Name: Johannes V. Jensen
Year Won: 1944 (Note that the Nobel wasn't awarded during WWII. Hence the reason for the huge break!)
Read: The Long Journey
Original Language: Danish
Reason: "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style"
About: "The Long Journey" follows a number of *important men* as they create civilization. This goes from the first book ("Fire and Ice"), in which a GREAT MAN (named Carl, LOL) discovers fire, to the novels in which Columbus discovers civilization (Yeah...I mean, Columbus did not discover a great untouched paradise, but that's more or less the way this story goes.)
What I liked: The writing for this really is quite lyrical and lovely, even in translation. I could see how it could be fun to read. Kind of like a super dude-bro Clan of the Caveman where GREAT THINGS are DISCOVERED by GREAT PEOPLE. It's well written and pleasantly melodramatic.
What I Disliked: It's such, such SUCH a period of its time. Carl (seriously, who names a cave dude CARL? Esp. when his wife is only described as "Ma"?) is adored and worshipped since, duh, he's a cave dude bringing fire to his people. What's not to like? (Maybe, like, the time he lames a girl for no explicable reason other than that she's there and he wants to make a point to her clan, so he graphically destroys her ankle. But, c'mon, this is CARL! CARL! He's giving us fire without a volcano, y'all. We ought to be grateful to him no matter what he does to our people...)
I honestly couldn't get through this one. It feels like this weird mix of Randian superheroism imposed upon history. In retrospect, it feels pretty damned gross. But I am willing to say that the hero worshipping of a random dude bro (CARL!) would have been far less jarring when it was published. So am trying to withold some of my scorn.
Should it have won a Nobel: It is very much a product of its time. As such, it's hard to say. It's a unique novel, and the writing is REALLY good. But it also feels ickier even than a number of writings that are now heavily disputed (looking at you, Kipling). So it probably earned its award, but also is a sign that the past can't predict the future.
Next Up: Selected poems from Gabriela Mistral
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