Laurie of course being the Germaine Greer de nos jours.
Also, we are dealing here with literature in translation, but all the judges are anglophone, which is ridiculous.
The prize is for literature translated into English: being a native English speaker is therefore something of an advantage.
Right now, I don’t know. I don’t read fiction – it’s a waste of time.
It’s a prize for fiction, so perhaps not quite the right judge then Germaine.
By and large, English novels don’t impress the Australian Greer. “The English don’t even write the best novels,” she said. “It’s the French who are the best writers.”
And somewhere the ghost of Jane Austen titters in embarassment……
11 responses so far ↓
1 Tracy W // Jun 30, 2011 at 8:21 am
Jane Austen – titters in embarrassment?
Chuckles in amusement would be more like it.
2 Grumpy Old Man // Jun 30, 2011 at 8:34 am
Indeed. One wonders what Miss Austen would have made of both Ms Greer and Ms Penny. I doubt that her pen-portraits of either would have been particularly flattering.
3 fjfjfj // Jun 30, 2011 at 8:35 am
She doesn’t have to. She just has to wait.
4 DBC Reed // Jun 30, 2011 at 8:55 am
Yesterday pontification about the uselessness of arts graduates; today pronouncements on comparative literature, favouring Jane Austen ,from all- rounder Worstall: not qualified to talk on a wide range of subjects.
It would help if he could spell embarrassment right.
5 JuliaM // Jun 30, 2011 at 9:05 am
At this point, Greer’s just a past-her-best ‘celeb’ looking to be as outrageous as she can to get her name in the media.
She’s become a bore and an embarasment…
6 Ian Bennett // Jun 30, 2011 at 9:05 am
“It would help if he could spell embarrassment right.”
This, from a commenter who put a space before a comma instead of after it. Typo, perhaps?
7 Chris // Jun 30, 2011 at 9:56 am
DBC, it is better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. (And I’m giving you advice, not Tim.)
8 dearieme // Jun 30, 2011 at 10:11 am
Even allowing the idiom of qualifying a verb with an adjective (rather than an adverb), there is room for improvement in Reed’s effusion:
Yesterday, pontification about the uselessness of arts graduates: today, pronouncements on comparative literature that favour Jane Austen; these from all-rounder Worstall who is not qualified to talk on a wide range of subjects. It would help if he could spell embarrassment right.
Further polishing is hereby solicited: for instance, how can we remove the inconsistency of hinting that Worstall is qualified to speak on many topics (“all-rounder”) with the suggestion that he is unqualified to speak on the two that so agitate poor Reed? How can my introduction of the rather old-fashioned “these” be improved upon?
9 David Gillies // Jun 30, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Muphry’s Law is as iron-clad as that of Sod.
It’s moot, of course. Tim doesn’t need to be a novelist – or even a literary critic – to know that Greer’s just spouting iconoclastic, épater les bourgeois nonsense, any more than I need to be a concert pianist to know that Vladimir Horowitz played the old joanna better than Richard Clayderman.
10 MikeinAppalachia // Jun 30, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Well, you could lose the “upon”?
11 dearieme // Jun 30, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Yeah, not insisting on adverbs was meant as a kindness to our American cousins, Mike.
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