The Sour Grapes Of Roth

It's become a ritual. Every year you wait for the Nobel Prize in Literature to be awarded to Philip Roth. But after Horace Engdahl of the Academy recently took time out to insult American authors, saying they're too isolated and insular, it's pretty clear this is not Roth's year.

Engdahl's statement is bizarre for a number of reasons. First the best American literature isn't particularly insular. Second, no other country's literature is especially less insular. Third, even if Engdahl's argument were true, so what? Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner set a lot of his stories in Yoknapatawpha County, but through the quality of his writing and thinking, transcended the small world in which they took place. Anything can be a subject for great literature, regardless of the setting and concerns involved; conversely, engaging in modern ideas and politics is all too easy, and has nothing to do with the quality of the work.

The Nobel Literature Prize has long been a joke, passing over many great writers and awarding seemingly insignificant ones. Lately, it's gotten worse, as they appear to give awards more for holding the correct political views. But now with Engdahl's tirade, it's become clear just how isolated and insular the Nobel Prize jury is.