The Spoken Arts: The Nobelists : What they say

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The Nobel Laureates are required “to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded" according to the Nobel Foundation statutes.

Listen to what they said: This ONLINE presentation of The Spoken Arts offers selections of various Nobelist addresses. Classics from Faulkner's "a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit," to Schweitzer's somber recognition 'that we are becoming inhuman to the extent that we become supermen' ; Revd Dr. Martin Luther King (1964, Peace) studiously linking the the economics of war to raced poverty, yet accepting the award he says. as a trustee, with "an audacious faith in the future of mankind." And then, Toni Morrison's (1994, Literature) riveting meditation on language: "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."

Malala Yousafzai, youngest Nobelist at 17 (2014, Peace) speaks on the forgotten children of the world. Elie Weisel, whose narratives of life in the Nazi camps -- Silence -- was deemed too 'political' and so, instead, received the 1986 Prize for Peace. Finally, the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace, collectively awarded to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzak Rabin, and reminds us, 30 years later that we need another scandal, still.

The Nobel Prizes have been awarded 609 times to 975 people and 25 organizations. In theory anybody could be put forward; Many individuals and organizations are nominated for sometimes spurious reasons, but do not win (Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, to name two) Mahatmas Gandhi was nominated five times, and never received an award. 60 women have been awarded a Nobel, including Marie Curie, the first woman, in 1903 (Physics) Five individuals and two organizations have received more than one. Marie Curie received a second award for Chemistry, in 1911.
Nobel Prize honors medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, economics. However, several controversies have been noted in the history of Nobel, particularly the Eurocentrism of the Peace award; also, controversy stirred with the Nobel Prize winners, like Yasser Arafat, Barack Obama, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Carter. A few Laureates have refused the award; Boris Pasternak for reasons of personal safety in Russia, Le Duc Tho, who received it for the Viet Nam peace accords, refused it since peace 'had not come to Viet Nam."

Bob Dylan, the surprised and surprising Nobelist, missed the December 2016 ceremony; In a speech read on his behalf, he said it was "truly beyond words" and he thought his odds of winning were as likely "standing on the moon". Dylan later performed a waterside concert in Sweden and received the award in a less formal presentation. The Nobel Citation honored Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Join us for an hour of honor, words and those who use them.
Thank you, Prof. Ed

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