This is what happens when the likes of Arundhati Roy, and Jhumpa Lahiri, stop writing, or stop writing fiction in the case of the latter, and the likes of Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth come out with a piece only once in so many years.....guess then whose left? Bob Dylan it is!
Really a Nobel Prize for Literature? For literature did you say? ....To Bob Dylan?
Yes, he is a prolific, and a good song writer (and singer...yes, we know)....but still. This is literature we are talking about. Literature is contemplative, it's the expression of the subtle in a subtle yet universally woven tale. It is the telling of the tales of innumerable through the voices of the few. It is about taking us to unseen lands and unknown heights through the voyages of mere mortals and the imagined immortals. And yes, Dylan did write a few timeless songs, which without his thus meaning to, went on to become anthems for movements. However, a Nobel for literature? If I recall it right, it used to be given for a huge body of literary work that was more than a collection of just popular songs?
Dylan- for who he has been, a singer, song-writer, and an all time inspiring performer, did deserve one of the highest civilian honors that was bestowed on him by President Obama in 2011, and an honorable mention in the Pulitzer Prize in the past was acceptable too. Give him a lifetime achievement award for his line of work. Create a grand Grammy for him. But a Nobel in Literature? It is said that of all the nominees considered by the Nobel Committee in any one year, only the winner's name is revealed. The other names are kept secret for the next fifty years. I am assuming that quite a few of those whose names were there, would not be alive by that time. Good for them for never knowing they were rejected in favor of someone who deserved everything but the Nobel for Literature.
Really a Nobel Prize for Literature? For literature did you say? ....To Bob Dylan?
Yes, he is a prolific, and a good song writer (and singer...yes, we know)....but still. This is literature we are talking about. Literature is contemplative, it's the expression of the subtle in a subtle yet universally woven tale. It is the telling of the tales of innumerable through the voices of the few. It is about taking us to unseen lands and unknown heights through the voyages of mere mortals and the imagined immortals. And yes, Dylan did write a few timeless songs, which without his thus meaning to, went on to become anthems for movements. However, a Nobel for literature? If I recall it right, it used to be given for a huge body of literary work that was more than a collection of just popular songs?
Dylan- for who he has been, a singer, song-writer, and an all time inspiring performer, did deserve one of the highest civilian honors that was bestowed on him by President Obama in 2011, and an honorable mention in the Pulitzer Prize in the past was acceptable too. Give him a lifetime achievement award for his line of work. Create a grand Grammy for him. But a Nobel in Literature? It is said that of all the nominees considered by the Nobel Committee in any one year, only the winner's name is revealed. The other names are kept secret for the next fifty years. I am assuming that quite a few of those whose names were there, would not be alive by that time. Good for them for never knowing they were rejected in favor of someone who deserved everything but the Nobel for Literature.
2 comments:
Couldn't agree with you more. He is a lyricist, and definitely a good one . He is not even a poet , and he gets such an honour
I guess the only justification for this could be that his 'the answer my friend...' Went on to become the unofficial anthem for the Civil Rights Movement of 1960s in the U.S. But as noble is the outcome was for the song, I stil don't think it's enough for the Nobel.
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