>The second is a fictional prize created to let Americans have prizes too.

Huh? Doesn't the U.S. have more Nobel laureates than any other country?

And between 30-35% of US Nobel laureates are immigrants.

> The first is an actual prize for scientist works

This article is about the Nobel prize for literature.

This is insulting. The Nobel Prize is “fictional” too. While the article is discussing literature, let’s unpack “fictional” prizes: Yassir Arafat wins a peace prize relating to a war in which he was a primary beligerant. Obama wins the prize before he actually did anything — he won the prize for what he might do rather than for anything he did.

Douglas Prasher getting snubbed for the 2008 Prize in Chemistry while the other three who won that year won because of Prasher’s discovery!

Somorjai getting snubbed in 2007 despite his research partner winning.

Eyring didn’t win because he was a Mormon.

Fritz Haber helped developed poison gas used in World War I, yet he won in 1918, despite the entire raison d’être of Nobel’s mandate.

If we want to talk about Literature, more Swedes have won than the entirety of Asia! Talk about creating a “fictional prize” so that a particular nationality can have prizes too.

The Oscars do have merit and they don’t purport to be international. It’s the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, recognizing excellence in American film; they don’t claim to be an international award, yet Nobel — they explicitly are international oriented. You’re going to say Tolstoy and Mark Twain are less accomplished than Selma Lagerlöf? Really? James Joyce never won a Nobel but Frans Sillanpää did?

Come now.

Let's not forget bob dylan won(and almost snubbed) the nobel prize in literature. Don't get me wrong the dude's a great song writer, but that's not literature.

I disagree. Song lyrics absolutely count as literature to me, as does the other poetry he was recognized for. He's not the first one to receive the Nobel for poetry either, and his themes and influence line up well with the stated goals of the prize itself.

Irrelevant sidetrack: The word "literature" is also applied to music without lyrics. Try googling for "keyboard literature" or "violin literature", for example. In English, at least. Don't know about Swedish!

Spot on.

I'm not saying that the prizes have equal merit. I'm saying that they're both similarly famous prizes that are judged as prestigious even though the award process isn't based on peer review.

The Oscars are absolutely based on peer review. You have to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and you have to be a member within the category of the award being voted upon, except for Best Picture for which all members can vote.

Sound Editing is voted on by Sound Editor members. There is more peer review in terms of number of peers at the Academy than your average Nature article.