[Chris O'Carroll]

Look who has won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/ar...iterature.html

[Andrew Szilvasy]

I'm genuinely shocked. I like Dylan as much as anyone else (well, I guess not actually since I wouldn't give him this award)...but come on...

This is a strange choice by the Academy. Given their penchant for politics, they might have gone with Adonis, who would have been an apt (and worthwhile) choice. And there are so many writers I think are more deserving of this award.

But so be it. I do like his music.

[Simon Hunt]

Andrew--I'm curious to know whether your "come on" stems from either of these two objections, which seem to me the obvious ones to have regarding Dylan's prize:

Popular song isn't "Literature."

or

Dylan's work isn't "great" enough.

As a great Dylan fan with more lines of his in my head than of any other poet, I don't share either, but I think they're interesting points to discuss. I'm actually thrilled for the guy. And relieved: seeing his picture and the words "breaking news" at the top of the cnn website this morning, I supposed something else might have occurred and was overwhelmingly sad for a second or so.

He's playing Vegas tonight, so he's probably there or at home in Malibu. Do you think he knows yet?

[Roger Slater]

He probably knows, but I wonder how much he cares. He's probably bemused.

[Simon Hunt]

Well, when he won his Oscar he brought it on stage with him for every show on the subsequent tour and played the set with it on the piano. That and the photos of him looking chuffed as he got his Kennedy Center Honors make me think he eats this shit up.

[Andrew Szilvasy]

Originally Posted by Simon Hunt

Andrew--I'm curious to know whether your "come on" stems from either of these two objections, which seem to me the obvious ones to have regarding Dylan's prize:

Popular song isn't "Literature."

or

Dylan's work isn't "great" enough.

I think I'd be on dangerous ground in suggesting "popular song isn't 'Literature.'" It's an uncomfortably elitist position to take, and some of the great ballads (some of which I teach) are songs. So were Sappho and classical "poets." So this really isn't why...though I'm not entirely sure it is literature, exactly. Certainly art. But I have to say I haven't thought much about this aspect until you asked.

I guess I'd argue that, given other available options, I don't think his work is "great" enough. But even that isn't probably isn't enough by itself. I mean, this is in some way a matter of opinion.

Typically, I think the award has does well in highlighting and elevating less well-known (to American, but in many cases elsewhere) authors who deserve more recognition. Recently, those who have won are typically not international best-sellers. Perhaps it's time to go in the other direction. But this leaves me cold. I'll play some favorites, though, and get over it.

[Roger Slater]

Yet when he played the White House, this is what Obama reported:

Here’s what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you’d expect he would be. He wouldn’t come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practicing before the set in the evening. He didn’t want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn’t show up to that. He came in and played “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage… comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves… That was our only interaction with him. And I thought: That’s how you want Bob Dylan, right? You don’t want him to be all cheesin’ and grinnin’ with you. You want him to be a little skeptical about the whole enterprise.

[Roger Slater]

Andrew, Dylan isn't exactly "popular song" if that phrase is meant to conjure up the likes of Beyonce or even Cole Porter. There's a distinctly literary sensibility that comes through his lyrics that distinguishes so much of his work from that of other songwriters. While I truly love the way he sings, I think that many people are put off his songs by the vocals. Here is a song done by someone else with a more conventional (though lovely) voice. It's not his greatest song, but it would be the greatest song of just about any other songwriter, and tell me if you don't agree that it is as "literary" and serious as most poems you know: Ring Them Bells

[Claudia Gary]

For whatever it's worth, here's a comment I made during a poetry and song panel that I chaired at the WCU poetry conference a few years ago: if Dylan hadn't set his words to music, I doubt many of us ever would have heard of him.

[Roger Slater]

Of course. But the same can be said about any songwriter.