And the Nobel goes to.....

How ironic, a few months back I came across the name Orhan Pamuk, read up a little on the Turkish writer, mostly about the Armenian genocide controversy and decided to pick up snow, for this is what the economist review had to say about it " The novel is an account of the tensions between Turkey's urban secularist elite and their long-derided (and vastly underestimated) Islamic-minded opponents. It is also a tragic love story, a thriller and, more broadly, a dark journey into familiar Pamuk territory: faith, identity, betrayal and solitude”. Having never read any of his works, I did not know what to expect and to be honest, the book was good, but that’s about it, so many writers around the globe write good books, but for it to be an extraordinary piece of literature it has to be special, something which you read time and again. Last night watching the news, I heard that Pamuk has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, which came as a surprise. I do not know what the ground rules for the prize are, but when it says "for literature" I am inclined to think it does stand for some extraordinary literary achievement. Pamuk's work does not justify his being awarded the prize, again to reiterate I have read only one of his books, but going through his bio on his personal site, I did not see any of his books having caused a major impact anywhere. On the other hand Pamuk has been an activist promoting the Kurdish cause, free speech and has spoken up against Turkish ultra-nationalism which is great but then my question is why is he being awarded the prize in "literature"??
Politics lays the ground rules for everything in this world and the Nobel prize is no exception,,,, how ironic is it that the French Parliament passed a law today that denying the Armenian genocide is a crime!
To conclude i do not know if the Genocide happened or not, if it did, then i think what pamuk/european governments are doing is justified and i admire pamuk for being outspoken in championing the Kurdish cause and speaking his mind out, but i honestly do not think he deserved the prize in literature because there are far more deserving candidates whose works were probably not even given a look!

But then again what do I know!