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The story
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced at 8 p.m. on October 8. Once again this year, names like Haruki Murakami and Yoko Tawada have been floated as “likely winners,” and the usual thread lit up on 5ch over it. But under Nobel Foundation rules, the list of nominees stays sealed for 50 years after the announcement, so no one outside the committee actually knows who’s really in the running. Rather than excitement, the thread leaned cynical, with comments like “same story every year, I’m sick of it” and “isn’t this hype only happening here?” alongside speculation about how nominees are chosen and whether regional balance plays into the selection.
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced at 8 p.m. on October 8. Based on Alfred Nobel’s will, the prize has long honored literary works with an idealistic bent — so which country’s writer will it spotlight this time? Here’s a look at the authors the world is watching as potential winners.
◼ Haruki Murakami
[Profile] He lived through the student movement era of the 1960s. Early on, he kept society at arm’s length, portraying love, loss, and urban isolation in works like “Norwegian Wood,” which earned him a reputation as a writer of “detachment” (indifference). Later, after experiencing the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo affair, he wrote nonfiction works such as “Underground,” deepening his “commitment” (engagement) with society. In 2023 he published “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” a rewrite of a novella he originally wrote in 1980.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Kaho (the actress) literally just put one out, though…
Is this prize some kind of queue you wait your turn for?
Isn't he basically just being mocked at this point?
Dunno though.
And next up, the Kohaku Uta Gassen lineup announcement (NHK's year-end song contest).
It's the trash media's bread and butter.
They're better off if he never actually wins.
Isn't this hype only happening here (on this board) anymore?
Whether he's actually a nominee or not is technically supposed to be secret.
Though sometimes it comes out later — like how Mishima Yukio turned out to have been a nominee after he died.
The records stay sealed for 50 years, so starting around 2056 we'll find out, year by year, who was really nominated back then.
Honestly, he's probably not even nominated.
It's just the so-called "Harukists" (Murakami fanatics) and the media hyping it up.
Never read either one, and I've got no plans to.
Stuff like "Topaz" feels more like real Japanese literature to me honestly.
That prose is incredible.
Way better than long-winded Haruki.
"Finally, Murakami?! …wait, who the hell is Kazuo Ishiguro lol. Even telling me his work was already made into a drama starring Haruka Ayase doesn't ring a bell."
Kazuo Ishiguro is genuinely good.
Give him a read.
Re: #185
Have you read Ishiguro's more avant-garde novels?
The characters and timeline are a total mess, but you blow through them anyway.
That's its own kind of talent, I guess.
It makes me feel like I'm abroad, even though the setting is Japan.
If we're counting that, "The Dancing Girl of Izu" does the same thing.
Isn't this basically turning into a retirement home at this point?
Last year too, they gathered at a few spots and it made the news.
Also, I honestly think the Nobel should just stick to the natural sciences.
The last thing anyone craves is honor.
He's dying to get his hands on the Nobel Prize and the Order of Culture.
Kawabata Yasunari's "House of the Sleeping Beauties" is about an old man who frequents a cuddle-sleep brothel.
For the Literature Prize specifically, it loses its prestige because winners are basically decided by regional rotation.
That said, lately even within Asia, China and Korea are seen as considerably weaker contenders, so they don't win.
In fact, even though it's supposedly regional rotation, there was a case where a Japanese-British writer won instead of an actual Japanese national.
have that much literary value?
He's a textbook conservative, traditionalist writer.
In terms of being avant-garde and adventurous,
I'd say Murakami
is basically top-tier.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Under Nobel Foundation rules, the selection process for the Literature Prize stays sealed for 50 years, so there’s generally no way to confirm who was actually nominated. The recurring reports that Murakami is “nominated every year” are mostly based on media speculation and bookmakers’ odds, not information officially confirmed by the Swedish Academy. The thread picked up on this, with some dismissing it as “just the Harukists and the media making noise” while others said they just enjoy it as an annual seasonal tradition — a real split in tone. There was also talk of a “regional rotation” theory, suggesting the committee balances winners by region, but that too is just speculation from the thread, not anything verified. Because the nominee list is kept secret, readers can easily blur the line between being “expected to win” in media coverage and actually being under consideration — that’s the part most prone to misunderstanding.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “Will Murakami or Tawada Win? Nobel Prize in Literature Announcement Nears — The World’s Most-Watched Contenders“.
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