Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe's Mom Not Being Satisfied with Literature Prize is So Relatable

Ōe had promised his mother that we would win the Nobel in Physics.
- News18.com
- Last Updated: November 22, 2019, 10:23 IST
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Parents will be parents, and no matter what you do (even if you win the Nobel), it'll still not be enough. And that's exactly what happened to Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe, who won the Nobel for Literature in 1994.
According to the official website for the Nobel Prize, Ōe is a writer "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." A Japanese writer, Ōe, has largely been credited with the development of Japanese contemporary literature as a genre in itself.
In an anecdote narrated by Oe himself, he spoke of an incident involving his mother that made us go, "Same". As a child, Ōe had promised his mother that we would win the Nobel in Physics. Fifty years he did win the Nobel; when he told his mother that he had fulfilled his promise, she apparently said "You promised it would be in physics!'"
"As a child, I promised my mother I would win the Nobel Prize in Physics. 50 years later, I said to my mother, 'See, I have kept my promise. I won the Nobel Prize.' 'No,' said my mother, 'You promised it would be in physics!'"- Kenzaburo Oe, awarded the 1994 Literature Prize pic.twitter.com/aThggoO3vl
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) November 21, 2019
Ōe's story is so relatable that it instantly struck a cord with his followers.
That’s some #mom goals
— Naina (@NainaGowda) November 21, 2019
That would've been my mom too
— Vin/Lopez ⚡ (@VinSlashLopez) November 21, 2019
Sounds like my mother!
— WolveinSoCal (@jzanier468) November 21, 2019
♀️ That’s a mother response that sounds about right ... and I’m not Asian. Get a 97% on a test and top the class by far. “Well, what happened to the other 3%, you could have done better”
— Gloria K. Aggrey, MD (@GAggreyMD) November 21, 2019
Another Asian mom! Son got 1599 out of 1600 in SAT and proudly boasted to mom about it that he is the only one who has received that score. Well well, what happened to that one point, mom questioned.
— Narendra Singh (@2020dissection) November 21, 2019
Asian Parents.
— Vishal Pandey (@vishalpandey123) November 21, 2019
"As a child, I promised my mother I would win the Nobel Prize in Physics. 50 years later, I said to my mother, 'See, I have kept my promise. I won the Nobel Prize.' 'No,' said my mother, 'You promised it would be in physics!'"- Kenzaburo Oe, awarded the 1994 Literature Prize pic.twitter.com/inE824GChO
— VonVictor V. Rosenchild (@Rosenchild) November 21, 2019