Nobel Prize Winners (1920)
Knut Hamsun's semi autobiographical account of his early years
as an aspiring writer is the sine qua non of starving artist literature.
It combines something of the manic intensity of Dostoevskey's portrayal
of Raskalnikov, with the first person narrative and near hallucinatory
vision of Charles Bukowski--the visions brought on by starvation rather
than alcohol in this case--and is told in the spare, punchy prose that
the author learned while working in America. The message of the book
seems to be that the experience of poverty and hunger are a necessary fuel
to stoke the author's artistic fires.
It remains for the reader to determine whether Hamsun has been blessed
with a universal revelation, or merely a personal insight. The idea
of suffering for art and of inspiration coming from hallucination have
certainly been influential--we think of Faulkner, Hemingway, Henry Miller,
William S. Burroughs, Mailer, etc., as writers who sought the profound
in a bottle, a needle or a bimbo. However, other than Bukowski and
a little bit of Hunter Thompson, it is hard to think of many authors whose
dissipation has helped produce much that's worth reading. Significantly,
the good stuff that even they produced details their adventures while under
the influence, not any revelations about the broader world that resulted
from said mind altering. But the danger here is that such authors
tend to risk self-indulgence--remarkably few writers can make their own
debauchery into interesting prose--and often sacrifice coherence.
As for the specific value of hunger and suffering as muses, they obviously
have none. Virtually all of the world's great literature has been
the product of its fattest most self-satisfied cultures. If there
truly were some association between a gnawing in the belly and significant
writing, we'd be awash in the novels of Appalachia, North Korea, Bangladesh,
Ethiopia, etc..
Hamsun's novel then, while it was obviously influential and remains
an interesting document of one man's experiences without food, is ultimately
too individualistic to offer us much insight on the human condition generally.
The brevity, intensity and readability of the book recommend it; but it
has fairly little to say. His Nobel Prize is sufficiently embarrassing
in light of his subsequent adoration of Adolf Hitler and advocacy of the
Third Reich, but it also seems an inappropriate honor for an author whose
work lacks a universal message.
(Reviewed:30-Jan-00)
Grade: (C)
Websites:
Knut Hamsun Links:
-ESSAY: Hamsun's Nordland: Norway's
Arctic north cast a spell upon the youthful Knut Hamsun, the novelist who would win the Nobel Prize for his portrayal of this majestic landscape and
its people. (Eric P. Olsen, February 2003, World & I)
Book-related and General Links:
-Encyclopaedia
Britannica :Hamsun, Knut (Guide to the Nobel Prizes)
-Encyclopaedia
Britannica: Your search: "Knut Hamsun"
-Knut
Hamsun: The Nobel Prize in Literature 1920 (The Nobel Foundation)
-Knut
Pedersen Hamsun Winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobel
Internet Archive)
-Knut
Hamsun (1859-1952)(kijjasto)
-Knut
Hamsun (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
-Nordland:
A Knut Hamsun Resource Page
-LINKS:
Knut Hamsun Link Page
-ESSAY:
Of Knut and Edvard (The Economist, JANUARY 17TH 1998)
-ESSAY:
A half Hamsun! (Inger Bentzrud, Culture editor at the newspaper
Dagbladet)
-ESSAY:
Knut Hamsun and Nazism (ATLE KITTANG)
-ESSAY:
Knut Hamsun - Debated Once Again (Erland Hansen, Rigo)
-ESSAY:
Nobelist- Nazi-enigma (J. Peder Zane, News and Observer)
-ESSAY:
The Magus of the North (Isaiah Berlin, NY Review of Books)
-REVIEW
: of Dreamers by Knut Hamsun (translated by Tom Geddes) (J. Peder Zane,
Hot Wired)
-REVIEW:
D.J. Enright: Blood and Blossoms, NY Review of Books
The Cultural Life
of Modern America by Knut Hamsun
Mysteries by Knut Hamsun
and translated by Gerry Bothmer
Pan by Knut Hamsun and translated
by James W. McFarlane
Victoria by Knut Hamsun
and translated by Oliver Stallybrass
Hunger by Knut Hamsun and
translated by Robert Bly
-REVIEW:
of Knut Hamsun: Selected Letters, Vol. II 1898-1952 and Hunger by Knut
Hamsun Addicted to Unpredictability (James Wood, London Review
of Books)
-REVIEW:
of ENIGMA. The Life of Knut Hamsun By Robert Ferguson (John Gross,
NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of ENIGMA The Life of Knut Hamsun By Robert Ferguson (Tom Clark, NY
Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of Hunger & Knut Hamsun: Selected Letters, Vol. II 1898-1952 by
Knut Hamsun, translated by Sverre Lyngstad Addicted to Unpredictability
(James Wood, London Review of Books)
GENERAL:
-ESSAY:
Isaiah Berlin: Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism (NY Review
of Books)
-ESSAY:
Slavenka Drakulic: Nazis Among Us (NY Review of Books)
-ESSAY:
The Politics and Aesthetics of Art (Berdichevsky, Norman, Contemporary
Review, March 1999)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
who are you to tell that hamsuns work doesn't have anything to say or lacks a message?! i just read it and i tend to disagree...
- mantragirl
- Oct-31-2004, 13:08
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