On the other hand, absolutely minor (and sometimes terrible) writers have been awarded the prize. Since the 1990s, the winners of the Nobel Prize for literature have been chosen mostly for being "politically correct" (like Fo, Grass and Pamuk at the turn of the century). But many are simply mysterious decisions. It is difficult to understand what makes the jury prefer mediocre, provincial writers to so many greater writers. The Nobel Prize is awarded by a Swedish Academy. The writers of Sweden (a country of 30 million people) have won more prizes than the writers of all of Asia (a continent of one billion people). Is it the rest of the world that is illiterate and uncreative, or is it the Swedish academia that is provincial, nationalistic and anachronistic?

Of all literary prizes for literature the Nobel Prize has become by far the least meaningful.

Compare this list of Nobel laureates with my chronological list of Best Works of Literature.