The Legal Underground

WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE WHO HAVE STUDIED LAW . . . Don't ask me why I bothered to find out how many of the Nobel Prize winners in literature studied or practiced law. But I did. There were more than I thought. How many have you read?

1901 Sully Prudhomme. Took up law "without much conviction" and worked in a solicitor's office.

1902 Theodor Mommsen. Was a law professor  at the University of Leipzig.

1904 Frédéric Mistral. Obtained a law degree but didn't practice.

1911 Maurice Maeterlinck. Worked as a lawyer while "demonstrating brilliantly his ineptitude for the legal career, having the happy defects that render a man absolutely unfit for the pettifogging quarrels and public counsel's speeches in the law court."

1919 Carl Spitteler. Studied law at his father's request at the University of Zürich.

1922 Jacinto Benavente. Studied law until his father's death left him with a sizable inheritance.

1932  John Galsworthy. Studied law at New College, Oxford.

1960 Saint-John Perse. Studied law at Bordeaux and became a diplomat.

1963  Giorgos Seferis. Studied law at the University of Paris.

1967  Miguel Angel Asturias. Obtained law degree from the University of San Carlos in Guatemala.

1977 Vicente Aleixandre. Studied law at the University of Madrid.

1979 Odysseus Elytis. Attended law school at the University of Athens.

1982 Gabriel García Márquez. Studied law until beginning a career as a journalist.

1989 Camilo José Cela. Studied law in Madrid.

I compiled this list myself, so it might be incomplete. If you want to do further research, here's a full list of Nobel Prize winners in literature.

ON SHUFFLING WITH IPODS AND "RADIO LUCK" . . . At DennisKennedy.blog, Dennis Kennedy has been thinking about the iPod's "shuffle songs" feature. Kennedy says that although iPod playlists are nice, he's been using the iPod's shuffle feature as a way of "surrendering to the element of randomness" to see if he can "simply relax and give up the need for control."

I also like the iPod's shuffle feature, although I've always thought of it in terms of "radio luck." Radio luck was first described by one of Nicholson Baker's characters in his 1992 novel Vox--

[I]t seems to me that you really need the feeling of radio luck in listening to pop music . . . If you buy the record, or the tape, then you control when you can hear it, when what you want is for it to be like luck, and like fate, and to zoom up and down the dial, looking for the song you want, hoping some station will play it--and the joy when it finally rotates around is so intense.

When I first read those lines in 1992, they struck home. Fourteen years later, I don't listen to the radio anymore. The fun of radio luck, however, is still there: just use your iPod to shuffle songs, and see how often the songs you like most turn up. It's even a little luckier than radio: since you've chosen the music on your iPod, you're much more likely to get lucky.

For more about Vox, see the Wikipedia entry for Nicholson Baker. Though Vox is okay, U and I is the Baker book I like the best.

Related post: "Nicholson Baker Update: The Law of Fictional Bumpings-Off."

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Steve Martin, Anne Rice, John Irving, and More

He Was Afraid of Making a Fool of Himself In an interview, Steve Martin comments about his writing. [AlterNet] (link from Bookslut)

Didn't Norman Mailer Get There First? Anne Rice to channel Jesus Christ. [Galley Cat]

Old Hag Writes Good Joke It all started with a roomful of monkeys . . . [Old Hag]

Coming Out as Laura Demanski "Our Girl in Chicago" writes about her dual roles as a book critic and a (formerly) anonymous blogger. [About Last Night]

My His Father Abandoned Me Him An article about John Irving's new novel, and why it didn't work in the first person. [Reuters via CNN.com] (link from So Many Books)

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post: The Stick Meme

Yeah, a "meme." It's a word that's taken on a new meaning in the world of weblogs. And now Ambib has passed one onto me, which means I have to answer the following very personal questions or else face dire weblogging consequences. It's like what happens to you when you show up at the doctors' office with a fancy new virus. In fact, I think I'll just close my eyes and pretend it's not happening.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be? Picking a single book to be seems very hard to do. When you get right down to it, I'd rather be a library. The large university libraries at St. Louis University, where I went to school, and the University of Missouri, where I worked for about a year, both have a lot of special meaning to me. I guess I'd be one of those libraries, except someone else can be the restrooms.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? I think it happened with Sophie of William Styron's Sophie's Choice. I read my parents' copy in high school. That was before the movie version, in which Meryl Streep played Sophie. It was an odd casting decision that dashed all hope that we'd ever move past our infatuation to something more lasting.

The last book you bought is: Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching (Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest). I bought Google Hacks last Thursday and browsed through it over the weekend. There's nothing funny to say about it except that you should feel sorry for my family.

The last book you read: Powers of Attorney by Louis Auchincloss. I read it for an upcoming post on this site. Since the book is five months overdue from the library, I better get working on the post.

What are you currently reading? Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (Brian Boyd); Home Land (Sam Lipsyte); Lincoln (Gore Vidal); The Thurber Carnival (James Thurber); and Chronicles Vol. 1 (Bob Dylan). I could list some more, but I probably seem obnoxious enough already.

Five books you would take to a deserted island: The Stories of John Cheever (John Cheever) (I never get tired of this book); Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) (at one time, Gravity's Rainbow was the only book I cared about; it would be interesting to read it again to see if it still holds its strange attraction); The Civil War: A Narrative Vols. 1 - 3 (Shelby Foote) (it took me ten years to get through this massive work the first time, guaranteeing that I'd forgetten most of it by the time I finished, so I figure it's time to start again); Mencken Chrestomathy (I can never be separated from Mencken for long); King of Torts (John Grisham) (Grisham's good at what he does, but this book's not, and I'll need something to start a fire with. Not that I advocate burning books, but a guy's got to have a way to stay warm and cook a rat or two).

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why? Although I thank Ambib for infecting me with this blog virus, I can't bring myself to pass it on to any other unwilling victims. Therefore, I'm going to take a hint from Steve at Half-Cocked and ask for volunteers. Three brave men or women should step forward and make themselves known in the comments. I'll then put their names in an update along with a link to their weblogs.

UPDATE: That was easy. The three volunteers are Tony of Parenthetical Statement, Jim of Jim's Polka (who's already completed his assignment), and Jeff of Coyotelaw.

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Proust, Oprah, Edward Dorn, and More

How Proust Can Change Your Blog Terry Teachout digs in. [About Last Night]

An Issue Devoted to Edward Dorn A review of the most recent Chicago Review by Matthew Cooperman. [Verse]

I Like the Women's Book with the Feet on the Cover Clichés from the art department. [Galley Cat]

Can Oprah Save Literary Fiction? Some are skeptical. [House of Mirth] (link from The Elegant Variation)

Transforming Blogs Into Books Is anything lost in the translation? [Conversational Reading]

Want an Opinion About Literature? Don't ask an English professor. [The Reading Experience]

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post: A Brief Review

The Book: Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam by Paul Clayton.

The Brief Review: This short, fast-moving war novel works so well because of the genuine voice of the first-person narrator, Carl Melcher, an infantry soldier just out of high school who's genuine and likable but naive about what he's getting himself into. He and the reader are in identical positions: the reader experiences and learns as the narrator does. It's a difficult technique for an author. In choosing an uncomplicated first-person narrator, Clayton limits himself to describing only a tiny corner of a vast war. In the process, however, the things Clayton doesn't write about--the parts of the vast war that his narrator doesn't see, experience, or understand--begin to take on a surprising metaphorical significance. Clayton's novel engages the reader on multiple levels but never becomes tedious.

Special Bonus Section: Writers might like the story of how Clayton's novel came to be published by St. Martin's. Clayton explains here.

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Michael Chabon, The Anonymous Lawyer, Saul Bellow, and More

When the Gullible Are Taken in by Tall Tales Michael Chabon's Holocaust controversy. [MobyLives.com (April 18)]

More in a Similar Vein A writer fictitiously claims that The Anonymous Lawyer weblog "had everyone fooled" into thinking it was true. [Law.com]

More than Just a Vanity Press How print-on-demand affected a real live actual book. [The Mumpsimus]

Litbloggers Unite By joining forces, they hope to draw attention to the best of contemporary fiction. [the litblog co-op] (link from The Millions)

Five-Minute Yoga Headstands Against a Bookcase Memories of Saul Bellow. [Rake's Progress]

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Blog Birthdays, Sexy Films, the Future of Short Fiction, and More

But Why Don't I See T.C. Boyle? Really bad author photos. [Tod Goldberg] (link from Maud Newton)

Just Don't Ask Us to Buy You Presents A books blog turns two. [The Millions]

Does This Book Have a Publisher? The Sexiest Films of All Time . . . And What They Can Teach You. [The Lawyer Writer]

Site Stats Are the New Crack That and more in a wide-ranging interview with a virtual roomful of books bloggers. [Emerging Writers Forum] (link from Return of the Reluctant)

Not Dead Yet The future of short fiction. [The Mumpsimus] (link from The Reading Experience)

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Humbert Humbert, Sam Lipsyte, Female Writers, and More

More Interesting Than Contemporary Literary Fiction? A list of the "new-new journalists." [The Millions]

Humbert Humbert, Übermensch To safeguard his father's reputation, a lesser Nabakov takes on the author of Nabokov the Nietzschean. [The Moscow Times] (link from Moby Lives)

Sam Lipsyte, Literary Superstar The author of Home Land is nominated for Nerve.com's "Henry Miller Award" for this month's best sex scene. [Bookninja]

Female Writers Are Dull An opinion that's created a firestorm. [Maud Newton]

The Asti Spumante Code A spoof of The Da Vinci Code will be published on April 14. [The Independent Online] (link from Conversational Reading)

The Monday Morning Books Blogging Post

This Week: Literary First Fiction, Thoughts on Chick Lit, the Department of Homeland Security, and More

"This Generation's Vonnegut!" Bad book covers. [Rake's Progress]

What's the Worst Kind of Fiction to Publish? Answer: Literary first fiction. Someone in the know explains why. [Moby Lives]

Fundamentally, It's Relationship Porn Thoughts on chick lit. [The Lawyer Writer]

News That Cries Out for a Satiric Send-Up According to USA Today, the Department of Homeland Security has sent script doctors to Hollywood. [The Elegant Variation]

Too Many To Read in a Single Sitting Interviews with emerging writers. [Emerging Writer's Forum]