Once, years before a hyperbole-prone Graydon Carter pronounced “the end of the age of irony“, the more astute Tom Lehrer remarked that Henry Kissinger’s 1973 Nobel Peace prize rendered political satire obsolete.
One wonders what Tom Lehrer thinks of today’s announcement that the the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the perverted Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek. While not an act of cosmic irony on par with Kissinger’s Peace Prize, it is, if nothing else, the last nail in the coffin for kinky books. Even if you are inclined to enjoy nauseating, degenerate art-smut like this (and if you are, you should be ashamed), you have to acknowledge that the authors of these nasty things should not be rewarded for writing and promulgating them. Most of Sade’s horrid output was written in prison, and rightly so. Georges Bataille published the shockingly perverse “Story of the Eye” under a pseudonym and spent his wretched life as a creepy librarian, unwilling to face the well-deserved umbrage that even his fellow Frenchmen would have unleased upon him had he taken responsibility for his “work.”
Of course, we here at low culture regard this kind of cultural output as not merely beneath contempt, but in fact a danger to our American way of life and values, the sort of pernicious decadence that leads to the downfall of great civilizations. But even if we did care for this kind of thing, isn’t it a fundamental element of these naughty books that they and their authors are “transgressive”, that they are breaking the rules of society? And shouldn’t society respond to transgression with censure and condemnation, not fancy medals and prizes? Indeed, in a year in which the world was appalled by images of grotesquely sadistic acts, is it not poor timing — if not a bit perverse — for the Swedish Academy to award its Literature prize to a pornographic writer who celebrates perversity?
6 replies on “What next, an NEA grant for Mapplethorpe?”
Pretty scary line, don’t you think? — “Even if you are inclined to enjoy nauseating, degenerate art-smut like this (and if you are, you should be ashamed), you have to acknowledge that the authors of these nasty things should not be rewarded for writing and promulgating them.” I would imagine that most thinking people would avoid a loaded expression like “degenerate art.” People like you tried to save us from Ulysses and Lady Chatterly, too.
More to the point, why are you so concerned about an Austrian novelist that 99% of Americans never heard of, who’s writing explicit literature, when every single one of us is swimming in degenerate, decadent, vulgar culture every waking minute? How can you complain about a woman whose book sales in this country are probably counted in the hundreds when Fox TV is swamping us in the cheapest, grossest titillation they can dream up?
Wally, go check out this site: http://nosenseofhumor.com. Or, its British sister site, http://nosenseofhumour.co.uk.
OK, I’m groveling. Never been to this site before, just followed a link from Wonkette.com. In my defense, all I can say is that it’s a commentary on contemporary American culture that I could actually fall for a spoof like that.
Bygones, Wally. Welcome aboard.
OK, read the story above and then read this one:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/746mjtym.asp
From our friends at the Weekly Standard, defending our culture.
Some quotes:
“The infamous snobs of the Swedish Academy, brooding in the land of military cowardice, interminable winter, and one of the highest suicide rates in the world, have returned to their habit of awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to an unknown, undistinguished, leftist fanatic.”
“Sexual titillation makes a comparison between Elfriede Jelinek and, say, Britney Spears, fair–though any normal person would doubtless prefer the latter’s company.”
“Other Nobel stars have included Claude Simon (1985), a Stalinist who defamed George Orwell; Castro-lover Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982)”
Now I don’t feel so bad about falling for lowculture’s parody. The real thing is even worse.
Mmm… I love me some Castro!