Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel Prize in literature

[webfact]

Something is happening: Bob Dylan wins Nobel in literature

By HILLEL ITALIE and KARL RITTER

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Bob Dylan, Nobel laureate. In the book world's equivalent of a Supreme Court ruling, the Nobel judges declared Thursday that Dylan is not just a rock star but a poet of the very highest order.

 

Dylan, 75, becomes the first musician in the 115-year history of the Nobel to win the prize in literature. He was honored for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

 

It is the ultimate ascension for the man who set off a lasting debate over whether lyrics, especially rock lyrics, can be regarded as art. Dylan, who gave the world "Like a Rolling Stone," ''Blowin' in the Wind" and dozens of other standards, now finds himself on a list that includes Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison and T.S. Eliot, whom Dylan referred to in his epic song "Desolation Row."

 

"Congratulations to one of my favorite poets, Bob Dylan, on a well-deserved Nobel," tweeted President Barack Obama, who in 2012 presented the singer-songwriter with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

Dylan rarely gives interviews, and a representative said the star had no immediate comment. He is on tour and was scheduled to play in Las Vegas on Thursday night.

 

The startling announcement out of Stockholm was met with both euphoria and dismay.

 

Many fans already quote Dylan as if he were Shakespeare, there are entire college courses and scholarly volumes devoted to his songs, and judges work Dylan quotations into their legal opinions all the time, such as "The times they are a-changing" and "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

 

With this year's Nobel announcement, many people, especially Americans, weren't scratching their heads and asking "Who?!" the way they did after hearing the names of such winners as Patrick Modiano and J.M.G. Le Clézio.

 

Others, though, lamented a lost moment for books.

 

"An ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies," wrote "Trainspotting" novelist Irvine Welsh. "I totally get the Nobel committee," tweeted author Gary Shteyngart. "Reading books is hard." The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said some "real writers" probably aren't pleased.

 

But several leading authors praised the news.

 

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison said in a statement that she was pleased and that Dylan was "an impressive choice." Salman Rushdie, who has written songs with U2's Bono, tweeted that Dylan is "the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition. Great choice." Perennial Nobel candidate Joyce Carol Oates tweeted that "his haunting music & lyrics have always seemed, in the deepest sense, literary."

 

Dylan's award also was welcomed by a venerable literary organization, the Academy of American Poets.

 

"Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in literature acknowledges the importance of literature's oral tradition, and the fact that literature and poetry exists in culture in multiple modes," executive director Jennifer Benka said in a statement.

 

Critics can argue whether "Visions of Johanna" is as literary as "Waiting for Godot," but Dylan's stature among musicians is unchallenged. He is the most influential songwriter of his time, who brought a new depth, range and complexity to rock lyrics and freed Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and countless other artists to break out from the once-narrow boundaries of love and dance songs.

 

Dylan already was the only rock star to receive a Pulitzer Prize (an honorary one), and is, in fact, an author, too: He was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle prize for his memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One."

 

He is the first American to win the Nobel literature prize since Morrison in 1993, and his award probably hurts the chances of such older American writers as Philip Roth and Don DeLillo, since the Nobel judges try to spread the honors around.

 

"Rather doubt Philip Roth and Don DeLillo wish they'd written "Mr. Tambourine Man" vs. AMERICAN PASTORAL and UNDERWORLD," tweeted Roth biographer Blake Bailey, referring to acclaimed novels by Roth and DeLillo. "But sure, ok."

 

Dylan's life has been a hybrid of popular and literary influences. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, he worshipped Elvis Presley and James Dean as a boy, but also read voraciously and seemed to absorb virtually every style of American music.

 

His lyrics have referred to (and sometimes lifted from) the Bible, Civil War poetry and Herman Melville. He has contended that his classic "Blood on the Tracks" album was inspired by the stories of Anton Chekhov.

 

His songs can be snarling and accusatory ("Idiot Wind," ''Positively 4th Street"); apocalyptic ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"); dense and hallucinatory ("Desolation Row"); tender and wistful ("Visions of Johanna"); bracingly topical ("Hurricane" and "Only a Pawn in Their Game"); and enigmatic and absurdist ("Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again").

 

"Blowin' in the Wind" was an instant protest anthem for the 1960s, yet sounded as if it had been handed down through the oral tradition from another century, with such lines as "How many times must the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned?"

 

"Like a Rolling Stone," his takedown of a rich and pampered young woman forced to fend for herself, was pronounced the greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. The six-minute recording from 1965 is regarded as a landmark that shattered the notion a hit song had to be three minutes.

 

At a 1965 press conference, he was asked whether he considered himself primarily a singer or a poet. Dylan wisecracked: "I think of myself more as a song-and-dance man."

 

His career has been such a complicated pastiche of elusive, ever-changing styles that it took six actors — including Cate Blanchett — to portray him in the 2007 movie based on his life, "I'm Not There." He won an Oscar in 2001 for the song "Things Have Changed" and received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1991.

 

Dylan is the most unorthodox Nobel literature prize winner since 1997, when the award went to Italian playwright Dario Fo, whose works some say also need to be performed to be fully appreciated. By a sad coincidence, Fo died Thursday at 90.

 

The literature award was the last of this year's Nobel Prizes to be announced. The six awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

___

Ritter reported from Stockholm. Associated Press writer Keith Moore in Stockholm also contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-13

[Jingthing]

He's a bold choice and well deserved though I don't know about the competition. His lyrics really are poetry.

[Prbkk]

50 years since Blonde On Blonde released. He must be getting on a bit. Seems like yesterday. I think he deserves this honour.

[Ulysses G.]

I have never been a big Dylan fanbut plenty of others are. Congrats are in order!

[Johpa]

I think it is great. Not a big fan of Dylan as an individual, but have a tremendous respect for his writing. I have two close friends who are English teachers, one who is a published poet, and both have used Dylan songs to teach poetry for decades now.

 

On the other hand, one must acknowledge good writing and I did love this quote by a literary type who is not a fan of awarding the Nobel to Dylan, clearly sour grapes but funny none the less.  Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh wrote: “I’m a Dylan fan, but this is an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies.”

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, Prbkk said:

50 years since Blonde On Blonde released. He must be getting on a bit. Seems like yesterday. I think he deserves this honour.

Yeah consider it another lifetime achievement award. He's in his 70s.

[bendejo]

One of the best drug song drug-induced songs of all time: Visions of Johanna.

The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face...

 

 

[SpokaneAl]

This is a controversial choice that I completely agree with, although I know that many other do not. He has crafted amazing poetry for well over 50 years that helped define the soul and spirit of a generation. Well deserved, IMO as an old Dylan fanatic from the very early days.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[AYJAYDEE]

Bravo!!

[canuckamuck]

At least most people have heard of him.

[pumpuy]

Just got closer to knockin' on Heaven's door ...

[Grouse]

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead.

 

Beautiful.......

[BKKdreaming]

I like Dylan , I have since he picked up that electric guitar ,.........

 

but Nobel prize ???????   

 

I better go see him this weekend out in the Desert Concert near Palm Springs.......maybe go down Highway 61......

[alfalfa19]

He is and was a great wordsmith. 

[klauskunkel]

15 hours ago, webfact said:

"An ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies," wrote "Trainspotting" novelist Irvine Welsh.

Feeling a bit bitter, Irvine? Made you forget to alliterate for that extra oomph?

[atyclb]

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying
 

 

[Cats4ever]

Controversial. Like his songs, not his records. I found them to be party killers when put on later in the evening. An author was wondering if he was now eligible for a Grammy; fair question.

Nobel committee does make a few howlers - Kissinger, his N. Vietnam counterpart and Obama spring to mind.

[straylight]

None deserve it more. Should have been made poet laureate of America long ago.

[JHolmesJr]

Even literature has been subject to the whims of the buffoons known as millennials….no attention span for a good, richly layered book….a song will be just fine though.

 

Give the guy a Nobel Prize for music for heavens sakes…..leave literature out of it.

[Grouse]

Also enjoyed his contributions to the Travelling Wilburys....

[reptile91602]

Anyone arguing against Dylan is messed up. He deserves any awards out there. The morons at the US library of Congress should get their act together and put him in several of their categories. They are pathetic.

[KKr]

I think Nobel did an unconventional thing setting up the trust for the Nobel Prizes.
Very nice to see that the Jurors also can think out of the box.

Congratulations to Bob Dylan.

[laochef]

3 hours ago, Cats4ever said:

Controversial. Like his songs, not his records. I found them to be party killers when put on later in the evening. An author was wondering if he was now eligible for a Grammy; fair question.

Nobel committee does make a few howlers - Kissinger, his N. Vietnam counterpart and Obama spring to mind.

The Nobel Laurates above is not choosen by the Nobel Committee, but by the Government of Norway, a totally separate entity.

This is the "Nobel Peace Price",

[sandrabbit]

Some American music producer just said on the BBC news that he was influenced by the American poet Dylan Thomas and that's why he changed his name to Bob Dylan, ROFL what an idiot. (Dylan Thomas was a Welsh poet).

 

I can't remember who made the quote in the 70's but I think this sums up Bob.

 

Bob Dylan uses words like a mathematician uses numbers.

Edited October 14, 2016 by sandrabbit
clarification

[Jingthing]

No doubt a literary genius and he has changed and matured over time, but of course most famous for his association with the American "SIXTIES" cultural / social revolution. It was asked on A.J. t.v. how he would have been different if he had blossomed in a very different era. I think that's an impossible question.

[anotheruser]

There is no musician of our time that deserves this award more. I am at a loss to cite one of his works because the volume of the body of his works over his life time is so extensive. His works will be studied in the same manner as Baudelaire and Rimbaud for generations to come.

[raro]

To me he was always a poet who sings is works. I use the word singing loosely...

 

anyways, well deserved, I have always been a big fan of Dylan's music and writings and the pictures he painted with his words were just awesome. Always wanted to cover some Dylan songs, but never got around learning three pages of lyrics by heart. 

[Jingthing]

Uh oh. The Nobel committee can't reach Bob Dylan.

Will he accept the prize?

 

Quote

 

Is Bob Dylan Snubbing Nobel Prize — and Why?

 

American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has not been in contact with the Swedish Academy since it awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature last week.

Dylan also has not made a public statement about the honor, the New York Timesreported Tuesday.

 

 

 

http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/352186/is-bob-dylan-snubbing-nobel-prize-and-why/

 

[Prbkk]

27 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Uh oh. The Nobel committee can't reach Bob Dylan.

Will he accept the prize?

 

 

 

http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/352186/is-bob-dylan-snubbing-nobel-prize-and-why/

 

 

27 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Uh oh. The Nobel committee can't reach Bob Dylan.

Will he accept the prize?

 

 

 

http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/352186/is-bob-dylan-snubbing-nobel-prize-and-why/

 

 

If Dylan doesn't want it, maybe they can give it to Phil Spector. Almost as poetic:

 

I knew that she was mine so I gave her all the love that I had

Then one day she'll take me home to meet her mom and her dad.

 

The Crystals '63

[Grouse]

2 hours ago, Prbkk said:

 

 

If Dylan doesn't want it, maybe they can give it to Phil Spector. Almost as poetic:

 

I knew that she was mine so I gave her all the love that I had

Then one day she'll take me home to meet her mom and her dad.

 

The Crystals '63

 

Doesn't quite have the cache of

"The pump don't work, cause the vandals took the handles" though does it ?