2016 Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan

[OtayBW]

Yeah! :hello: :banana:

[quauhnahuac]

isnt he dead? and isnt (wasnt?) he a musician not a writer? this smacks of the nobel prize committee doing something to get publicity rather than genuine

[FlashUNC]

Well its certainly not for anything he's done since 1970 or so.

[goonster]

this smacks of the nobel prize committee doing something to get publicity rather than genuine

There are many good reasons to criticize the committee, but I doubt very much that they need, or seek, more:

a) publicity
b) money

[Anarchist]

Not the stupidest, most questionable choice they have ever made, but ranks up there in the top 5.

[fiamme red]

Who next? Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen?

Bob Dylan wrote some great songs (most of them a long time ago), but he didn't write great, or even good, poetry.

There are many worthy writers out there who toil in obscurity and barely eke out a living. Dylan is wealthy and famous and doesn't need it, even if he deserved it.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Well its certainly not for anything he's done since 1970 or so.

Pfft.


There are many worthy writers out there who toil in obscurity and barely eke out a living. Dylan is wealthy and famous and doesn't need it, even if he deserved it.

Is the prize really about the money or is it about the recognition? Maybe there are others more deserving. But, it's the prerogative of a private organization to bestow the award on whom they see fit, is it not?

[fuzzalow]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.

Not the stupidest, most questionable choice they have ever made, but ranks up there in the top 5.

Such negativity which IMO is reflective to your own personal preference rather than a founded critique on the decades of Mr. Dylan's output. Fine that we both have an opinion but I'd suggest your negative whine might carry a little more weight if you proposed a worthy Nobel recipient instead of Mr. Dylan that meets your standard of excellence.

Hey, don't get too wound up in this. Even if we disagree, there's always next year.

[fiamme red]

Should cue cards be considered literature? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0

[dzxc]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.



Such negativity which IMO is reflective to your own personal preference rather than a founded critique on the decades of Mr. Dylan's output. Fine that we both have an opinion but I'd suggest your negative whine might carry a little more weight if you proposed a worthy Nobel recipient instead of Mr. Dylan that meets your standard of excellence.

Hey, don't get too wound up in this. Even if we disagree, there's always next year.

I think the negativity reflects on the fact that Dylan was a musician, not a writer. And no, those two things are not the same thing. Here's a worthy nobel recipient, who certainly was on the (unreleased) nominee list: Haruki Murakami. Does that help an argument against dylan? Of course not, because the argument is against dylan, not for someone else.

[FlashUNC]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.



Such negativity which IMO is reflective to your own personal preference rather than a founded critique on the decades of Mr. Dylan's output. Fine that we both have an opinion but I'd suggest your negative whine might carry a little more weight if you proposed a worthy Nobel recipient instead of Mr. Dylan that meets your standard of excellence.

Hey, don't get too wound up in this. Even if we disagree, there's always next year.

I have a hard time seeing how Bob Dylan wins a Nobel, but someone like James Joyce was not recognized in his lifetime.

Solely from the modern American literary world, how does Dylan get recognized over, say, a Thomas Pynchon. To be fair, we don't see the nominee slate the Nobel Committee has to review, but this screams stunt award.

[goonster]

Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant.

That's not in dispute. Whether it is literature, is.

there's always next year.

Not necessarily. Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.

[fiamme red]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.Suppose Dylan's lyrics had not been set to music, but only been published as poetry in a book. If so, he would never have been considered for any literary prize.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Suppose Dylan's lyrics had not been set to music, but only been published as poetry in a book. If so, he would never have been considered for any literary prize.

But, they were. Do you know the criteria the Nobel organization uses? I don't.

[fuzzalow]

I think the negativity reflects on the fact that Dylan was a musician, not a writer. And no, those two things are not the same thing. Here's a worthy nobel recipient, who certainly was on the (unreleased) nominee list: Haruki Murakami. Does that help an argument against dylan? Of course not, because the argument is against dylan, not for someone else.

I have no idea what the negativity is reflective of. Let him voice his own opinion and how he feels the way he does.

Do that, and we are having a conversation. Otherwise, it just hearing somebody bitch, piss and moan. And who wants to hear more of that kinda pablum?

Neither of us are on the Nobel committee; it is what it is and I'm sure they had their reasons in awarding to Mr. Dylan. Past a certain point, there no debate in how art is received and the machinations of artistic endeavor. Such is art. But cultural and historic significance is a little less ambiguous and it is not unfair to give Mr. Dylan credit for his role in the mileau of the times. A time when, arguably, there was a greater significance and impact to art, writings and music in redefining culture.

Hey, I'm not a cultured guy but all I can try to be is not uncultured. So I'm not the best guy to make these kinda arguments but I'm not shy about saying what I think.

[guido]

It ain't me, babe.

[Shortsocks]

Im happy he won.

BUT OTHER WRITERS, who Haven't won:

Henry James
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
Robert Frost (Come ON, Frost doesn't have one)
John Updike

Phillip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Don Delillo, and Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut........

Im Just sayin'. :rolleyes:

[OtayBW]

Dylan has been studied in countless undergraduate and graduate English literature courses since the '60s. Like him or not, it's not just the Nobel Committee who thinks he has some merit....

[KJMUNC]

Just listed to a podcast about "How to Win the Nobel Prize" and one of the committee members interviewed openly stated that they don't care if people agree with them or not. They rely on feedback and insight from those within the particular field being assessed and select what they feel is the most worthy.

So we can argue all day long but they don't care.

[ptourkin]

Should cue cards be considered literature? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0

When Alan Ginsberg is holding them? Yes.

[ORMojo]

isnt he dead? and isnt (wasnt?) he a musician not a writer?

Quite alive.

And yes, he is a writer - he was honored as a songwriter, not a musician.

From another potential future Nobel laureate in literature, in some people's opinion:

“From Orpheus to Faiz, song & poetry have been closely linked,” said Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist also thought to have been a candidate for the prize.

“Dylan is the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition,” Mr. Rushdie added. “Great choice.”

Or, from another author of a different genre:

Stephen King said that he was “ecstatic,” calling the choice “a great and good thing in a season of sleaze and sadness.”

I could go on . . . but I'm amused to imagine that Dylan himself might find the fact that his selection is controversial to some to be fitting.

[PQJ]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.


100%. There was a great article in the New Yorker between 5 and 10 years ago laying out a case for his greatness as songwriter, musician, artist, etc. Wish I could find it but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

[fiamme red]

When Alan Ginsberg is holding them? Yes.Ginsberg is just standing and talking in the background. :)

I actually like this song and I like the performance. But the words, divested from the music, are more mystification than literature (like so many of his lyrics).

And by the way, this is one of my favorite Weird Al parodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQDzj6R3p4.

[fuzzalow]

Not necessarily. Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.

And every potential Nobel recipient might hesitatingly and uncomfortably ask to you: "Is there something you know that I don't?".

[christian]

If we consider the "American songbook" to be part of literature, I don't think it's such a far-fetched decision. Under that criteria, I think it would be reasonable to judge T.S. Eliot and Bob Dylan as the century's most influential American poets. Perhaps not the best, but broadly influential, and as the academy likes to paraphrase, "capturing the spirit of their age or culture while highlighting universal truths."

To me, it still seems a bridge too far - I'm simply not convinced that a literature prize needs to include popular song. It seems unnecessary, since, just sitting at my desk, I can think of a handful of equally deserving laureates in prose and poetry this year, and certainly a number of American poets who historically, were at least equally deserving.

To the boomers, I'd ask the following: would you applaud Nas, Rakim, or Jay-Z for the literature prize?

[christian]

100%. There was a great article in the New Yorker between 5 and 10 years ago laying out a case for his greatness as songwriter, musician, artist, etc. Wish I could find it but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

The New Yorker Culture Desk has helpfully provided links to their prior Dylan articles:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/bob-dylan-in-the-new-yorker

[ORMojo]

100%. There was a great article in the New Yorker between 5 and 10 years ago laying out a case for his greatness as songwriter, musician, artist, etc. Wish I could find it but it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

Perhaps you are thinking of this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/opinion/sunday/knock-knock-knockin-on-nobels-door.html

In any case, here is today's New Yorker article on the award, with embedded links to eight previous New Yorker articles on Dylan over the years: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/bob-dylan-in-the-new-yorker

[FlashUNC]

If we consider the "American songbook" to be part of literature, I don't think it's such a far-fetched decision. Under that criteria, I think it would be reasonable to judge T.S. Eliot and Bob Dylan as the century's most influential American poets. Perhaps not the best, but broadly influential, and as the academy likes to paraphrase, "capturing the spirit of their age or culture while highlighting universal truths."

To me, it still seems a bridge too far - I'm simply not convinced that a literature prize needs to include popular song. It seems unnecessary, since, just sitting at my desk, I can think of a handful of equally deserving laureates in prose and poetry this year, and certainly a number of American poets who historically, were at least equally deserving.

To the boomers, I'd ask the following: would you applaud Nas, Rakim, or Jay-Z for the literature prize?

Except the notion that the "American songbook" is literature is laughable. Literature by its nature is a written medium.

If this were the Nobel Prize for Arts and Culture, that's a totally different story.

Now if they want to drop the Hip Hop Nobel, let's get KRS-One up there.

[christian]

Except the notion that the "American songbook" is literature is laughable. Literature by its nature is a written medium. Couldn't agree with you more.

Now if they want to drop the Hip Hop Nobel, let's get KRS-One up there. Wait, apparently I could! :beer:

[christian]

Legit though, as long as Salman Rushdie makes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I don't really care.

[dustyrider]

This debate reminds me of the Art vs. Craft debate.

I can't seem to separate song and literature. In my reality, song is based on the written word. The music I actually like and love is always centered around the words!

"You're right from your side
and I'm right from mine
We're both just one too many mornings
and a thousand miles behind" Dylan

[Hermes_Alex]

Even the Nobel Prize committee cannot resist the dad rock.

[juanj]

My informed opinion: Bob Dylan is a good choice. I've read Murakami, Roth, Pynchon, Morrison, Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz (those last two in the original Spanish), and many others who have either won or been considered as possible winners. Dylan's work stands up there with all those others.

Many great artists/writers will never win this prize; the committee only award one per year, and thank goodness the pool of remarkably creative and influential writers is a lot longer! If neither Javier Marias nor Cormac McCarthy ever wins a Nobel, it will not change the fact that these are still writers who are worth reading, and whose ideas are worth considering.

Let's not forget that last year the prize went to a journalist, so it appears that the committee is attempting to expand its criteria. I am not familiar with the criteria the committee uses, but I imagine that the members are seeking to recognize writers with deep, diverse, and lasting cultural impact.

[Chris]

When Time magazine listed him as one of the most influential people of the 20th century, it wasn't because of his voice.

[cinema]

when will it be philip roth's year? dylan over him? pretty outrageous. reading and intake of literature is already declining and they choose to award a musician, pretty baffling. then again most of the greatest in this category of art go unrecognized. sebald, joyce, kafka, the list goes on

[PQJ]

The New Yorker Culture Desk has helpfully provided links to their prior Dylan articles:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/bob-dylan-in-the-new-yorker

Perhaps you are thinking of this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/opinion/sunday/knock-knock-knockin-on-nobels-door.html

In any case, here is today's New Yorker article on the award, with embedded links to eight previous New Yorker articles on Dylan over the years: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/bob-dylan-in-the-new-yorker

Thanks gents. I'll check out to the New Yorker archive later, when I have some time. It definitely wasn't the NYT piece.

[Hermes_Alex]

Well, if all we're going off of is lyrical quality, then it is a travesty that Bob Dylan should win before Morrissey does.

[Chris]

Tom Waits anyone?

"Charlie, I think about you, every time I pass a filling station on account of all the grease you used to wear in your hair..."

[dustyrider]

John Hiatt!

[wc1934]

Yeah! :hello: :banana:

PLUS 1 - very deserving - one definition of literature is: written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.

He has now opened the door for other songwriters - hopefully Leonard Cohen is next.

[NeauDL]

I am thrilled with this choice. Dylan's reached orders of magnitude more people than the usual winner.

[fiamme red]

I am thrilled with this choice. Dylan's reached orders of magnitude more people than the usual winner.If the size of the audience reached is what counts, then Dan Brown, Paula Hawkins, and Nicholas Sparks should be considered for the prize. :)

[Frankwurst]

What about Hunter S. Thompson? :beer:

[galgal]

That Dylan is one of the truly great songwriters/ lyricists of our time seems to me to be pretty clear. Listening to him with teenage daughter who recently discovered and liked his songs, discussing the lyrics with her, and taking her to a concert of his, were all highlights of this year. As for the Nobel Prize, these are the good folk who once awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize

[ORMojo]

If the size of the audience reached is what counts, then Dan Brown, Paula Hawkins, and Nicholas Sparks should be considered for the prize. :)

I don't think you'll like this any more than I do, but since you said "is what counts" (as opposed to "one of the things that counts), and since it has to be a living person, then what about Danielle Steel?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_authors

[rounder]

To me, the Nobel Prize is just like other contests that are based mainly on popularity.

That said, I have been a Bob Dylan fan since I saw him in concert with Joan Baez in 1964 (about the same time as the Beatles). He was his own person then, just like he is today. He wrote his own stuff and presented it his own way. People loved/hated him then just like they do today.

As far as the Nobel award goes, I think it is great that he won. I imagine that he was not expecting to win, or especially happy that he did.

You can say that he was not a great literature writer, but he wrote what he wrote and I think it was great...for years and years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSZvHqf9qM

[djg21]

I think the negativity reflects on the fact that Dylan was a musician, not a writer. And no, those two things are not the same thing. Here's a worthy nobel recipient, who certainly was on the (unreleased) nominee list: Haruki Murakami. Does that help an argument against dylan? Of course not, because the argument is against dylan, not for someone else.

He is a musician, writer, artist and poet. He wrote the poems published in Tarantula in 1965-66. https://www.amazon.com/Tarantula-Bob-Dylan/dp/0743230418. He also has written books. His lyrics are poems, and the fact that they are set to music doesn't change that at all. Many poets wrote prose that was to be read or performed with musical accompaniment. He has long been my favorite poet. This honor is long overdue.

[djg21]

Tom Waits anyone?

"Charlie, I think about you, every time I pass a filling station on account of all the grease you used to wear in your hair..."

One of my other heros!

[don compton]

No wonder the general public has such a low opinion of cyclists, but this conversation just illustrates what a pompous group of assholes a large majority of cyclist are. Riding double file in traffic or whatever. Dylan was a prolific, successful songwriter of his generation. Kick me off the list. BFD

[Louis]

this conversation just illustrates what a pompous group of assholes a large majority of cyclist are

Don, to confirm things, are you calling the large majority of folks on this forum "pompous assholes?"

Just wondering.

[Llewellyn]

No wonder the general public has such a low opinion of cyclists, but this conversation just illustrates what a pompous group of assholes a large majority of cyclist are. Riding double file in traffic or whatever. Dylan was a prolific, successful songwriter of his generation. Kick me off the list. BFD

Wow.....would you like to borrow my "Grumpy Old Man" T-shirt?

[christian]

I'm a pompous asshole for sure -- I think literature prizes should reward literature.

[oldpotatoe]

The Nobel Literature prize is awarded in recognition of an entire body of work. Mr. Dylan's body of work is noteworthy and significant. This Nobel is well deserved.



Such negativity which IMO is reflective to your own personal preference rather than a founded critique on the decades of Mr. Dylan's output. Fine that we both have an opinion but I'd suggest your negative whine might carry a little more weight if you proposed a worthy Nobel recipient instead of Mr. Dylan that meets your standard of excellence.

Hey, don't get too wound up in this. Even if we disagree, there's always next year.

I agree, great choice and along with 'bomb proof', another term I dislike, 'haters gotta hate'..Sit and listen to what he says, to music..I think it's a great choice, and undoubtedly, the committee knew it's choice would be complained about...but don't really care.

[2LeftCleats]

Some have a fixed view of what constitutes good prose/poetry, but lets face it folks: The rhymes, they are a-changing.

[Dired]

Yeah, go Bob!

Here is my contribution:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/wnyc-90-bob-dylans-first-radio-interview/

[summilux]

-- I think literature prizes should reward literature.

I agree completely.

A literature prize for a musician.
A peace prize for a peace that isn't.
Maybe Elizabeth Homes will win the chemistry one soon.

[OtayBW]

I'm a pompous asshole for sure -- I think literature prizes should reward literature.Then I would expect you would have a tough time defining 'art' in a way that has universal acceptance!

[fuzzalow]

Art, music, literature are pure manifestations of creative endeavor. Which, by definition, will invoke and provoke to blur, challenge and extend the boundaries of thought, ideas and perception.

Angst, criticism and derision brought about because the honoree of the award did/does not fit into some semantic construct of a category bounded by the word Literature.

All in a word. And yet there can be a vast difference between language and intent, between wording and implication. Depending on the context, the wording can take precedence over the meaning or the meaning can take precedence over the wording.

I am comfortable with the notion that the Nobel committee understands the conflict and contradiction between the simplistic application of a word category and the human quality of creativity which underlies the endeavor they wish to honor.

[LegendRider]

Slightly off-topic, but's here's sublime version of a Dylan classic.

https://youtu.be/UwRlcXflqrU

[eddief]

wear it.

Don, to confirm things, are you calling the large majority of folks on this forum "pompous assholes?"

Just wondering.

[fiamme red]

Here is my contribution:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/wnyc-90-bob-dylans-first-radio-interview/That was very interesting. Thanks for the link.

I did not know that Oscar Brand died two weeks ago. I listened to his folk music show on WNYC for many years. :(

This clip shows Dylan already trying to mystify and invent myths about himself when he was just starting out.

[mellowandre]

I have a hard time seeing how Bob Dylan wins a Nobel, but someone like James Joyce was not recognized in his lifetime.

Solely from the modern American literary world, how does Dylan get recognized over, say, a Thomas Pynchon. To be fair, we don't see the nominee slate the Nobel Committee has to review, but this screams stunt award.

^THIS. Joyce was an incredible modernist writer who is very under-appreciated.

[juanj]

Joyce was an incredible modernist writer who is very under-appreciated.

Whoa, I've never heard that one. James Joyce is a monumental figure in the Western literary canon--very few 20th century writers (if any) have had more conference papers, essays, and books dedicated to the study of Joyce. If you mean he is under-appreciated by the general public, then yes, it's true that a writer like Joyce is only read in the college classroom, but that's also true for many writers.

Joyce could not have won the Nobel before 1923. He published Ulysses in 1922, and at the time it was extremely controversial, it was banned in several countries, and it took years to gain recognition. Joyce published Finnegan's Wake, his most complex (and unreadable) novel, in 1939, less than two years before his death. Even if Ulysses had been immediately hailed as the masterwork that it is, it's not likely Joyce would have been awarded a Nobel. Two other Irishmen won the award during this period--William Butler Yeats in 1923 and George Bernard Shaw in 1925--so I don't think it's odd that Joyce never won.

[sasteelman]

Questionable for Nobel Prize but not many people have had so much influence on popular music.

[bocobiking]

[QUOTE=goonster;2059176]That's not in dispute. Whether it is literature, is.

Ah, but what is literature? I have never seen an adequate definition.

[Dead Man]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSZvHqf9qM

"Ten years to live and two years to write"

I have absolutely zero qualifications to judge who should get Nobels. But I love Dylan and it ain't for his voice... So I say cool.

[Mzilliox]

Well, if all we're going off of is lyrical quality, then it is a travesty that Bob Dylan should win before Morrissey does.
werd, so true

[ORMojo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/opinion/the-meaning-of-bob-dylans-silence.html

[ORMojo]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/world-exclusive-bob-dylan---ill-be-at-the-nobel-prize-ceremony-i/


World exclusive: Bob Dylan - I'll be at the Nobel Prize ceremony... if I can

Edna Gunderson*
The Telegraph | 2016-10-28 T21:00+0100

“Isn’t that something…?” Bob Dylan isn’t exactly making a big deal out of being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. But at least the 1960s trailblazer is finally acknowledging his becoming the first musician to be granted admission to the world’s most elite literary club.

When I ask him about his reaction to hearing the news a fortnight ago that he is to follow in the footsteps of George Bernard Shaw, TS Eliot, Winston Churchill, William Faulkner, Günter Grass, Ernest Hemingway and Harold Pinter, I have no idea what to expect. Dylan, now 75, is on tour in Oklahoma, and we had been due*to discuss his new exhibition of artworks, depicting iconic images of American landscapes and urban scenes, which opens to the public at the Halcyon Gallery on London's New Bond Street next week.

Since it was announced he had been chosen by the Swedish Academy to receive the Nobel, Dylan has made no public reference at all to it, save for a fleeting mention on his own website that was deleted within 24 hours. More than that, he has also reportedly refused to pick up the phone to speak to representatives of the Nobel committee. They apparently remain in the dark about whether he will be attending the ceremony on December 10, when he will receive a cheque for £750,000 from King Carl VI Gustaf.

Well, I can put them out of their misery. For when I ask about his Nobel, Dylan is all affability. Yes, he is planning to turn up to the awards ceremony in Stockholm. “Absolutely,” he says. “If it’s at all possible.”

And as he talks, he starts to sound pretty pleased about becoming a Nobel laureate. “It’s hard to believe,” he muses. His name has been mentioned as on the shortlist for a number of years, but the announcement was certainly not expected. When he was first told, it was, Dylan confides, “amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?”

In which case, I can’t help but ask, why the long public silence about what it means? Jean-Paul Sartre famously declined the award in 1964, but Dylan has these past weeks seemed intent on simply refusing to acknowledge its existence, so much so that one of the normally tight-lipped Nobel committee labelled him “impolite and arrogant”.

For his part, Dylan sounds genuinely bemused by the whole ruckus. It is as if he can’t quite fathom where all the headlines have come from, that others have somehow been over-reacting. Couldn’t he just have taken the calls from the Nobel Committee?

“Well, I’m right here,” he says playfully, as if it was simply a matter of them dialling his number, but he offers no further explanation.

It is over a quarter of a century since I first interviewed Bob Dylan. That was back in 1989, and he started off so reticent that he was monosyllabic. When I asked him a question about the 1960s, he snapped at me. What I did then was start over and ask all the same questions again. It worked. We ended up doing a two-and-a-half hour interview.

If there is one thing I have learned about him over the years, and the several interviews he has granted me, it is that he always does the unexpected. Bob Dylan has never made a secret of the fact that he doesn’t like the media. It is two years since he last spoke to a journalist. He does it his way.

So, for all the speculation over the last two weeks about the reasons behind his blanket silence on the Nobel award, I can only say that he is a radical personality – which is why he has remained of so much interest to us over six decades since he first emerged on the Manhattan music scene in 1962 – and cannot be tied down, even by the Nobel Prize committee.

In interviews over the years, the famously unpredictable Dylan has been by turns combative, amiable, taciturn, philosophical, charismatic, caustic and cryptic. He has seemed intent, most of all, on being fiercely private and frustratingly unknowable. Hence his apparent toying with the Nobel committee cannot be said to have come entirely out of the blue.

Perhaps it is just that he has grown casual about garlands that would send the rest of us into orbit, as he has received so many in the course of his long career in the spotlight, since songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. Among many others, he has received a Special Citation Pulitzer (2008), the National Medal of Arts (2009), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012), as well as France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1990) and the Légion d’Honneur (2013).

So does he agree with the Nobel committee, I ask, that his songs belong alongside great works of literature? Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, for example, has linked Dylan’s contribution to literature with the writers of ancient Greece.

“If you look back, far back, 2,500 years or so,” she has said, “you discover Homer and Sappho, and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, they were meant to be performed, often together with instruments, and it’s the same way with Bob Dylan. But we still read Homer and Sappho… and we enjoy it, and same thing with Bob Dylan. He can be read, and should be read.”

Dylan treats her words with a certain hesitation. “I suppose so, in some way. Some [of my own] songs – “Blind Willie”, “The Ballad of Hollis Brown”, “Joey”, “A Hard Rain”, “Hurricane”, and some others – definitely are Homeric in value.”

He has never, of course, been one to explain his lyrics. “I’ll let other people decide what they are,” he tells me. “The academics, they ought to know. I’m not really qualified. I don’t have any opinion.”

On the associated question of whether those same lyrics can be considered poetry, Dylan has long delighted in publicly changing his mind. He is perfectly capable in one interview of saying that they can, and then the next time he grants a journalist an audience saying that they can’t.

At heart, he just likes to remain beyond reach. He is as elusive over the question of religion as he is over his songs. Born Jewish, in the late 1970s he released two Christian-themed albums that appeared to suggest he was born-again, but followed them by holding his eldest son Jesse’s bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest of Jewish sites. (In total, Dylan has six children from two marriages.)

This refusal to explain extends to other aspects of his creative work. Dylan has been working as a visual artist, in tandem with his music, he explains, since the 1960s. “I’m not obsessed with painting,” he laughs. “It’s not all I do.”

But news of his Nobel Prize for Literature has coincided with the opening at London’s Halcyon Gallery of The Beaten Path, a new exhibition of his watercolours and acrylics – his fourth at the Mayfair venue since 2008.

Is there a parallel between song-writing and painting?

“There’s a certain intensity in writing a song,” he replies, “and you have to keep in mind why you are writing it and for who and what for,” he says. “Paintings, and to a greater extent movies, can be created for propaganda purposes, whereas songs can’t be.”

His artwork has been on walls in museums and in private collections around the world since 2007, but devotees first began noticing his painterly ways when he did album covers for The Band’s “Music from Big Pink” in 1967, and his own “Self-Portrait” in 1970. A book of drawings, 1994’s Drawn Blank, grew into a series of paintings that first went public nine years ago in Germany before traveling to London, Edinburgh, Tokyo and Turin.

He later assembled collections inspired by trips to Asia and Brazil, before Halcyon directors Paul Green and Udi Sheleg suggested he look instead in his own backyard for inspiration. (When he’s not on the road, Dylan lives in Malibu, California.) For his four exhibitions at the gallery, he has crisscrossed America, often combining his painting with touring his music.

“Well, it’s the land I know best, really, and Halcyon Gallery was probably aware of that, too,” he says. “At first, it was just a series of landscapes they suggested – landscapes without people – so I did that. To me, that meant mountains, lakes, rivers, fields and so forth. Sometime later they expanded the idea to include city façades, bridges, automobiles, streets and theatres. Anything outdoors. It’s not an idea I would have thought of myself, although I could relate to it.”

While straightforward, many of the images – a shadowy figure in a phone booth in “Midnight Caller”, or deserted tables in “Ice Cream Shack”– suggest stories and secrets. Others, such as “Staring at the Moon”, “Rooftop Parking Lot”, “Night Train” and “Del Rio”, convey isolation and solitude, even loneliness, but that may simply be a by-product of escaping the frenzy and hollowness of urban life."

When it comes to meaning, Dylan is, it becomes clear, no more keen to explain his paintings than he is his lyrics. “Different people read different things into what they see,” he says. “It’s all subjective.”

Having been touring practically non-stop since 1988, Dylan grabs opportunities on the road to sketch and paint. This way, he’s not tied to timetables, methods or locations.

“I just do it,” he says. “All kinds of places. Wherever I am, really. You can carry a sketchbook anywhere. Watercolours are easy to work with. You can set them up anywhere. The easels and paints are transferable. As far as acrylics and oils, I do them in a barn-like studio or a larger space. I can work in other painters’ studios, too."

“As a rule, I usually avoid overcrowded streets. You just have to find some vantage point that feels right. All of these things take time, and you are not going to get it down all at one time."

“Once I put the generic forms down, later I can use pixellated imagery, photographs, advertisements, optical devices and so forth, to reconfigure things to complete the picture. There’s a process to it. I usually work on more than one painting at a time. Each one is different, depending how simple or complex they are. They all take different lengths of time.”

A few years ago, Dylan began exhibiting huge iron installations, a number of which appear in the new Halcyon show. Bill Clinton was given one of his gates for his 65th birthday, and a 26-by-15-foot archway entitled Portal will become Dylan’s first public artwork when it goes on permanent display in Maryland later this year."

“I was putting iron together even as far back as in my hometown [Hibbing, Minnesota, an iron-mining town], but it was always only a hobby,” he says. “I can’t remember not doing it. It’s just not something I thought anybody else would be interested in. Most of my iron pieces up until the recent years were just for friends and family or myself.”

As a painter, writer, film-maker, actor and disc jockey, Dylan plainly sees no limitations to artistic expression. But he does recognise his own limitations.

“There’s a lot of things I’d like to do,” he says. “I’d like to drive a racecar on the Indianapolis track. I’d like to kick a field goal in an NFL football game. I’d like to be able to hit a hundred-mile-an-hour baseball. But you have to know your place. There might be some things that are beyond your talents.

“Everything worth doing takes time. You have to write a hundred bad songs before you write one good one. And you have to sacrifice a lot of things that you might not be prepared for. Like it or not, you are in this alone and have to follow your own star.”

[ORMojo]

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I’ve been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don’t know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It’s probably buried so deep that they don’t even know it’s there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn’t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn’t have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken, not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I’m sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: “Who’re the right actors for these roles?” “How should this be staged?” “Do I really want to set this in Denmark?” His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. “Is the financing in place?” “Are there enough good seats for my patrons?” “Where am I going to get a human skull?” I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare’s mind was the question “Is this literature?”

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffeehouses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I’ve been doing what I set out to do for a long time now. I’ve made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it’s my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seem to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures, and I’m grateful for that.

But there’s one thing I must say. As a performer I’ve played for 50,000 people and I’ve played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. “Who are the best musicians for these songs?” “Am I recording in the right studio?” “Is this song in the right key?” Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, “Are my songs literature?” So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all, Bob Dylan.

[cadence90]

Well, that certainly underscores one of Dylan's famous comments: "I'm not reclusive...exclusive, maybe...."

[DrSpoke]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVXQaOhpfJU

[cadence90]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVXQaOhpfJU

She's so great...really wonderful.

I think this is one of the best Dylan covers ever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr9ttOkqq04), and not an easy song to sing.
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[LegendRider]

Dylan's Nobel speech:

https://youtu.be/3Zf04vnVPfM