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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Nobel intentions
The Nobel prize made no difference to who I am as a person. There was, of course, the pride in being so honoured; but a laureate remains a writer first and foremost. A Nobel never created a writer out of a void. All one has to fall back on is one's own capacities and talents, whatever these may be. The prize simply constitutes recognition of one's work and its value. Sometimes great writers are not recognised in this way. When I met the great American playwright Arthur Miller, he described the Nobel as an accident that could happen to a writer.
Of course, sometimes recipients are not exceptional: they shine for a moment, then sink back into the relative anonymity in which they had lived. Perhaps this is due in part to changes in literary taste, not to the writer's lack of talent. Fads change quickly, and what was popular yesterday is often denigrated today. Many great writers are not read in their lifetime, simply because another genre was popular during that particular period. When tastes change again, such writers may be rediscovered and read with amazement at their literary prowess. Such a "discovery", however, may come too late for the writer to enjoy.
In this perspective, literary prizes can come to pluck little-known writers from obscurity, and allow them to bask in the glow of recognition.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
