Behind this tweet there's a consoling message for those who protested the @NobelPrize organization's decision to give its 2019 literature award to Peter Handke.
The tweet celebrates, justly, the winner of the 2018 prize, Olga Tokarczuk. She received her Nobel more than a month ago, at the same time as Handke. @nobelprize has frequently tweeted about Tokarczuk since then -- but has been silent about Handke.
The apparent reason? The last time @NobelPrize tweeted about Handke, on Dec. 7, there was an avalanche of outraged replies. Here's the last Handke tweet that appears to have shamed the Nobel organization into silence about its 2019 laureate:
Here are some of the replies:
"You Just Gave the Literature Prize to a Genocide Apologist."
"Handke is a genocide denier and Milosevic apologist. Shame on you for canonizing genocide denial."
"Lecture on genocides?"
"Nobel Prize is no more."
"You Just Gave the Literature Prize to a Genocide Apologist."
"Handke is a genocide denier and Milosevic apologist. Shame on you for canonizing genocide denial."
"Lecture on genocides?"
"Nobel Prize is no more."
Same story on the Nobel Prize's Facebook page -- multiple posts about Tokarczuk since the December award ceremony, none about Handke. The last ones on Handke were posted on Oct. 10, when his award was announced. The replies are eviscerating. facebook.com/nobelprize/pos…
Even if the Nobel Prize organization does not mention Peter Handke on social media, it hears about him. Many of the replies to this cheery Dec. 10 tweet are about Handke, and they are justifiably brutal.
Asked where they were watching the Nobel award ceremony from, here are some replies:
"Half an hour from graveyards of massacred civilians which your award-winner refused to acknowledge. Instead he justifies them in his writings."
"Hell baby."
"Shame on you!!!"
"Half an hour from graveyards of massacred civilians which your award-winner refused to acknowledge. Instead he justifies them in his writings."
"Hell baby."
"Shame on you!!!"
Peter Handke has become an albatross for the Nobel Prize organization. It has the prize it deserves.
