Mo Yan's Nobel lecture

       Mo Yan's trip to Sweden to pick up his Nobel Prize did not begin well: his answers at a press conference on Thursday got him exactly the kind of coverage he (and the Chinese authorities) didn't want -- leading to headlines such as Censorship a must: Chinese Nobel Prize in Literature winner (okay, that one is kind of unfair ...); see, for example, the VOA report China's Nobel Literature Winner Defends State Censorship.
       On Friday he had the stage all to himself, as he got to deliver the Nobel lecture. Much of it was the usual autobiographical kind of stuff, but he did address some of the to-do about him winning the prize -- sort of:

The announcement of my Nobel Prize has led to controversy. At first I thought I was the target of the disputes, but over time I've come to realize that the real target was a person who had nothing to do with me.

       Sounds like a bad case of denial to me, but what do I know ?
       And I'm not so sure about these words:

For a writer, the best way to speak is by writing. You will find everything I need to say in my works. Speech is carried off by the wind; the written word can never be obliterated. I would like you to find the patience to read my books.

       Never mind that these words were spoken rather than written -- I think there are some censored writers who would beg to differ about the idea of the unobliterable written word .....
       (Of course, fundamentally I am in full agreement with Mo -- about the idea that it's his written work and words that count and forget everything else. But in that case he should have stayed at home and told them to mail the check and medal, and not indulged in speechifying and responding to reporters' questions; you can't have it both ways.)