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Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 3:35 pm Posts: 32266 Location: Buenos Aires
Simple Torture wrote:
Daniel Bryan wrote:
Dylan getting the Nobel Prize in literature is fantastic. I'm so excited for him, even though I'm slightly unsure if he'll even accept it? Seeing so much media coverage on Bob here in the UK has been a strange experience.
The reaction in literary communities has been fascinating to watch. There are two extremes: people are either absolutely in love with the idea for how it breaks the mould of the award and can lead to a conversation about the extremes of what "literature" means, or they're furious that he's taking a prize that's supposed to go to a "writer" (most of the people I've talked with personally fall in the first camp, although there have been some--including my wife--who are more in line with the second). I'm more in the middle and can see both sides: it's always nice when someone you're familiar with wins the award, but I know this is going to age out writers like Thomas Pynchon (who will almost certainly be dead before the committee seriously considers another American), so that's sort of upsetting. I'm almost sure he'll accept it--Sartre won and completely rejected it, and then Solzhenitsyn initially rejected it but later accepted it, so there's very little precedent, and it's considered a great honor.
The Academy still hasn't called me, but I'll keep you all informed.
I can see both sides too. On one hand, yeah, Dylan's lyrics are literature, and also greatly influential on literature. On the other, it's like... yeah, let's give this huge honor + exposure + cash prize to someone who is already a super-rich megastar... in a different field. I'm not sure I like it.
But wouldn't it be more detrimental to the integrity of the award to factor in a bunch of tertiary factors like the artist's personal wealth? At that point it's not an award based on work, it's a literary scholarship based on personal circumstance, and would be akin to MLB saying, "Well, this team won the most games, but this other team's city needs the revenue more, so we'll go ahead and let them go to the World Series instead." It's not the job of a merit-based award to care about those things.
At some point the public presence of the writer is going to be directly proportional to that artist's ability to affect influence. I'm happy to see it being given to a songwriter, and honestly Dylan is probably the only sensible choice for a first-timer in the category.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 3:35 pm Posts: 32266 Location: Buenos Aires
Kevin Davis wrote:
But wouldn't it be more detrimental to the integrity of the award to factor in a bunch of tertiary factors like the artist's personal wealth? At that point it's not an award based on work, it's a literary scholarship based on personal circumstance, and would be akin to MLB saying, "Well, this team won the most games, but this other team's city needs the revenue more, so we'll go ahead and let them go to the World Series instead." It's not the job of a merit-based award to care about those things.
theplatypus wrote:
I can see both sides too. On one hand, yeah, Dylan's lyrics are literature, and also greatly influential on literature. On the other, it's like... yeah, let's give this huge honor + exposure + cash prize to someone who is already a super-rich megastar... in a different field.
This is a big part of why it doesn't sit completely right with me. Anyway, I dunno, this isn't an egregious offense like giving the peace prize to Juan Manuel Santos, but I understand people taking issue with it.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 7:41 am Posts: 19721 Location: Cumberland, RI
iweartwoshoes wrote:
Radical departure giving it to an old white guy.
Uhhh over the past ten years the prize has gone to 6 men and 4 women--not exactly a blowout. And that's with just three Anglophones, two French writers, a Latin American, a Chinese writer, and then a sprinkling of other European languages. The current Swedish Academy is certainly open to diverse voices. Women have been receiving the prize since the first decade of the 1900s--it's not like it's always been restrictive and just opened up or anything like that. And I say that with the full knowledge that it's not a perfect process or that it's meant to (or that it does) select the "best writer" in the world; it's just that trying to attack it for diversity is lame, man.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 3:35 pm Posts: 32266 Location: Buenos Aires
I know this is old news by now but I came across this post by John Hodgman today and I was surprised how perfectly it mirrors my feelings on the Nobel thing (and Dylan in general): http://www.johnhodgman.com/post/1517643 ... -bob-dylan
likes rhythmic things that butt up against each other
Joined: Sun February 24, 2013 1:56 pm Posts: 850 Location: serious thinking laboratory
Been listening to When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky(backing band-E Street Band) from Bootleg Series Vol. 1. Would have been interesting to hear the E Street Band back him on all of Empire Burlesque.
likes rhythmic things that butt up against each other
Joined: Tue February 05, 2013 9:53 am Posts: 594
Well, this year has been the year of Dylan for me. I've accumulated his entire catalogue on vinyl over the course of the year and listened to most of them inside out. Not since hearing Pearl Jam for the first time in 2002 have I been so overwhelmed/challenged/enthralled by an artist's output. The volume of stuff this guy has put out there is staggering, it'll keep me busy for years and years.
I picked up Side Tracks on vinyl the other day, and I was floored. I know a lot of the songs are on other compilations but there's just something about the flow of this one that knocks my socks off. The last two sides with Abandoned Love, Series of Dreams, Things Have Changed etc is unbelievable. What a run of songs.
I took the plunge this morning and bought tickets to see him in Liverpool. I don't care what people say about his shows these days, I can't wait.
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