-
sponsorship
The Swedish Academy picked Herta Müller as its 2009 Nobel laureate for literature this morning. Here in the Slate offices, we greeted the announcement with a resounding "Who?"
Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth were among the early favorites, but the Nobel Committee has a habit of ignoring American authors (as noted in Adam Kirsch's 2008 Nobel takedown) and celebrating obscure ones (Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Elfriede Jelinek, Imre Kertész, etc.)—especially when they come from third-world countries or nations formerly under Soviet rule. The Romanian-born German author, who has written largely about the brutality of life under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, saw her odds soar on the British betting markets in recent days. So maybe someone on Slate's staff should have seen this victory coming and read Müller's books in translation. Because no one did, Müller's initial reaction had a special resonance: "I am very surprised and still cannot believe it. I can't say anything more at the moment."
We're hoping that you, Slate readers, are not quite so tongue-tied. Are there any Müller fans out there? If you've read any of her books, essays, or poems in English, German, Romanian, or any other language, and have a take, any take, please e-mail SlateBrowBeat@gmail.com. The best responses will be excerpted here in a future post.
-
sponsorship
In his Wednesday Culturebox on Norwegian and Swedish crime lit, Nathaniel Rich used Scandinavian and Nordic interchangeably, spurring an exchange in our reader discussion forum over whether these two terms are, in fact, synonymous. A frayster who goes by the handle "lazygirl" argues that "Nordic [means] Iceland and Finland. Denmark, Norway and Sweden are Scandinavian." Lapskojs disagrees, claiming that Nordic not only refers to Iceland and Finland, but to the aforementioned Scandinavian countries plus the Faroe Islands. Who's right?
Technically, the term Scandinavia refers to a geographical region, the Scandinavian Peninsula, which encompasses Norway, Sweden, and part of Finland. It may also refer to a language group, Continental Scandinavian, that is descended from Old Norse and includes Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. (Technically, Faroese and Icelandic are descended from Old Norse as well, but they belong to a different group called Insular Scandinavian.) Nordic is a cultural term and includes these three countries plus Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. All of these territories were once united under the Kalmar Union of the 14th century. It dissolved in 1523, but the cultures remained similar with a predominately Lutheran population. They currently participate in the Nordic Council, founded in 1953, and, except for Greeland, still have similar flags featuring the "Nordic cross."
Lapskjos is right.