Wed, Oct 06, 1999 page8

• Literature still has its place in the digital age

  • Dan Bloom
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  It could have been US novelists John Updike or Philip Roth, or it could have been Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (村上春樹). Many writers from many countries deserve the Nobel Prize for Literature, but this year it was Guenter Grass who got the nod.

  Good for him. The announcement each fall of the Nobel Prize for Literature has the whole world guessing and headline writers ready to pounce.

  Every newspaper makes its own decision in which part of the paper to place its report, based on space and time -- and interest.

  The International Herald Tribune put the Grass story on page 1, but the New York Times settled for a color photograph on the front, and the story inside. It's not the most important news on any day, and fewer and fewer people really care about literature nowadays anyway, sidetracked as they are by Hollywood, Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

  Writers are just a footnote now, dinosaurs of the Gutenberg era, old men (and women) scribbling furiously in the night on yellow legal pads or pecking away on lucite keyboards in an attic office. Who cares who wins the Nobel Prize for Literature?

  There aren't as many novels out there as there were before. Movies and TV and mass entertainment and the Internet have transformed the world. Many more people will see a Spielberg movie than ever read a Guenter Grass novel. The antics of the Rolling Stones garner more press coverage than the tattered pages of an old fogey smoking a stogey. Literature is out, corporate entertainment is in. Sports heroes get more ink than our great writers -- a dying breed; dinosaurs of the Age of Nobel.

  I first read Grass when I was a college student: The Tin Drum. The 1959 novel established his reputation in Germany, and when it was later translated into English and French and Spanish -- and appeared in paperback -- Grass became an international hero. Powerful, honest writing.

  I've followed Grass's career in the press and read several magazine interviews with him. A good man, a big heart, a huge capacity for compassion and justice. The conscience of the German people, a man for all seasons.

  I'm glad Grass got the Nobel this year because he deserves it. Other writers in other countries will be honored in the future.

  But Grass being honored by the Swedish Academy might just help get people thinking about books again. Literature. You know, that thing between covers?

  No earphones needed, no software, no formatting. Just plunk yourself down on a sofa somewhere and begin. No buttons to push, no remote control, no volume control. Just you and a book and time for yourself.

  Guenter Grass grew up with books and he has lived with books. Now the book world has honored him with a prestigious prize. He's no Michael Jordan or Mark McGwire, and he's certainly no Steven Spielberg (although, who knows, Spielberg might just end up directing a script from one of his books someday).

  Like a lot of writers these days, Guenter Grass is almost invisible. But remember, books are the foundation upon which our civilization rests. Yes, mere paper, mere words, but in the history of ideas, books reign supreme. This year, Grass is king. It's a good omen.

  Dan Bloom is a journalist living in Taipei.
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