Thread: Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

1.
There was a time, not long ago, when I remember these institutions to be profoundly conservative and not fall prey to the easy charms of the modern day ephemera and trends. Those days are gone.

Bob Dylan, no doubt a great singer, is awarded the most prestigious(*) literary prize, when Philip Roth, Haruki Murakami, or Don DeLillo (who all don't write lyrics, but produce literature) are apparently less deserving. Not to mention the now deceased names like George Orwell, James Joyce, Virginia Wolf or Jorge Luis Borges who inexplicably never won it.

And then there's the question: If Bob Dylan can be nominated to a Nobel Prize in Literature, what to make of the body of work of Leonard Cohen which spans music, prose and poetry in literary form?

2.
There was a time, not long ago, when I remember words had meanings and meanings were meaningful. People would not fall prey to the easy charms of modern day relativism and dilution of meaning. Those days are gone.

We learned that literature apparently also means song lyrics and musical expression in the context of a literary prize. And the world died a bit more today. No room for a Nobel Music award, apparently. It is just easier to reformulate the language.

One of these days we are going to wake up to a Hillary Nobel Prize for Literature when her deleted emails are found, or a Trump winning the prestigious Nobel Prize for Chemistry on account of the sh.. that comes of his mouth.

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(*) Not for long. In all honesty more and more people look down at the institution already. And they are obviously doing a fine job at increasing those numbers.

Originally Posted by Mario F.

1.
There was a time, not long ago, when I remember these institutions to be profoundly conservative and not fall prey to the easy charms of the modern day ephemera and trends. Those days are gone.

Those days were gone already, years ago. Al Gore won a Nobel for making a slide show. Barrack Obama won one for the combination of being black and getting elected president of the USA. I put very little stock in the significance of Nobel prizes, these days.

Originally Posted by Mario F.

Bob Dylan, no doubt a great singer

Agree to disagree, I guess. I can't understand a word that comes out of his mouth. Occasionally, his lyrics are plenty meaningful, but as singers go, I think he's crap.

Originally Posted by Elkvis

Agree to disagree, I guess. I can't understand a word that comes out of his mouth.

The only thing I would know like to hear from his unintelligible speech would be:

"Are you nuts? Have you lost your mind!? Look, we know you don't like American writers. You like them as much as we like them croissants. I mean, no need of you to deny it, the last 30 years are telling. But with the likes of Philip Roth or Don DeLillo, you prefer to give it to me, a folk singer/songwriter!? C'mon man, that's like adding insult to injury! You can stick that Nobel down that black place we know about. I don't want it. And I have these other musical accolades to confirm it."

Originally Posted by Yarin

You sound surprised, Mario. The Nobel Prizes have been political from the start. The first recipients were chosen to build credibility.
Why not? It would be par for the course. A certain president received the Peace Prize before sending off more troops to kill more Arabs in their own countries.

True, true. But not surprised. Just increasingly angered. Goddammit, it never gets any better does it?