Annie Ernaux Is a Perfect Nobel Laureate

The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in literature, is fond of overthinking things—perhaps unsurprising, given that it is made up predominantly of Nordic academics and other members of the ponderousoisie. This is, after all, an award that is famous for having been won by Sully Prudhomme, Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler, and Dario Fo—and never having been won by James Joyce, Marcel Proust, or Leo Tolstoy, among others. Recent selections have suggested not only a continued devotion to snubbing stars and rewarding obscurities but a highbrow form of trolling.