The news that this year's Nobel Prize for Literature went to Canadian poet Anne Carson has probably brought a sigh of deep relief to a significant part of Bulgarian society. Because a possible triumph of Georgi Gospodinov in Stockholm would not have been greeted with a nationwide celebration in the square, but with a heavy, trench cultural war. A war in which arguments about literature have long been completely replaced by political bias.
If Gospodinov had won the Nobel Prize, he would inevitably have been ranked by his critics next to Maria Bakalova (nominated for an “Oscar“ for her role in “Borat 2“) and the pop wonder DARA, who brought Bulgaria the historic first victory at Eurovision with their dance anthem “Banagaranga“. And there is a cool logic in this comparison that perfectly reflects the spirit of our time.
The great collapse of global “casting“
The comparison with Hollywood and the modern music industry is not at all exaggerated, because the world's prestigious awards have suffered a severe devaluation. Today, Stockholm, Los Angeles and the Eurovision stages have long ceased to appreciate just pure, distilled talent. They are conducting a global “casting“, in which political correctness, convenient social messages, geopolitical balance and the quota principle are often the leading factors.
The history of the Nobel Prizes is full of scandalous backroom decisions. Stockholm has missed out on titans such as Leo Tolstoy, Vladimir Nabokov and Jorge Luis Borges. At the same time, the Literature Prize was awarded to Bob Dylan, which blurred the boundaries of the genre), and the Peace Prize went to Barack Obama in advance, even before he had proven anything in office. And what can we say about Trump's whining, who was left without a prize last time, after supposedly "stopping" a dozen wars. Then the Venezuelan Maria Machado received the prize based on, to put it mildly, unconvincingly formulated criteria. Besides the obvious one - that she was in opposition to Nicolas Maduro, who was kidnapped by Trump in his pajamas from his bedroom, together with his wife. And Machado decided to flatteringly present her award to the American president. When the criteria are saturated with conjuncture, the audience naturally loses faith.
That is why every major breakthrough of a Bulgarian name abroad is no longer read as “our triumph“, but as “correct positioning“. Bakalova's success was seen through the prism of Hollywood clichés about Eastern Europe, and Gospodinov's international nominations are often reduced by skeptics to “rewarding the correct Euro-Atlantic position“.
The Media Jungle in Our Country: Production of Hate on a Schedule
The hate against Gospodinov, which is institutionalized in certain intellectual and political circles in our country, would have escalated to the skies with the Nobel Prize. But here we must be honest: this hate is not just spontaneous popular anger, it is media-produced.
The Bulgarian media environment is deeply polarized. A large part of the media in our country has long since abandoned their role as objective chroniclers and have become machines for clickbait and artificial division. To survive in the digital age, they need constant scandals and enemies. The success of a fellow countryman is the perfect fuel for their business model. Mediocrity is a hard sell, but hatred and envy guarantee surefire traffic. Literary success in our country has become dichotomous precisely thanks to these media balloons:
For some, Gospodinov is a national savior and the “Bulgarian Marquez“. For the others - a grant-funded project that writes exactly what "in the West" want to hear about the sad, nostalgic and confused Balkan man.This media-supported polarization excludes any possibility of a normal conversation about the qualities of "Time Vault". The book is either worshipped or anathematized. That is why a Nobel would be the ultimate fuel for a new, monstrous explosion of native bile.
Is it even worth getting angry about?
The short answer is: no.
If global awards have devalued to the point of political castings, then neither the anger against Gospodinov nor his excessive glorification make sense. The literary value of an author is not measured by the backroom decisions of Swedish academics, who once gave the Nobel to Peter Handke despite serious accusations of political blunders, or who in the past have confused medical discoveries with fatal consequences (such as Antonio Egas Moniz's lobotomy).
A possible Nobel for Gospodinov would simply send him to the same box of “global show business“, where today Bakalova's Hollywood roles and Dara's commercial pop hits coexist - quickly consumed, highly discussed and immediately politicized. Instead of getting angry at the “unseen” triumph or the “conjunctive” its character, the Bulgarian reader has a much healthier alternative. Just get off social media and read a book - by Gospodinov or by the winner. Because in the end, only the pure text remains, and the noise of the castings always fades away.