The Nobel Academy
　　
For the last 82 years, Sweden’s Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal.

But today the Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within. Critics contend that the selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for one of the country’s two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent "what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes." The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences.

This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academy’s inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek.

If for no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also dramatically increases sales of an author’s books.

全文翻譯：
　　
諾貝爾委員會
　　
過去的 82 年里，瑞典的諾貝爾委員會決定了誰將獲得諾貝爾文學獎，因此也就決定了 誰將從偉大或近乎偉大榮升為不朽。
　　
但在今天，該委員會卻遭到了評選委員會內外的猛烈批評。 批評者們爭論說："評選獲獎者時，起作用更大的不是真實的寫作能力，而是該委員 會以及瑞典特有的內部政治。 按照瑞典兩家主要報紙之一的文化版編輯 Ingmar Bjorksten 的說法，該文學獎仍然是"人們所說的一種非常瑞典式的做為：反映瑞典口味"。對于其評選 過程中目光短淺的指責，該委員會辯護說，該委員會與世界幾大文學之都相距遙遠，實際上 使該委員會免受外來的干擾。
　　
這也許是對的，但批評者們反駁說，也正因為相距如此遙遠， 該委員會才不能準確地把握文學界的真正趨勢。盡管對評選程序存在著關注，該文學獎將繼 續作為世人最為推崇的文學的標志而存在，并將繼續是作家們難以達到卻又會不斷追逐的目 標。如果不考慮其他因素，而僅僅考慮與之俱來的經濟利益，該獎也將繼續為人所渴求：
　　
這不僅因為該獎本身就是一筆可觀的現金收入，而且該獎還將極大地增加一個作家的著作的銷量。