The Bob Dylan Literature Appreciation Thread

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/press.html

"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

I don't know what to think about this.. I mean he already received the Polar Music Prize, the Pulitzer Price, The National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Did he really need a friggin Nobel prize as well?

 

"No".

At least now we know why this year's announcement was delayed, and there was apparently some disagreement between judges. Maybe we should also give him some Michelin stars, while we're at it?

Edit:

Also, there should be a Nobel Music Prize, so they can give it to Albert Camus, for The Cure's "Killing An Arab"

 

I couldn't be happier about this.

His work is important and has had a huge impact on my life. The fact that it was packaged in the form of music served to increase his audience and to bring poetry to people who may have missed it otherwise.

It shouldn't be viewed as something that diminishes the quality of the work to something less than literature.

http://www.woodyguthrie.de/lastth.html

 

Echoing @Skyline. Lyrically, Bob Dylan is the Eddie Current in the sea of Little Dots.

 

A denial.

 

I do agree that the Peace Prize has become--or perhaps has been from the beginning--a joke. Not many Americans are aware of this but Teddy Roosevelt, one of the most respected US presidents in history and the very first American to become a Nobel laureate, won his prize for "bringing peace to Asia" by betraying Korea and letting the Imperial Japan take over and brutalize my country for over 30 years. Kim Dae-jung, former president of Korea and the very first Korean to become a Nobel laureate (and shamefully the only one so far), won his prize for "bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula" by saving North Korea from its brink of collapse after a great famine by providing them with money and food, only to have them get back on their feet, arm themselves with nukes and threaten to kill us all. As for Obama... exactly what did he do to deserve the prize? The list goes on and on.

But just because the Peace Prize is flawed doesn't necessarily mean the rest cannot be trusted either. As a physician and a man of science, I do respect Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine. I actually had the pleasure of meeting several of them in person at various lectures and conferences throughout my career.

As for Bob Dylan, I went to his concert a few ago, but at 70+ years of age he seemed to sing better than his albums that were recorded half a century ago. Dylan may not be the last word in singing, but his lyrics are second to none. I heard he was nominated for the Nobel Literature Prize several times, but I never took it seriously until now.

Who knows, maybe Bono will win his Peace Prize next in a few years.

 

Looking over the entire list of Nobel Prize winners in literature, there are only a handful i recognize, an ignorance I attribute to my education as well as the fact I don't read much literature. So where Dylan stands in relation to the other winners, I don't know. I will take the 6 or so recognized masterpieces of Dylan over Grapes of Wrath, Siddhartha or Nausea but The Plague is always on my nightstand

 

Lame for your and your tastes, perhaps. For others, Dylan had a far greater impact on them than the people you mentioned. Perhaps that makes them intellectual peons, but I would argue otherwise. There's room for both.

Let's not forget that Ginsberg called him the greatest poet of the 2nd half of the century. Then again, a lot of people hate Ginsberg, too.

It comes down to impact. Dylan's has been profound.

 

Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize in literature - ha ha, good one! I didn't realize it was April 1st already. Oh, wait...

 

The Mighty Doris Lessing won it at one point; when she found out, her reaction was:



The Nobel prize committee has always been a little.. random. As the ever-reliable Wikipedia notes:

"In 1974, Graham Greene, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow were considered but rejected in favor of a joint award for Swedish authors Eyvind Johnson andHarry Martinson, both members of the Swedish Academy at the time,[48] and unknown outside their home country.[49][50] Bellow received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976; neither Greene nor Nabokov was awarded it.[51]"

Oh, while we're at it.. slightly odd trufax about Samuel Beckett, who won it in 1969:

"Beckett bought some land in 1953 near a hamlet around forty miles northeast of Paris and built a cottage for himself with the help of some locals. One of the locals that helped him build the cottage was a Bulgarian-born farmer named Boris Rousimoff, who Beckett befriended. Rousimoff’s son was André the Giant and when Beckett found out that Rousimoff was having trouble getting his son to school due to his size, Beckett offered to drive André to school in his truck—a vehicle that could fit André. When André recounted the drives with Beckett, he revealed they rarely talked about anything other than cricket.[27]"

I don't really have much of a point to make with that, I just love the image of the famously gloomy and forbidding Beckett driving a young Andre to school.

 

I find myself liking contrary opinions and statements above.

Unsure of where I stand on this? Maybe.

I hope that artichoke wasn't loaded!

 

I just have to wonder; out of all the books and authors published every year was there not a single writer who could have used the recognition more than Dylan? Dylan is already a living demi-God at this stage, and he's recieved about a bazillion awards as a musician, so what's the point?

Seriously - if Dylan was to reject the prize and tell the committee to go and find themselves an actual writer who actually needed the attention my respect for him for increase about x1000.

 

And hundreds or thousands that need the money more.

My brain did a different auto-complete there. It seemed to work well with the next word too.

 

There's merit on both sides, plus I'm enjoying that we're having a pleasant argument about the Nobel prize for literature. It's a nice change of pace, isn't it?

That would be measurably badass. The young Dylan might have done that, at least. I'm not sure if the old version has it in him. It's a great thought though, and absolutely what he should do!

 

I don't have much of an opinion on Dylan, but remember even Shakespeare wrote some serious crap.

When does Jay-Z get his award?

 

I have an opinion on Dylan. I detested his voice, and was known to go out walking when people played his records. But I still listened to and loved his songs performed by others, probably especially The Byrds. Yes, I thought he was a superb song writer.

But if we are going to start throwing major prizes and awards around to the revolutionaries that were writing and singing in that revolutionary age,, where do we start and where do we stop? Picking just one seems futile.

So its not that I mind Dylan getting a nobel prize. And I certainly don't object to it being for literature. I think it is a good idea. Dylan wouldn't be my personal choice though. And like I said... how to pick just one?

On the other hand, if we do the film-award-speech thing here, we could see it as recognition of the movement of the times. Except... no. we couldn't: the movement of the times is dead;the hippy dreams of a better world screwed. OK.... so call it the Nobel Consolation prize!