A worthy successor to Winston Churchill

[shewhomust]

Snarky remarks aside, the news that the Nobel Prize for Literature has gone to Bob Dylan cheers me up no end. I certainly don't have a problem with rewarding him for his words, rather than his music: yes, his songs are deeply embedded in my mind as songs, but it's the words which are magnificently Dylan's own; his best tunes are borrowed. The Academy is quoted as saying it was not a difficult choice - though in that case, I wonder what took them so long: all his best writing was done decades (I prefer not to contemplate how many decades) ago. Perhaps they were nervous about his reception of the award, recalling his not exactly gracious acceptance of his honorary degree from Princeton.

Bonus facts: I didn't realise, until I came to write this, that the locusts were real. Nor that he was only marginally mellower accepting an honorary degree from St Andrews. I shall look foward to the Nobel award ceremony.

But whether he wants it or not, he deserves it.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

As long as someone else sings the results!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Many people would agree with you there. I'm not one of them...

[sovay]

I didn't realise, until I came to write this, that the locusts were real.

I was attending a conference in D.C. during that 17-year breakout. It was surreal.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The world is a strange and wonderful place, sometimes in ways we could live without.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It makes me happy too.

If Churchill could get the literature prize then why not Dylan? You wouldn't call either of them great writers but they've both done amazing things with words.

BTW I disagree about Dylan having done his best work decades ago. His 2012 album Tempest is a masterpiece.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The prize rewards writing which it approves in content as well as form, which can produce some unexpected results.

I suppose I should try to get to know the more recent stuff: my friends who perform as The Clean Cut Kids draw almost their entire repertoire from after what I think of as his great period.