Thursday, October 11, 2007

Doris Lessing gets Nobel

"So now they've decided they're going to give it to me. So why? I mean, why do they like me any better now than they did then?" Doris Lessing, Nobel prize laureate in Literature 2007.

I read Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) when I was about 20 and fund it one of the most disorientating experiences I have ever had from the printed page. It is an amazing novel and while it is the only one of Lessing's 30 books I have read I think she is an excellent choice for the prize. Her first words when she heard; "Oh Christ!"

Myself...I have the flu and am at home reading Warren Ellis for amusement.

3 comments:

meika said...

and I say "Thank God."

for Les Murray was short listed as well, I didn't know Doris was up there, if I did I would not have to worry so much about Les getting up

from meika whose back in Hobart after a trip across the NUllabor and who now spend too much time on facebook.com, are you on it Jim or is just one thing too many now...

James Barrett said...

Hi Meika, glad to hear you are still reading this...I removed the pop up preview function and I thought of you :-)
As to facebook, the friend request is in the mail......
Les Murray was in Sweden recently and he was written up as 'Australia's best poet"....I cringed.

meika said...

it's the cringing that makes him so good you know.