Background

Claude Simon was born in Madagascar, but is clearly French through and through. His family was part of the colonial service in Africa and returned to France after his father’s death for his education. Simon showed a great aptitude and studied in Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge. But not being satisfied with an academic life, Simon travelled to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War, and then joined the French Army at the outbreak of World War II.

His experiences with war and death deeply affected and influenced his writing. He is often cited as a prime example of the French Nouveau Roman (or new novel) which emphasized clear chronological story telling with distinct narrators. (That influential style has garnered a sizeable number of awards and multiple Nobels.) Simon’s Nobel citation specifically mentioned how he, “combines the poet’s and the painter’s creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition.”

Works

I read his most popular novel: The Flanders Road (or La Route des Flanders) a hefty tome with Simon’s trademark “1,000 word sentences” (That’s not an exaggeration…maybe its an understatement). Here were a few pieces that stood out.

“..war and commerce had always been–one as much as the other–merely the expression of [people’s] rapacity and that rapacity itself was the consequence of the ancestral terror of hunger and death, which meant that killing robbing pillaging and selling were actually only one and the same thing a simple need the need to reassure onesself, like children whistling or singing loud to keep their courage up crossing through the woods at night…”–p. 40

“The turf was speckled and soiled by thousands of betting tickets lost like so many tiny stillborn corpses of dreams and hopes (the marriage not of heaven and earth but of earth and man, leaving it soiled by the persistence of that residue, of that kind of giant and fetal pollution of tiny furiously torn scraps of paper), long after the last hose had kicked up the last clod of turf and had left”—p. 159

Message

It’s been awfully hard to understand much of Simon’s writing as it dwelled on parentheticals and prepositions so much that Flanders Road seems to mostly consist of digressions about how cool horses are. But mixing that with the absurdity of war and more than a little reflection on relationships (both familial and romantic) I’d say he’s taking a position that: attempts to control (others, nature, war) are futile.

(Hopefully he would appreciate the parenthetical in my answer there.)

Position: #3 Left Back

Claude Simon is another entry in an increasingly common trend that I’ve noticed in these reading assignments: chaotic energy and the fullback position.

Like Elfriede Jelinek, he is prone to the mass of text shoveled together, and a combination of ruthless aggression and aimless meandering that would suit a player who pushes up with the attack and charges back when needed. The biggest difference I see between Simon and others like him (including Frederic Mistral and Johannes Jennsen) is that his moments of brilliance are more random and less coherent, while his other work seems more likely to induce disbelief and confusion rather than joy or appreciation.

So let’s hear from our Nouveau Roman afficianados. What makes Simon so stellar? Am I right to see him as a more random Samuel Beckett, or is there a method to his madness? Oh and fullbacks of the world, you can also chime in to tell me if I’ve misunderstood your position…or you’d rather be compared with some traditional poetry instead of the chaos agents I’ve assigned you thus far.

Next Time, 2005 Honoree: Harold Pinter

Background

Mikhail Sholokov is another in the long line of Eastern European writers who I had never heard about before starting this project because, well, that’s how Western education rolls. Sholokov was born in a rural portion of Russia known as “the Don” after the local river. That was about all he seemed to need in life. He fought in the army, made powerful friends, but his life and his work eternally revolved around his humble farmland beginnings and everyone around him.

However, those powerful friends and patrons push him into a slightly different realm that he might have liked. One of Sholokov’s friends was Joseph Stalin (who made time for some light reading while organizing a despotic regime that murdered approximately 9 Million critics and opponents). Sholokov used his influence with old Joe to earn concessions for his community, justice for persecuted neighbors, and punishment for the corrupt (and in one case–defending the local XI from having their best player abducted by CSKA Moscow). However, he didn’t exactly kick up a fuss about the wider injustices (if it wasn’t in the Don, for Sholokov, it wasn’t on). It’s hard to tell whether his closeness with Stalin encouraged soviet government, newspapers and schools to lift him up to the position of a laureate, or if those who opposed Stalin kept him off of shelves and confined to a controversial corner where he was accused of plagiarism.

Either way, Sholokov won the 1965 Nobel Prize for giving “expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people” through his work Quiet Flows the Don.

Works

From “Family Man” a short story of a father who fought with the Tsar’s forces against his own sons who had left home to join the Soviets. In this scene, the father Mikishara narrates what happens when he finds his son as a prisoner of war among his own battalion.

“The Cossacks roar with laughter.

” ‘Make them soak in their own blood Mikishara! It is obvious you’re taking pity on him, on your own Danilka. Strike him again or we’ll make your blood flow!’

“The captain came out on the porch; he was swearing but his eyes were laughing. When they began to slash them with their bayonets, my heart couldn’t bear it. I started running down the street. I looked back and saw them rolling my Danilushka on the ground. The sergeant stuck his bayonet in his throat but only Khrr came out”

Message

In both his work and his life, Sholokov’s devotion and dedication to Cossaks on the Don (both good and bad) brings to mind so many specifics that outsiders are left only to observe and ponder the culture. If I were to extrapolate that out into a message I might say “Live locally. It’s the immediate that matters.”

Position: #4 Center Back

There’s a lot in the plot of Quiet Flows the Don that reminds me of Tolstoy’s epics, albeit without the bourgeoise or occasional redeeming features of the protagonist. To be fair, I watched the 1957 adaptation rather than reading the book, but in small selections and a conversation with a former Russian student it sure seems to be an accurate adaptation of both tone and characters. With that Tolstoy-lite label and the uncertainty over his authorship or willingness to approve of Stalin’s worst traits, I’m left shrugging. Sholokov would clearly care about defending his territory, but he also seems like a player who has the unswerving allegiance of the coach without a whole lot of reason why.

So there you have it, an ultra HOT TAKE (about an author who has been dead for forty years). Feel free to challenge me in the comments below. (Also, I know that my numbers/colors aren’t matching for Sholokov…but until such time as someone tells me it matters, I’m going to show myself some grace and let it be)

Next Time, 1985 Honoree Claude Simon

Hooray a representative of Africa! And he’s…no…wait…white again.

Background

Gabriela Mistral started out as a girl in the small Chilean village of Montegrande. Or rather, Lucia Godoy Alcayaga did. Lucia didn’t become Gabriela until afteer she turned 19 and began to publish regularly. She chose to take the pseudonym that honored her favorite poets: Gabrielle D’Anunzio and Frederic Mistral (HEY! We know him!)

Unsurprisingly, poetry didn’t pay the bills at first and she began a teaching career (so there’s hope for me to write one of these about myself yet). As a teacher Mistral ran across another young Chilean poet who will get his own entry in a few years: Pablo Neruda. When her renown as a poet grew, she left the classrooms and entered a variety of embassies all around the word. (Which was probably for hte best given Chile’s history of brutal dictatorships…distance was probably for the best).

Living the rest of her life as an exile, she did make good friends in a variety of literary circles until 1945 when she became the first Latin American to become a literature laureate “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”.

Works

All selections taken from Mistral’s Madwomen collection–translated by Randall Couch

“When I walk all the things
of the earth awaken,
and they rise up and whisper
and it’s their stories that they tell.

And the peoples who wander
leave them for me on the road
and I gather them where they’ve fallen
in cocoons made of footprints

Stories run through my body,
or purr in my lap.
They buzz, boil, and bee-drone
They come to me uncalled
and don’t leave once told.”

—“The Storyteller”

“In a whirlwind she would rule
over meals and linens
the winepress and beehives
the minute, the hour and the day…

And wherever they went, all things
voiced a wounded cry to her:
crockery, latches, doors,
as to their bellweather;
and for her sister they grew hushed,
spinning tears and Ave Maria”

–Martha and Mary

Message

In an evergreen theme, Mistral’s topic throughout her Madwomen’s poems seems to challenge the presumptions endemic to humanity. To all the men in government, academia, literature and life write large the women who would be named “the poet of motherhood” seems to say “there’s more complexity in our lives than you are ready to behold”

Position: #6 Defensive Midfield

Like thee friend she made on her diplomatic tour, WB Yeats, Mistral seems to have a split view of the craft. She keeps one foot in the past with her style, structure and symbolism, and another foot on the gas with novel and innovative themes and expressions. To my mind that makes her a good choice for a defensive midfielder. She’s absolutely valuable, but a little too stiff for my tastes.

Try as I might to read this in Spanish most of the ideas slipped through my fourth grade level understanding of the language. If you have a different point of view or would encourage me to read another translation, let me know in the comments below.

Next Time, 1965 Honoree Mikhail Sholokov

Background

George Bernard Shaw is one of the true rarities in this project. A long and fruitful career writing, primarily, comedies! Despite his strength in the genre, his childhood was not a laugh riot. Shaw and his family dealt with numbing poverty and deep loss, but Shaw found a way to educate himself by lurking in museums and reading rooms in Dublin and then London before becoming a writer.

While his novels never gained a footing, his time as an art and drama critic gave him great insight into the revolution on the stage started by Henrik Ibsen in Norway. Soon, he was writing his own dramas and filling theaters in London. From there he began a long and storied career as a critic, wit, essayist, and thinker, capturing much of the old world and its conflict with the modern replacement

Works

Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak.

–Arms and the Man

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.

—The Devil’s Disciple

Message

As someone who often felt a bit out of step with the educated and wealthy elites he joined, Shaw certainly had a pattern. In the works I read (slash listened to thanks to great series of plays from LA Theater works), and those I know from years of being a nerd, Shaw loves a story where a privileged few see their world and sense of self upended by an outsider: the enemy soldier in Arms and the Man; the prodigal son in The Devil’s Disciple; the cockney flower girl who rises in society in Pygmalion (or its more famous adaptation: My Fair Lady); or, my favorite example, the Polish daredevil who literally crash lands in an English greenhouse (Misalliance). In all these, his overarching theme seems to be outsiders often understand our communities better than we do.

How exactly he could write so many texts with the same theme and yet be a supporter of genocide and antisemitic, I don’t know.

Position: #10 Attacking Midfield

Like his fellow playwright, big thinker, and questionable human, Jean-Paul Sartre, I would slot Shaw as a #10 creative attacking midfielder. Naturally, dramatists have a tendency to control all the action and make suggestions for everything that happens in the story (even if living people bring it to life). Shaw also checks boxes as a creative and crowd pleasing talent, even if he does have some pretty clear tendancies and habits. Clearly, Shaw gets aggressive in how he skewers the rich and powerful, a style born out in his preferred sport (not soccer but boxing).

To be frank, I rated Shaw’s strength in midfield before I found out about his political…uh…jackassery. But I think the ranking holds as his work as a writer undercuts his own views (rather than amplifying his worst opinions…looking at you Wladyslaw Reymont).

If you’d like to dispute this, my standing offer to join the conversation stands. Comment below if Shaw should step up to the top of the midfielder rankings or slide more than I considered.

Next Time, 1945 Honoree Gabriela Mistral

Background

Bertha Von Suttner was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. While she was broadly active in the peace movement (especially for a woman in the 19th century), the Nobel website specifically cites her book Lay Down Your Arms as a major factor in winning her the award. With that in mind I chose to add her to the Nobel FC roster. If you don’t like that…please write something…I’m afraid I’m a nutcase creating a truly bizarre alternate reality of soccer and books.

Anyway…back to Bertha. She grew up in Austria as the daughter of soldiers and nobility, which accounts for her liberty to read, write, and travel as a woman of leisure. However, she ultimately entered the workforce as a governess/tutor to another Austrian family with a long military pedigree. She later was briefly the secretary for Alfred Nobel, you know, they guy who founded all these prizes. She ultimately eloped with the son of her tutoring family (before you ask, no, this was not a Lifetime movie, he was never her tutee and was 23 when they met). And they lived apart from the family making ends meet through tutoring and freelance writing.

Eventually reunited with their Austrian family, Bertha found new work in advocating for peace. As the popularity of her other writing grew Bertha was invited to speak more frequently and when she published the novel that played a major part in winning the peace prize: Lay Down Your Arms which became a bit of a cultural craze in 1890s Europe. Bertha, who had already been active in the peace movement, became a leading figure (one called her The Generalissimo of Peace). She also travelled broadly in support of Women’s Rights (including speaking at a conference organized by a group that employed my favorite peace advocate…future Montana Congress Woman Jeanette Rankin)

Works

“Your ‘yes’ [vote for war] will rob that mother of her only child. Yours will put that poor fellow’s eyes out. Yours will set fire to a collection of books which cannot be replaced. Yours will dash out the brains of a poet who would have been the glory of his country. But you have all voted ‘yes’ to this, just in order not to appear cowards, as if the only thing one had to fear in giving assent was what regards onesself“
—Lay Down Your Arms

“The village is ours–no it is the enemy’s–now ours again–and yet once more the enemy’s; but it is no longer a village, but a smoking mass of the ruins of houses”
—Lay Down Your Arms

Message

Obviously, as a pacifist and an activist, Bertha had a clear moral she wanted to communicate to the masses. She also has a tendency to hammer on the same point and demolish the same straw men arguments with the fervor of a scarecrow demolition crew. Still, within her context it’s really worth considering Bertha’s specific position that expanded the peace debate, namely: war and violence spread destruction far beyond the battlefield. That seemingly simple fact is often ignored by those who valorize battle.

Position: #1 Goalkeeper

Bertha can easily be minimized as just a pacifist, but she does her very best to broaden her position and stands her ground against a much more aggressive opponent. To me, that’s a great synopsis of a goalkeeper’s duty. Her most acclaimed novel covers a lot of ground and refuses to let other opinions just slide by, so I’m going to put her between the posts and let her do her thing. (I’m also going to continue my Jeanette Rankin shoutouts by putting her in the Garnet and Silver of Montana…and I fully expect the Griz staff could make even a 180 year old Baroness an effective shot-stopper.)

So there’s a big shout out to Bertha, if you prefer her poetry or insist that she be moved to the attack, let me know in the comments below. Come on…for my sanity at least.

Next Time, 1925 Honoree George Bernard Shaw