(Min rapport från en utländsk lista. --AE)
It has been quiet around the Swedish Academy crisis during summer - vacation
season - but now it starts...
The daily Dagens Nyheter yesterday (June 18) revealed an heated mail exchange
between the Academy and the Nobel Foundation. The Nobel Foundation controls the
Nobel Prize money and is worried about the Academy's competence, reputation and
legitimacy - especially the last two. They thus demand that the Nobel Price
should for the time being be decided by a *seperate* Nobel committee in which
no Academy member who has been compromised in the recent scandals may take part
(say, Horace Engdahl...). Such a committee would have non-Academy members,
maybe being a majority.
But the Academy says no.
Instead they want to elect four new members this autumn (if they can, with
only 10 active members!) and continue as before.
This is a serious conflict, because the Nobel Foundation has the money and
the power to remove the Prize from the Academy. It has ben suggested it may be
taken over by the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and
Antiquities, as the lenghty English name is (Vitterhetsakademin in Swedish), a
body of ca 60 scholars incl many in the field of literature and language. This
would be possible since Alfred Nobel only stipulated the body to be "the
Academy in Stockholm", where Vitterhetsakademien also is situated.
At the same time, we had the "Summer" talk by the former permanent secretary
Sara Danius on Swedish Radio. The radio show "Sommar" (Summer) is a very
popular - millions of listeners - show where a celebrity talks for 1.5 hour and
plays his/her favourite music. She of course talked about the Academy crisis,
for instance quoting the support (incl from Horace Engdahl!) she got when she
suggested to let a law firm investigate the affair in November.
And then Horace turned against her. And there was a lot of internal
conspiracies that finally forced here to resign, as permanent secretary but
also as a working member of the Academy. She sounded very bitter in her radio
talk: "History won't be merciful towards Horace Engdahl" she said. Her program
is here, if you know Swedish: https://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/1077323
On top of this, the Jean Claude Arnault trial begins next month, the case
against the man married to Academy member Katarina Frostenson who is charged
with two cases of rape (other cases have been dismissed as being passed the
statutes of limitation). This will put the Academy scandals in even more focus.
The 2018 Nobel Prize in literature has been cancelled because of this mess, but
it's not certain that there will be a 2019 prize either.
Story to be continued...
--Ahrvid
--
ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx / Follow @SFJournalen on Twitter for the latest news in
short form! / Gå med i SKRIVA, för författande, sf, fantasy, kultur
(skriva-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, subj: subscribe) och deltag i
FANTASTIKNOVELLTÄVLINGEN 2018, info http://ahrvid.bravejournal.com / Om Ahrvids ;
novellsamling Mord på månen: http://zenzat.wordpress.com/bocker C Fuglesang: ;
"stor förnöjelse...jättebra historier i mycket sannolik framtidsmiljö"! / Nu
som ljudbok: http://elib.se/ebook_detail.asp?id_type=ISBN&id‘86081462 / Läs ;
även AE i Novellmästarnas antologier http://www.novellmastarna.se/Oskuld.htm ;
och hans sf-fanhistoriska uppslagsverk Fandboken / YXSKAFTBUD, GE VÅR WCZONMÖ
IQ-HJÄLP! (DN NoN 00.02.07)
-----
SKRIVA - sf, fantasy och skräck * Äldsta svenska skrivarlistan
grundad 1997 * Info http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com eller skriva- ;
request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx för listkommandon (ex subject: subscribe).