I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Soar Loser Edition.

This is also the daily podcast from Slate.com for Wednesday, October 8th, 2008.

On today's program, we're going to talk about the Nobel Prize for Literature,

not for Philip Roth this

year, apparently. Tina Faye, could she swing the election? And O.J. Simpson, could a boneheaded

move cost him a freedom that should never have been his to lose in the first place? Joining me

as late Deputy Editor, Julia Turner and our film critic, Dana Stevens. Hi, guys.

Hey, Steve. So I have to admit, I found, Dana Stevens. Hi, guys. Hey, Steve.

So I have to admit, I found this Nobel story quite juicy.

Julia, you probably edited or helped edit a piece by Adam Kirsch on this subject.

Just to give our listeners some background,

apparently the head of the Nobel Committee made rather disparaging

and extremely broad-brushed comments about American literature

and American writers suggesting that our chance to win the prize anytime soon, our chances

are rather dim. Let me just quote a little bit and then we can dig in here. He said, of course,

there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe is still the center of the literary world, not the United States.

And then he goes on to say, the United States is too isolated, too insular.

They don't translate enough and they don't participate in the big dialogue of literature.

And that ignorance is restraining.

Julia, is our ignorance restraining? Well, my ignorance is restraining. Julia, is our ignorance restraining?

Well, my ignorance is restraining, I'm sure.

Mine is commanding.

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