PARIS: Amid debate over purported bias against American writers, the Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a cosmopolitan French novelist, children's author and essayist regarded by some French readers as one of the country's greatest living writers. An academy official called him a "citizen of the world", reflecting a canon of work depicted by the academy as distilled from experience in Mexico, Central America and North Africa and suffused with a quest for lost culture and new spiritual realities. In its citation, the prize committee in Stockholm called him an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization." The prize, won last year by the British author Doris Lessing, was worth $1.43 million. "I am very moved, very touched. It's a great honor for me," Le Clézio told Swedish public radio.
PARIS: Amid debate over purported bias against American writers, the Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a cosmopolitan French novelist, children's author and essayist regarded by some French readers as one of the country's greatest living writers.
An academy official called him a "citizen of the world", reflecting a canon of work depicted by the academy as distilled from experience in Mexico, Central America and North Africa and suffused with a quest for lost culture and new spiritual realities.
In its citation, the prize committee in Stockholm called him an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization." The prize, won last year by the British author Doris Lessing, was worth $1.43 million.
"I am very moved, very touched. It's a great honor for me," Le Clézio told Swedish public radio.
The first paragraph of the New York Times, when they brought the good news from Stockholm to the Big Apple, said it all:PARIS: Amid debate over purported bias against American writers, the Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a French novelist, children's author and essayist regarded by some French readers as one of the country's 20 greatest living writers.Note the location in the first word - not the Swedish but the French capital. And that poisonously barbed qualification, "some French readers". The subtext: "we wuz robbed!"
The first paragraph of the New York Times, when they brought the good news from Stockholm to the Big Apple, said it all:
PARIS: Amid debate over purported bias against American writers, the Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a French novelist, children's author and essayist regarded by some French readers as one of the country's 20 greatest living writers.
Note the location in the first word - not the Swedish but the French capital. And that poisonously barbed qualification, "some French readers". The subtext: "we wuz robbed!"
The drug-taking habits, sexual appetites and even the face lifts of some of France's most senior politicians have been revealed in eye-watering detail after the secret notes of an intelligence chief were leaked. Described by Le Point, the magazine which published the papers, as a "voyage under the skirts of the Republic", the extracts of the handwritten diaries of Yves Bertrand delve deep into private lives of France's political elite. Mr Bertrand, 64, a former confidante of the former president Jacques Chirac, was sacked by President Nicolas Sarkozy when he dismantled the Renseignements Généraux (RG) police intelligence service. His 23 spiral-bound notebooks, which he compiled between 1998 and 2003, contain a mixture of facts and baseless rumour. Le Point said they were "stored vials to be distilled like poison at the right time". They suggest that the RG's notorious reputation as a tool for French presidents to keep tabs on and eliminate rivals - often using information gleaned from anonymous tip-offs - was fully deserved.
Described by Le Point, the magazine which published the papers, as a "voyage under the skirts of the Republic", the extracts of the handwritten diaries of Yves Bertrand delve deep into private lives of France's political elite.
Mr Bertrand, 64, a former confidante of the former president Jacques Chirac, was sacked by President Nicolas Sarkozy when he dismantled the Renseignements Généraux (RG) police intelligence service.
His 23 spiral-bound notebooks, which he compiled between 1998 and 2003, contain a mixture of facts and baseless rumour. Le Point said they were "stored vials to be distilled like poison at the right time".
They suggest that the RG's notorious reputation as a tool for French presidents to keep tabs on and eliminate rivals - often using information gleaned from anonymous tip-offs - was fully deserved.
President Sarkozy had an affair with the wife of one of his present Cabinet members about four years ago, when he was serving as Interior Minister, according to the former head of French police intelligence. The alleged episode was one of a multitude of damaging secrets reported yesterday from the private notebooks of Yves Bertrand, who was central director of the powerful Renseignements Généraux (RG) spy agency for 12 years until 2004. The police chief, whose shadowy service had long been a political tool for French rulers, also recorded in 2003: "Chirac has been for a facelift in Canada." The diaries, packed with potentially explosive accounts of drug-taking, illicit sex, blackmail and corruption among French leaders, were seized by judges recently as part of an investigation into dirty tricks. They were leaked to Le Point, a news magazine.
President Sarkozy had an affair with the wife of one of his present Cabinet members about four years ago, when he was serving as Interior Minister, according to the former head of French police intelligence.
The alleged episode was one of a multitude of damaging secrets reported yesterday from the private notebooks of Yves Bertrand, who was central director of the powerful Renseignements Généraux (RG) spy agency for 12 years until 2004.
The police chief, whose shadowy service had long been a political tool for French rulers, also recorded in 2003: "Chirac has been for a facelift in Canada."
The diaries, packed with potentially explosive accounts of drug-taking, illicit sex, blackmail and corruption among French leaders, were seized by judges recently as part of an investigation into dirty tricks. They were leaked to Le Point, a news magazine.
Ahhhhhhhhh! I feel Sooooo much better. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
