Bob Dylan accused of borrowing some of Nobel lecture from study guide

[webfact]

Bob Dylan accused of borrowing some of Nobel lecture from study guide

 

FILE PHOTO: Singer Bob Dylan performs during a segment honoring Director Martin Scorsese, recipient of the Music+ Film Award, at the 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards in Los Angeles, USA, January 12, 2012. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bob Dylan has been accused of borrowing heavily for part of the Nobel Literature Prize lecture he finally delivered to the Swedish Academy last week.

 

The singer-songwriter's remarks on how the book "Moby Dick" influenced him bear a close similarity to the SparkNotes summaries of the Herman Melville classic novel, according to an analysis on Slate.com.

 

SparkNotes.com provides study guides for students in literature and other fields.

 

Author Andrea Pitzer, writing on Slate.com on Tuesday, listed some 20 sentences from the portion of Dylan's lecture on "Moby Dick" that closely resembled phrases or ideas on the SparkNotes website on the book.

 

They included lines from Dylan's online lecture such as "Ahab's got a wife and child back in Nantucket that he reminisces about now and then."

 

The entry from SparkNotes reads "musing on his wife and child back in Nantucket," Pitzer noted.

 

Dylan's representatives did not return calls for comment on Wednesday. Dylan, whose songs include "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin" and "Like a Rolling Stone," has admitted in the past that he draws from other influences.

 

In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he brushed aside criticism that he plagiarized the work of other artists by saying: "It's called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it."

 

The media-shy Dylan, 76, delivered his lecture to the Swedish Academy last week just within the six-month time limit set by the organisation in order for Nobel laureates to receive the 8 million crowns ($900,000) that goes with the prize. He chose not to attend the annual ceremony and banquet in Stockholm.

 

"If the Moby Dick portion of his Nobel lecture was indeed cribbed from SparkNotes, then what is the world to make of it? Perhaps the use of SparkNotes can be seen as a sendup of the prestige-prize economy," said Pitzer.

 

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-15

[e2x10]

earth shattering.

[Credo]

Well at least he didn't quote anything from "Songwriting for Dummies."

 

What are the people at Slate.com doing reading Sparksnotes....I wonder if that's how they managed to get through University.     

[nausea]

2 hours ago, Credo said:

What are the people at Slate.com doing reading Sparksnotes.... 

Someone did a google search on the phrasing, standard teacher's tactic in Thailand. Dylan may be a brilliant songwriter but he's a crappy student.

 

More interesting is Rolling Stone's Dylan quote re plagarisation in songs: "You make everything yours, we all do it". Nothing wrong with that. As Picasso said: "Bad artists copy, good artist steal". Nobody starts from ground zero, apart from maybe Pol Pot, and look how that turned out.

[Lupatria]

I used to play music with an American professor. He was a songwriter, guitar and saxophone player, wrote a couple of books, and recorded records. However, he was never famous for that. He became a hero in the scene around Greenwich Village after he kicked a guy down the stairs who stalked his girlfriend and followed her to her apartment. The name of the guy was:

Robert Zimmerman!

[Ace of Pop]

About as useless as Bob Geldoff . Muttering Cretins


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[canuckamuck]

6 hours ago, nausea said:

Someone did a google search on the phrasing, standard teacher's tactic in Thailand. Dylan may be a brilliant songwriter but he's a crappy student.

 

More interesting is Rolling Stone's Dylan quote re plagarisation in songs: "You make everything yours, we all do it". Nothing wrong with that. As Picasso said: "Bad artists copy, good artist steal". Nobody starts from ground zero, apart from maybe Pol Pot, and look how that turned out.

It's true. Nothing is truly original, we absorb what we see and it becomes our own. The best you can do is try your hardest to make it unique. We can't unhear or unsee what has already happened.

 

Anyhow, the whole thing of having to meet certain criteria just to receive the award really takes away from the award itself. Did he deserve it or not? Why they got to make him to tricks?

[Dumbastheycome]

There is  this  strange  contradiction.

What  is  education?

The  knowledge ( as we  know it )

Teachers  attempt  to  bestow  it.

Do we  receive  it as  verbatim?

So  then if it  creates some  inspiration

 That  asks  for  condemnation ?

If  I  were  to use  the  word  blue

Is  there  a person  who would  sue?

Why  not  take a look  at those who declare the  patent  on  our  genes.

That  is  true  obscene !

 

 

[Foozool]

He got some idea, what is wrong.

[boomerangutang]

One of his greatest songs:   Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts

 

[JHolmesJr]

He ain't gonna work on nobel's farm no more.

[anon4546543]

2 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

He ain't gonna work on nobel's farm no more.

That was very funny and pertinent. Only Dylan fans may understand it.

Everyone seems to need to dump on those that have "made" it.

Called the tall poppy syndrome.

If he quoted some  others speech word for word, as did Ms Trump, who cares.

It makes the compelled speech making the farce it is. 

[anon4546543]

9 hours ago, Lupatria said:

I used to play music with an American professor. He was a songwriter, guitar and saxophone player, wrote a couple of books, and recorded records. However, he was never famous for that. He became a hero in the scene around Greenwich Village after he kicked a guy down the stairs who stalked his girlfriend and followed her to her apartment. The name of the guy was:

Robert Zimmerman!

Wish I could believe that. Makes you how old?

Of course he never became famous for writing and singing songs, recording them and also writing books.

He only became famous because you can recollect that you played music with him, maybe you taught him everything he knows and ghost wrote his songs?

[lamyai3]

Cut him some slack. He only had a few days left to turn in his essay 555 

[Stargeezr]

Actually!  Who really cares  what Bob Dylan did for his  Nobel speech.    I certainly do not,  and think  this  is  just a news story for a slow news day when  nothing happened in the world.

Geezer

[Scott]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Actually!  Who really cares  what Bob Dylan did for his  Nobel speech.    I certainly do not,  and think  this  is  just a news story for a slow news day when  nothing happened in the world.

Geezer

Actually, a lot of people care about this topic.   Bob Dylan is the first musician to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.   It would be interesting to many to get some insight into the creative mind of Dylan.   Apparently, his speech didn't do that, or, then again, maybe it did.  

 

Because something isn't of interest to someone does not mean it isn't relevant to others.   I think if you take a look at the rest of the news section, you will find it is far from being a slow news day.  

 

[Stargeezr]

Well I jus think that if someone wins the Nobel prize and they copy some kind of stuff for their speech, good for them. guess it shows that even people who do write music, may not be great speech writers.  I an glad that Bob actually won this prize.

Geezer

[pegman]

Very likely the assistant to his assistant was assigned to write it.  

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

It's true. Nothing is truly original, we absorb what we see and it becomes our own. The best you can do is try your hardest to make it unique. We can't unhear or unsee what has already happened.

 

Anyhow, the whole thing of having to meet certain criteria just to receive the award really takes away from the award itself. Did he deserve it or not? Why they got to make him to tricks?

Like fashion, every possible musical sequence has been recorded already. It's all just repackaging it differently.

It astounds me how many people try to bring down Dylan, despite, or because of,  being probably the greatest and most influential living songwriter of our time.

 

[Jingthing]

If it's true, which is credible, it doesn't really change my high opinion of his musical performances. 

He never asked for the Nobel prize. He never claimed his thing was speechifying. Perhaps it would have been more ethical to just not claim the prize because he didn't really want to give a speech.  Oh well! 

[anon4546543]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

If it's true, which is credible, it doesn't really change my high opinion of his musical performances. 

He never asked for the Nobel prize. He never claimed his thing was speechifying. Perhaps it would have been more ethical to just not claim the prize because he didn't really want to give a speech.  Oh well! 

The nobel prize is a strange, highly political and controversial award.

For instance Ms Angela Merkel was awarded the peace prize. 

How much peace she brought to Europe and how many of her citizens she has indirectly killed or placed in danger will be debated forever because of her reckless actions.

Another strange thing is that any nobel award cannot be given to a deceased person.

You need to give a speech in order to claim the award.

Robert Zimmerman is almost incoherent now. It was cruel to force him, a man in his 70's and totally media shy to make a public speech.

I am glad he finally received an award of merit from a prestigious authority.

It is something the US politicians did not do as he appears to be universally loathed by the US establishment, the media and music industry.

But you and I are able to applaud him on this forum which is the best we can do. Well done Bob and thanks for your music.And thanks to this forum to allow it.

[swanny321]

    It did seem to take Bob forever to pick-up the dough; now we know why! 

[anon4546543]

17 hours ago, swanny321 said:

    It did seem to take Bob forever to pick-up the dough; now we know why! 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind

[lamyai3]

On 6/16/2017 at 7:07 AM, Scott said:

Actually, a lot of people care about this topic.   Bob Dylan is the first musician to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.   It would be interesting to many to get some insight into the creative mind of Dylan.   Apparently, his speech didn't do that, or, then again, maybe it did.  

 

Because something isn't of interest to someone does not mean it isn't relevant to others.   I think if you take a look at the rest of the news section, you will find it is far from being a slow news day.  

 

His niche had nothing to do with the field of essay writing and the lecture circuit, his great contribution came out of beat poetry and poignant protest songs. I'm sure the substance of what he wanted to say was truly reflected in his address and showed much of what his inspiration really was, but I expect he has no interest in, or facility for this kind of speechwriting. For me, I'm happy to judge him on his work, not his essay skills, and I actually kind of like the fact it was plagiarised, it smacks of rebellion and harks back to his delinquent roots.