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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!laidbak!tsmith
From: tsmith@laidbak.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Nobel Prize to William Golding
Message-ID: <176@laidbak.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Oct-83 01:08:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: laidbak.176
Posted: Sun Oct  9 01:08:12 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Oct-83 13:33:09 EDT
Organization: LAI, Westmont, IL
Lines: 20


I have not read much by William Golding, certainly nothing
recently, so no expert opinion on his quality from this
source. I do have the impression, however, that he is one
of a small group of writers in English who are extremely 
good technically, but who on account of subject matter,
or perhaps popularity, or other factors (politics),
are not considered to be "literary". John Fowles and Gore
Vidal are others that come to mind.

In any event, the news story that I read about the Golding
selection was highly amusing, with members of the Swedish
academy calling each other "fools" and "crackpots". The
leader of the anti-Golding forces said that Golding was a
writer of "no consequence at all". Given the undistinguished
nature of many recent Nobel selections, that will certainly
cause a great increase in Mr. Golding's popularity. 

Tim Smith (...!laidbak!tsmith)