Austria
No Nobel news of real interest today, I think... That Elfriede Jelinek isn't exactly fond of Austria is of course no new information either. Austrian writers seldom are. Thomas Bernhard (whose last novel Extinction [amazon.com] definitely would have been worthy of a Nobel prize) never tired of denouncing its "nazi catholicism", as he liked to call it.

However, the interesting thing is that I have always thought all of this to be an exaggeration. Which it maybe is. But recently I have had the opportunity to speak to a few rather prominent German writers, one of which lived in Austria, and they claimed that the Jelinek/Bernhard-picture of the country as horribly conservative and utterly unwilling to challenge its Nazi past is more or less literally true.

Having never been to Austria I can't have an own opinion. But I know that I have at least two readers in Austria, so feel free to add yours.
Malte P @ 10:36 AM |   |