Open letter to the Secretary of the Swedish Royal Academy

Grass was a member of Himmler''s SS during the Holocaust, is today calling on the censure of Israel for confronting production of a terrorist nuclear weapon by an Iranian regime openly declaring its readiness to self-destruct in service of the return of its messianic Mehdi, the Twelfth Imam.  

If the West is blind to the parallels of its 1938 appeasement of Hitler and its ruinous consequence, then certainly the Academy sees clearly that the Grass poem, either hypocritical or blatantly antisemitic does not represent the criteria or standards which the Nobel represents. 

I encourage all who agree with Georges and myself that this effort is worthwhile to copy the letter and circulate it throughout your email list.

Thank you, 

David Turner

Open letter to the Secretary

of the Swedish Royal Academy 

Nobel Academy clearly rewards "la littérature engagée" - "the committed literature". Candidates, all outstanding by purely literary qualities are finally discriminated by the ideology, sincerity and convincedness of their commitment. Concerning Guenther Grass, it transpires glaringly from the criteria by which he had nearly won against Boell:

("a renewal of German literature", the "renewal" meaning "not an experiment with form" but "a rebirth out of annihilation", "a resurrection" of a ravaged culture "to the joy and benefit of us all"). 

And not less clearly from Secretary''s address qualifying Grass upon his award in 1999 as "one of the really important writers investigating and explaining the twentieth century to us". 

Would you - Mr. Secretary - reiterate this address? 

No, you would doubtless shudder with disgust at the idea of having the twentieth century explained by a Himmler''s serviceman. 

As you must shudder at the idea of the then Secretary having been conned into rewarding him in 1999 with the highest moral distinction - the Nobel Prize.