In a move that is likely to send shock waves though the western literary establishment, The Nobel Committee has made a daring move towards the right. The latest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature is Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian born author currently living in Spain, and a writer who has himself turned to the right as an advocate of free-market principles and conservative politics.
The Committee has been accused of favoring leftist writers in the past, but has stated that its awards are based on literary merit alone. Its tempting to think this particular award might have been made in order to prove that point, but on the other hand, this is no quiet, mealy-mouthed, genial conservative.
If you argue politics with him, he might well punch you out. In fact, he has done just that, some decades ago, in the course of an argument with a leftist writer with whom he had been friends. That was just the beginning of a long and distinguished career as a basher of leftists.
His writing is almost universally admired in Latin America but his gradual shift from the left toward an embrace of free-market capitalism has put him at odds with much of the hemisphere's intellectual elite.
Vargas Llosa has feuded with Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez and often tosses barbs at Cuba's Fidel Castro. He irritated his centrist friend Paz, the late Mexican Nobel literature laureate, by playfully describing Mexico's political system — which was dominated at the time by a single party — as "the perfect dictatorship."
In a famous 1976 incident in Mexico City, Vargas Llosa punched out former friend Garcia Marquez, whom he would later ridicule as "Castro's courtesan." It was never clear whether the fight was over politics or a personal dispute and the two have reportedly not spoken in decades.
Llosa has been the recipient of many other prizes prior to the Nobel, and the Committee which awarded this latest jewel in the crown was quite explicit about his qualifications.
The Swedish Academy said it honored him for mapping the "structures of power and (for) his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat." Its permanent secretary, Peter Englund, called him "a divinely gifted storyteller" whose writing touched the reader.
"His books are often very complex in composition, having different perspectives, different voices and different time places," Englund said. "He is also doing it in a new way, he has helped evolve the art of the narration."
Peru's president, Alan Garcia, praised Vargas Llosa for his "eminent intelligence" and "libertarian and democratic spirit."
So congratulations to Senor Llosa. Who knows, this might be the start of a new trend. It might even be the start of something big. One of these days, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee might make a similarly unusual and unexpected move-it might actually award the Nobel Peace Prize to somebody who has actually done something to further the cause of peace.
