SF Signal: Doris Lessing Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

Doris Lessing Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

Doris Lessing has won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature.

Some quotes from around the InterTubes:

"By combining literary science fiction with a stringent, pioneering brand of feminism, Lessing gave a glimpse of the qualities for which she was to become famous." - The Guardian
"When I was starting out, science fiction was a little genre over there, which only a few people read. But now -- where are you going to put, for example, Salman Rushdie? Or any of the South American writers? Most people get by calling them magical realists." - Doris Lessing in this Newsday interview.

"Ms. Lessing's strongest legacy may be that she inspired a generation of feminists with her breakthrough novel, 'The Golden Notebook.'" - New York Times

"They can't give a Nobel to someone who's dead so I think they were probably thinking they had better give it to me now before I popped off." - The 87-year-old Lessing quoted by BBC News.

"Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable ... fourth-rate science fiction" - American literary critic Harold Bloom quoted by Associated Press, discussing the "pure political correctness" of Lessing's win.

Perhaps that Bloom guy is just jealous that the award comes with a cash prize of... [inset Dr. Evil voice]...1.6 million dollars?

As for me, I am complete: I have read a Pulitzer winning novel (The Road) and now the work of a Nobel-winning author (Lessing's The Fifth Child). Single file, ladies...