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NNadir

(36,766 posts)
33. William Faulkner was a writer too...
Fri Oct 10, 2025, 02:44 PM
Oct 10

...and he "won" the Nobel Prize by stepping outside being a stickler for language.

Personally I often reflect that great literature often offers deliberate ambiguity.

There is a certain passage in Hermann Hesse's Demian that I struggled many years to translate into English. It cannot be effectively translated, I decided, because of its ambiguity. I thus chose language that reflected what it meant to me, what I think it means, as opposed to what Hesse may have wanted to express.

To my mind ambiguity is a cause for thinking more profoundly about a work. To my mind the greatest line that Kurt Vonnegut ever wrote, the sentence, "Listen.," is powerful for both being as succinct and as ambiguous as is possible. (To my mind "Slaughterhouse Five" was a Nobel worthy work, either for literature or peace, but nobody's interested in what I think.)

I don't believe there is much confusion about describing the Nobel Prize as being "won."

There are certainly disputes about people who should have been awarded the Nobel Prize but weren't, but a linguistic punctilio about how to describe an awardee or Laureate or winner is of less profound importance.

The Nobel Committes are composed of human beings and are hardly infallible or even just. That Lise Meitner wasn't awarded one reflects as much, as is the more widely acknowledged case of Rosalind Franklin. These decisions call into question the value of the Prize, but I think we can all agree that awarding one to the orange pedophile felon would have been fatal to what the Prize was supposed to evoke.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

From Wikipedia: Four US Presidents Have Received the Nobel Peace Prize MineralMan Oct 10 #1
Jimmy Carter has been the best recipient of my lifetime... ananda Oct 10 #23
Agreed! MineralMan Oct 10 #24
He wanted it, he coveted it, and he was denied it. Then he lost it. Ketchup cleanup time! Blues Heron Oct 10 #2
Mr. Webster disagrees with your definition of "win." Gore1FL Oct 10 #3
I think you missed MineralMan's point. Gimpyknee Oct 10 #11
Nope Torchlight Oct 10 #12
If the word was used in the context of a Medal of Honor, it would be accepted and understood for what is Gore1FL Oct 10 #14
I remember when the Academy Awards changed the wording to "... and the Oscar goes to..." QueerDuck Oct 10 #4
Quite true. It's awarded, not won. It's not a competition, though doubtless Trump sees it that way. Ocelot II Oct 10 #5
;-{) Goonch Oct 10 #6
he lost Shellback Squid Oct 10 #7
And he lost to (gasp) a WOMAN! GopherGal Oct 10 #8
The best part is that he will LOSE 3 more times Bluetus Oct 10 #15
Apart from the sheer waste of the award in that case. apparently there is a rule niyad Oct 10 #22
That's a pity. I wonder if the Nobel people would make one exception Bluetus Oct 10 #34
Nobody wins a Nobel Peace Prize Dave Id Oct 10 #9
Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize because Obama got one. It's part of Trump's sick need Gaugamela Oct 10 #10
Very well put. twodogsbarking Oct 10 #13
In 50 years we'll learn that Trump was not a nominee. Gimpyknee Oct 10 #16
Cogent. Intelligent. Well-informed. Hekate Oct 10 #17
Yassar Arafat was a previous recipient n/t MichMan Oct 10 #18
And that has exactly what to do with the point of the OP? niyad Oct 10 #20
Thank you. An important distinction. niyad Oct 10 #19
It's much like His MAGAsty saying he always wanted to win a Purple Heart. MineralMan Oct 10 #21
That one always puzzled me. It was as if he had no clue how one came niyad Oct 10 #25
Truly, I don't think he actually knows. Or he has forgotten. MineralMan Oct 10 #27
It is nevertheless a very common locution to "Win the Nobel Prize." NNadir Oct 10 #26
As you note, we should take our cues from the Nobel Prize Committee. MineralMan Oct 10 #28
William Faulkner was a writer too... NNadir Oct 10 #33
Wonderful essay, MM. Totally Tunsie Oct 10 #29
You're very kind to say so. MineralMan Oct 10 #31
True Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Oct 10 #30
Pretty much everything connected to trump is sickening. MineralMan Oct 10 #32
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