PDA

View Full Version : Stephen King Deserves a Nobel Prize



mae
09-19-2010, 08:20 PM
http://www.journal-news.net/page/blogs.detail/display/368/Stephen-King-Deserves-a-Nobel-Prize.html


This is a particularly bold statement, seeing as how the Nobel Prize committee awards the annual prize in Literature to a person who has produced a lifetime body of work that enhances the understanding of the human condition and speaks to mankind throughout the generations, evincing an individual idealism along the way. John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Pearl S. Buck, Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez were all awarded the Nobel Prize, and all have contributed works that, at one time or another, have been cited as some of the best of the 20th century.

Stephen King possesses a talent unique even among the literary heavyweights listed above: he creates worlds. He fills these worlds with flesh and blood characters, people with identifiable and distinguishing personalities in a manner highly reminiscent of Charles Dickens. Dickens would often hold conversations and exchange correspondence with characters he had written and whose stories were already published; to him, they were real, and they kept on living after he was done writing. King oftentimes brings characters back in his novels and short stories, showing where they have been since, or the events leading up to, their initial appearances. His work is a continuum, a vast (63 books since 1974), far-reaching epic that connects virtually all of his novels and links them to a single, epic narrative of revenge and redemption. William Faulkner had Yoknapatawpha County, and Stephen King has the Universe.

His literary output is astounding. Like Joyce Carol Oates (herself a longtime “favorite” for a Nobel Prize), he averages more than one book a year. With over 50 novels and nearly a dozen collections of short stories written and counting, King is a dedicated writer, a man seemingly possessed of an inexhaustible desire to compose, to craft, to tell stories.

Unlike many authors considered to be great, King’s later novels are just as good if not better than his first works. The quality of his writing is constantly refined, becoming sharper and more focused throughout his career. His distinctive narrative voice is a lively and welcome intrusive presence. His asides to the “Constant Reader” and callbacks to previous works give the impression that the story is actually being told to the reader rather than being read by the reader. Stephen King knows about story-structure—how to craft an engaging plot and sustain dramatic tension across a long work.

He is often labeled a horror writer, and many of his works do contain horrific elements within them, but it would be inaccurate to state that all of the terror comes from the supernatural. Annie Wilkes from Misery, Henry Bowers in It, Sonny Elliman in The Dead Zone and From a Buick 8, and Cujo the friendly Saint Bernard in the eponymous novel that has unanimously come to mean any large, ill-tempered dog: the horror these characters present works on an entirely different level than those of the various Eldritch Abominations and monsters in the novels. While the deadlights of the Spider’s eyes in It may keep you up at night, it is the all-too-real sadism and malicious human evil of Henry Bowers that cause your pulse to quicken in the daytime. King seems to know that almost everyone has met a kid like Henry: an unfeeling bully that finds delight in cruelty. It has been said that William Shakespeare wrote us, that is, he created vivid characters and situations that captured humanity so distinctly and have informed life to such a degree that he seems to have created the world on the page. If such a thing is true, then surely Stephen King wrote our nightmares, never having to teach us what to be afraid of because he drew deep from the collective unconscious and brought forth our most common dreads, the greatest of all being death and what lies after; in King’s universe, you may suffer and die, but that will not necessarily end your suffering, especially if you are an evil character.

Although the basic plots of his novels deal with what frighten us, he does not exclusively write horror fiction. King is also a master mystery writer and has been named as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writer’s Guild of America (Elmore Leonard, of whom it can be said that if Shakespeare wrote us and King wrote our nightmares than Elmore Leonard wrote our dialogue, also shares the title of Grand Master). His novel Bag of Bones is more romantic and has more to say about love and loss than any and all of Nicholas Spark’s books combined.

The current state of the Nobel Prize for literature is one of lackluster European-centric, heavily-politicized writings. Has anyone actually read anything by JMG Le Clézio or Herta Müller, the awardees for 2008 and 2009, respectively? The list of people who did not receive a Nobel for Literature and should have is nearly as long as the list of those who have. Mark Twain, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Philip Roth, and Arthur Miller share the commonality of having written tremendous works of literature and of being ignored by the Nobel committee. An American has not been awarded the Nobel for seventeen years, during which time 13 Europeans were awarded the prize. In 2008, a member of the Academy for nomination and award stated that “Europe is still the center of the literary world” and that “the US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature.” Stephen King’s works have been translated into over 32 languages, most of them European, although his works have been published on every single continent except Antarctica. He is arguably the single most recognized name in world literature today, with a reputation that almost everyone instantly recognizes. Without going so far as to address in full the rather specious assertion that Europe is the center of the literary world, it is clear that the majority of books read and sold in the world are written by American authors. Stephen King has not written a single book that has not been a bestseller. He is widely read and widely studied (his work appears on college campuses and in high school libraries, although his novels have been a frequent target of censorship), and he has amassed a solid selection of beautifully written novels that have become a part of the common consciousness that is popular culture.

His work is iconic. He did not invent the “weird small town” story, but he perfected it to such a spectacular degree that “Children of the Corn” has become synonymous with an unsettling stillness in a small town. The Shining is nearly prototypic in its status as the haunted house story, and frankly, without Stephen King’s revitalization of the vampire story with ‘Salem’s Lot, the current maniacal obsession with vampire’s in today’s culture would not exist (Stephanie Meyer, whom King does not consider to be a good writer, essentially took ‘Salem’s Lot, watered it down by removing the sexual allure and violence of the vampire, and made it chaste and saccharine-sweet). If you are afraid of clowns, it probably has more to do with King’s Pennywise than with John Wayne Gacy. Imagine that: King is responsible for inducing a fear of clowns with a fictional novel than an actual serial killer who moonlighted as a clown ever did.

When it comes to the idealism that has to be present for the original stated goal of Nobel consideration, King has it in spades. His universe is full of monsters both human and supernatural, of killers, spousal abusers, rapists and thieves, and yet his is not a nihilistic or inherently evil universe. As the titular hero from The Gunslinger states, many of King’s characters “are made for the Light.” Evil and injustice are not things that can go unpunished in the world of King’s fiction. The bad always receive their comeuppances, which evinces a sort of positivism that real life all too often does not. Stephen King shows in his work that good does triumph over evil, usually through a combination of the grace of God and pure human courage. For all the evil that happens in his novels, they are universally positive in the message that goodness can be stifled and sometimes contained, but it can never be vanquished.

The Nobel Prize for Literature is the highest honor that can be given to an author. The Prize comes with an award of over a million dollars, but money is something that Stephen King has not needed for nearly forty years. He probably does not need the recognition for himself, either. Awarding him a Nobel would be the world’s equivalent of a thank you.

Until the Nobel committee comes around, I will express my own gratitude. Thank you, Mr. King, for sharing your imagination with us, for sharing your fears with us, for probing our minds and finding what we are most afraid of and for showing us that while it may be frightening, it can never truly stand up to the awesome power of goodness; thank you for your prolificacy and for your dependability; thank you for your inspired commentary on life, on love, on being; and thank you, most of all Mr. King, for the entertainment and for being so much fun to read.

ICry4Oy
09-19-2010, 08:39 PM
Since they gave one to Obama for basically just being Obama, it doesn't really mean that much any more.

BillyxRansom
09-19-2010, 09:03 PM
Since they gave one to Obama for basically just being Obama, it doesn't really mean that much any more.

I voted for the guy and this was my first thought.

Jean
09-20-2010, 01:04 AM
I don't think much of the Nobel Prize, remembering who and for what reasons it has been given to for decades, but if someone deserves it totally and without any additional political[ly correct] considerations, it's Sai King.

Brice
09-20-2010, 01:14 AM
I have said for years that King deserves the Nobel for Literature. Mrs. Oates does too for that matter. Both are long overdue for it and I only hope they both get it BEFORE they die.

mae
09-20-2010, 04:52 AM
Hopefully they give it to Philip Roth for his 80th birthday. Then King :) Obama didn't get it for literature, that was a different Nobel Prize.

jhanic
09-20-2010, 07:10 AM
If Obama can get one, then King definitely deserves one!

John

Jean
09-20-2010, 07:12 AM
If Obama can get one, then King definitely deserves one!

John
I was going to quote it for truth, and then all of a sudden it sounded dubious... like, reducing Sai King's merits to something... lesser

Brice
09-20-2010, 07:14 AM
If Obama can get one perhaps they should mail us all one.

flaggwalkstheline
09-20-2010, 08:29 AM
regardless of criticism of president obama recieving the nobel prize, sai king definitely deserves the nobel prize in literature as the article so eloquently states

mae
09-20-2010, 08:55 AM
Not a lot of Obama supporters here? But that's beside the point. I think it's highly unlikely King would get that sort of recognition, especially if giants like Roth or Nabokov never did.

gsvec
09-20-2010, 03:43 PM
I think the article was very well written, and add my vote to "YES" for Sai King. :wub:

flaggwalkstheline
09-20-2010, 04:10 PM
I think chuck palahniuk should get the nobel prize for literature as well but if SKs' chances of getting it are next to nil then HIS chances are astronomically small:P

Woofer
09-27-2010, 10:06 AM
Not a lot of Obama supporters here? But that's beside the point. I think it's highly unlikely King would get that sort of recognition, especially if giants like Roth or Nabokov never did.

{off topic} I support Obama. I believe he is doing the best that he can given the position that he is in - something I cannot say that I felt about George Bush and many other past presidents. I understand why Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize even though I don't agree with it. In fact, I think that giving it to him at that point was the worst thing for him, for the concept of a "peace prize", and for the United States. {/off topic}

VOTE FOR KING! (assuming TPTB see this)

pathoftheturtle
09-27-2010, 10:11 AM
Since they gave one to Obama for basically just being Obama, it doesn't really mean that much any more.Sincerely, I think it was for basically just not being George W. Bush. People not of this country worry about us; and rightly so, IMO.

Woofer
09-27-2010, 11:04 AM
pathoftheturtle, I think you nailed it on the head. Not only wasn't he George Bush, he garnered enough votes to get elected in a country where members of certain hate groups would've lynched him for announcing candidacy for president just 50 years ago.

mae
09-27-2010, 12:03 PM
I don't want this to go offtopic and into politics (always a touchy subject), but just wanted to post this quote:


Jagland said "We have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. We are awarding Obama for what he has done in the past year. And we are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do," noting that he hoped the award would assist Obama's foreign policy efforts. Jagland said the committee was influenced by a speech Obama gave about Islam in Cairo in June 2009, the president's efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and climate change, and Obama's support for using established international bodies such as the United Nations to pursue foreign policy goals. The New York Times reported that Jagland shrugged off the question of whether "the committee feared being labeled naïve for accepting a young politician’s promises at face value", stating that "no one could deny that 'the international climate' had suddenly improved, and that Mr. Obama was the main reason...'We want to embrace the message that he stands for.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize

Woofer
09-27-2010, 01:40 PM
Thanks for that. I'd say I'm surprised that I haven't looked this up on my own, but I've been a bit distracted.

Remaining OT, King most definitely fits the criteria the prize in literature.

jhanic
09-27-2010, 06:10 PM
I don't want this to go offtopic and into politics (always a touchy subject), but just wanted to post this quote:


Jagland said "We have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. We are awarding Obama for what he has done in the past year. And we are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do," noting that he hoped the award would assist Obama's foreign policy efforts. Jagland said the committee was influenced by a speech Obama gave about Islam in Cairo in June 2009, the president's efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and climate change, and Obama's support for using established international bodies such as the United Nations to pursue foreign policy goals. The New York Times reported that Jagland shrugged off the question of whether "the committee feared being labeled naïve for accepting a young politician’s promises at face value", stating that "no one could deny that 'the international climate' had suddenly improved, and that Mr. Obama was the main reason...'We want to embrace the message that he stands for.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize

What that boils down to is that they awarded the prize to Obama because of speeches he made.

John

Brice
09-28-2010, 07:21 AM
Yeah, he just got a free Nobel...without doing anything. It was a gift...and kind of a smack in the face to those who have deserved them.

flaggwalkstheline
09-28-2010, 07:56 AM
WHY does everyone have to bring the nobel peace prize which president obama absurdly recieved whenever any nobel prize is mentioned? there are five different nobel prizes of which that is one, honestly it's like people think his recieving it taints all five when in fact people who actually are evil have recieved it like arafat or a fellow named fritz habner who won it in 1918 when he had been one of the minds behind german chemical warfare in world war 1, hell alfred nobel himself invented dynamite! IMO people like them winning it pretty much makes the peace prize a pointless ritual. But they don't taint the other prizes in physics, physiology or medicine, literature, chemistry

mae
09-28-2010, 08:12 AM
Indeed, and whatever your opinion of Obama, you can't fault hm for receiving it, he didn't ask for it.

Woofer
09-28-2010, 10:18 AM
WHY does everyone have to bring the nobel peace prize which president obama absurdly recieved whenever any nobel prize is mentioned? there are five different nobel prizes of which that is one, honestly it's like people think his recieving it taints all five when in fact people who actually are evil have recieved it like arafat or a fellow named fritz habner who won it in 1918 when he had been one of the minds behind german chemical warfare in world war 1, hell alfred nobel himself invented dynamite! IMO people like them winning it pretty much makes the peace prize a pointless ritual. But they don't taint the other prizes in physics, physiology or medicine, literature, chemistry

{Several people at my former workplace}* Because he is a man of mixed race descent, primarily black, who was elected to the highest office in the world - the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES - based on NOTHING OTHER THAN THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN. What's more, he says he's a Christian, but he's probably Muslim. My god! He wasn't even born in this country. That certificate of live birth in Hawaii means nothing. NOTHING! What the hell's a certificate of live birth, anyway? And have you seen the way his family dresses when they aren't being official? They dress casual, ffs. Michelle and the kids have actually been photographed in shorts and tee shirts en route to the Grand Canyon. Scandalous! He's a socialist who wants to force all these crazy socialist programs and ideas on the country, such as health care for EVERYONE. WTF?! Why the hell am I busting my ass to climb to the top of the corporate ladder if not to have more and get more and be better than others? Plus, he's a facist and any day now his jack-booted thugs will be dragging us out into the streets to make the white man pay! {/Several people at my former workplace}

*Edited for blatant racist terms


Indeed, and whatever your opinion of Obama, you can't fault hm for receiving it, he didn't ask for it.

That's very true.

That Stephen King essay rocks. I wonder if they would allow us to mirror the article here.

the dalinean
11-10-2010, 08:32 AM
Just a small interjection of a quite-likely-lame attempt at humor: I thought that the only requirement for qualifying for a Nobel prize was that you have a *truly* dynamite personality... :orely:

flaggwalkstheline
11-10-2010, 07:52 PM
Just a small interjection of a quite-likely-lame attempt at humor: I thought that the only requirement for qualifying for a Nobel prize was that you have a *truly* dynamite personality... :orely:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmjHT5GpAYQ

Spencer
11-11-2010, 08:13 AM
If the Nobel committee was ever gonna give him an award, it would have been for Under the Dome. I think the moment has passed.

Spencer
11-11-2010, 08:16 AM
Just a small interjection of a quite-likely-lame attempt at humor: I thought that the only requirement for qualifying for a Nobel prize was that you have a *truly* dynamite personality... :orely:

I liked it. :lol: Actually, the requirement is that you have "dynamite" and proper points of view and opinions, as determined by the committee.

haunted.lunchbox
11-11-2010, 08:43 AM
If the Nobel committee was ever gonna give him an award, it would have been for Under the Dome. I think the moment has passed.

I didn't feel that Under the Dome was his strongest work. There are a couple of his books that I don't care for, two others are The Cell, and Duma Key. I loved how Cell started, hated the ending. Duma Key I just didn't like. And Under the Dome had an awesome premise, I just felt it didn't deliver. I think if he were to get an award on a specific work it would be... The Mist from Skeleton Crew, The Long Walk, The Stand, The Green Mile, or It.

pathoftheturtle
11-11-2010, 10:01 AM
Something like that, but I think that what Spencer meant was to slam UtD and the Nobel standards together.

haunted.lunchbox
11-11-2010, 10:02 AM
Something like that, but I think that what Spencer meant was to slam UtD and the Nobel standards together.

I'm not good with sarcasm...

Spencer
11-18-2010, 06:51 PM
If the Nobel committee was ever gonna give him an award, it would have been for Under the Dome. I think the moment has passed.

I didn't feel that Under the Dome was his strongest work. There are a couple of his books that I don't care for, two others are The Cell, and Duma Key. I loved how Cell started, hated the ending. Duma Key I just didn't like. And Under the Dome had an awesome premise, I just felt it didn't deliver. I think if he were to get an award on a specific work it would be... The Mist from Skeleton Crew, The Long Walk, The Stand, The Green Mile, or It.

My opinion on "Under the Dome" is more than well documented in other threads :lol: , so I won't get into it here. Suffice it to say that the elements I had a low opinion of are the very reasons the book would have gotten an award.

Spencer
11-18-2010, 06:53 PM
Something like that, but I think that what Spencer meant was to slam UtD and the Nobel standards together.

You are correct, sir. :lol: Sorry about the sarcasm, lunchbox. I should have fully explained myself. :D

haunted.lunchbox
11-18-2010, 07:22 PM
Something like that, but I think that what Spencer meant was to slam UtD and the Nobel standards together.

You are correct, sir. :lol: Sorry about the sarcasm, lunchbox. I should have fully explained myself. :D

Well, if I was the only one that was confused it's safe to say you explained yourself well enough.

Merlin1958
11-19-2010, 04:31 PM
If Obama can get one perhaps they should mail us all one.

I hear that!!!!! What the hell were they thinking? I'm not sure King would want one after they lowered the standards so by giving Obama one for no reason whatsoever!!!

Patrick
11-24-2010, 12:25 AM
[QUOTE=Spencer;569159]... I loved how Cell started, hated the ending. Duma Key I just didn't like. And Under the Dome had an awesome premise, I just felt it didn't deliver. I think if he were to get an award on a specific work it would be... The Mist from Skeleton Crew, The Long Walk, The Stand, The Green Mile, or It.
I loved the ending of Cell. I wish more authors had the balls to end stories that way.

However I do agree that The Long Walk and The Stand and The Green Mile were much more award-worthy.