Trouble At The Swedish Academy

This is yummy. On the eve of the announcement of this year's Nobel Prize for literature, a prominent Nobel selector quit in disgust over last year's winner:

The Swedish Academy will announce this year's winner of the Nobel literature prize on Thursday, amid a scuffle among its scholars over last year's selection of Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek.

As the Academy gave the date on which it would announce the 2005 winner, Academician Knut Ahnlund gave notice he was quitting in disgust at the 2004 laureate, whose writing he called "whinging, unenjoyable, violent pornography".

In a signed newspaper article he said giving the prize to Jelinek -- which surprised even Austria -- "caused irreparable harm to the value of the award for the foreseeable future".

Ahnlund did not explain why he had waited a year after the prize was awarded to Jelinek to announce he was quitting, but Academy President Horace Engdahl suggested the move was timed to spoil this year's prize announcement. (source)

A couple comments.

Ahnlund seems to think there's still value in the Nobels, and that harm can be done to them. His indignation comes too late.

Yes, he may have timed his departure to put a negative buzz around this year's announcement, and if so, it's a mighty fine strategy. But my guess is that this year's winner will be another unpalatable, disgusting writer who deserves no credit, and Ahnlund felt the need to flee before the announcement. We'll see.