is legal
as well as the outcome of any prosecution for that behavior. There are legal
remedies for "injustices" such as being expelled from a school, being excluded
from an organization, being fired from a job, being libeled/slandered or
defamed, and so on. This is the way society works and has always worked for
thousands of years. The idea that this is "passing sentence without a
tribunal" is bunk, these people are not serving sentences, society is choosing
how it wants to interact with these individuals, just as it does in countless
of other examples.

------
supergirl
they give it next year to beyonce

------
staticelf
Paywall. Altough I am from Sweden and I already know why. Here is a free
version: [https://www.thelocal.se/20180504/no-nobel-literature-
prize-i...](https://www.thelocal.se/20180504/no-nobel-literature-prize-
in-2018-swedish-academy)

------
etiam
Fools! Failing to fulfill their most important duty because one member brought
a lecherous boor to some of their events and may not have been impartial in
the vote on some awards.

 _Now_ it's _really_ a scandal.

~~~
robert_foss
At this point the number of Academy members that have resigned has has left
the Academy with fewer members than what is required to make an Nobel prize
decision. Currently there are 10 members, and 11 members is the minimum
required.

So it isn't really about choice at this point.

Secondly the reasons for the resignations and turmoil is the unwillingness of
some, the majority, of the Academy members to recognize and properly handle
the _alleged_ sexual harassment by Jean-Claude Arnault.

To make this matter worse Jean-Claude Arnault is married to an Academy member
and the two of them together run a 'culture' organization which is funded and
closely related to the Academy.

~~~
PunchTornado
if it is alleged then how should you handle it?

everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

~~~
robert_foss
In terms of being sentenced yes.

But this guy was given money to run an organization in which I think 14 counts
of alleged sexual harassment has been reported.

It would be grossly negligent to continue to sponsor this.

~~~
jahvo
If it hasn't been proven then there's nothing to talk about. They could've
made it up just so he they can kick him out.

~~~
dagw
Continuing to give funding to someone credibly accused to sexual harassment is
a very bad look. Especially when that person is also married to a committee
member. That is absolutely something to talk about.

 _They could 've made it up just so he they can kick him out._

Kick him out of what?

~~~
jahvo
Of the committee. Maybe they just want to ruin his life. Credible? If it's
credible, why hasn't he been convicted.

~~~
dagw
_Of the committee._

He's not and never has been on the committee. His wife is. And no one has been
kicked off the committee.

 _If it 's credible, why hasn't he been convicted._

Because building a case strong enough to stand up in court in situations like
these is really hard and the police/prosecutors have decided not to priorities
it.

But the core of the matter isn't really the sexual harassment, it's the fact
that the Academy apparently knew about several cases of both sexual harassment
and, more importantly, possible financial fraud/corruption involving this
individual and instead of dealing with it, decided to protect him. The sexual
harassment charges are just the events that brought these more serious charges
to light.

~~~
jahvo
I was under the impression that he was in the committee. Why should his wife
leave? I don't understand.

~~~
dagw
_Why should his wife leave?_

Primarily because he is accused of improperly getting funding from the Academy
and she was accused of enabling and profiting from this as well as blocking
any further investigation into the matter.

There are also accusations that she prevented the Academy from looking into
earlier accusation of sexual harassment against her husband, but that is
secondary.

------
Bud
Trump will be really upset, having expected to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature in honor of his tweets.

------
HugoDaniel
What about Justin Bieber ?

