MCLC: Mo Yan, the state, and Nobel (4,5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Matthew Robertson <mprobertson11 at gmail.com>
Subject: Mo Yan, the state, and Nobel (4)
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It seems that Mo Yan has thrown his lot in with the CCP, and Ms. Tatlow
lashed him for it. Is it cowardly of her to question the legitimacy of
literature that is produced with the effective imprimatur of a
totalitarian state? It would have indeed been useful if Ms. Tatlow had
also investigated views on the literary merits of Mo Yan's work, but her
point was the politics associated with the award. Perhaps she thinks that
any writer, no matter how brilliant, would be compromised by the
affiliations Mo Yan holds. Politics is difficult to separate from anything
in contemporary China - least of all a state-sanctioned author, and the
responses that his Nobel prize garnered.

MPR

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From: Alexa Olesen <AOlesen at ap.org>
Subject: Mo Yan, the state, and the Nobel (5)

I sent Didi Kirsten Tatlow the MCLC LIST comments on her article, and she
responded thusly (below), and then asked that I forward her response to
the list (she’s not on the list herself).

 
Best,
 
Alexa

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Oh dear. So I'm "repulsive, cowardly, sneering, straightlaced," a
"puzzled, frustrated" pundit who "regard(s) China still as an alien and
ultimately threatening other."


This is a mixture of character assassination and amateur Lit Crit. Ironic,
too, when you consider that I am actually living here (when the critics
are not,) was born here, in fact have lived in the three parts of China
(HK, Taiwan, mainland) for 33 years, and attended Frankfurt as a member of
the Hong Kong writer's delegation -- the "other" is not the problem. What
is the problem is angry and childish critics who don't understand what
they're reading and therefore feel compelled to destroy it.

Now I understand why several writers I've contacted for comment on a
column this week about Chinese writing have declined to speak on the
record. They say they're very afraid of getting involved in a mud-slinging
match. The politics of literature in China are getting nasty.
Unfortunately as a journalist one often doesn't have that luxury of
staying away.

--
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: it makes what is excellent in others
belong to us as well." Voltaire

“故水清無魚， 人察無徒。” 班固，汉代，32－92年. "The water that is too clear has
no fish, the 
ruler who is too severe has no followers." Ban Gu, Han dynasty, 32-92

Didi Kirsten Tatlow

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