Is Dylan Literature?

[poliphilo]

Lets not be too precious about literature meaning marks on paper. Much of what we call literature started out oral. Homer and Sappho, as the Nobel committee pointed out, would have sung or intoned their work and Homer- the blind minstrel- was almost certainly illiterate. Even today a lot of literature is designed to be performed rather than read. We call the great playwrights literature, we call the Book of Common Prayer literature, we call the Gettysburg Address literature- so why not Dylan?

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I always thought Dylan was a bit of a poseur, and never cared for his work, even when performed by someone who could sing-- or read on the printed page. I put this right up there with giving Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize when he'd been in office for a matter of weeks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't always liked Dylan but I do now- very much. I think he's one of the essential artists of the modern era. He's a strange man, but the strangeness is who he is- I think- and not a pose. I agree about Obama- but then the Peace Prize has often gone to people whose achievements were less than secure.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

He's a poet, so yes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But more than just a poet. He's a key figure in contemporary culture- unclassifiable, tricksy, constantly changing...

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Agreed. There is no Nobel Prize for "shaping the culture" or "changing the world"--if there were, he'd be up there, along with Stephen Hawking and Steve Jobs (if he were alive).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, Nobel was idiosyncratic in his choice of categories. No prizes for music or the visual arts. And the Peace Prize really stretches the ingenuity of the judges and has had some weird and unworthy recipients.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Dylan deserves to be rewarded as such and this is a great achievement for him.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

No argument here. He's a poet, and renowned worldwide - a surprising choice, perhaps, but a very good one.

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

No complaint here. When I was late-teens (late 1970s) it was popular among my group of friends to listen to his early stuff, and much of it was lost on me. Four decades later, I might benefit from revisiting his work.

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

I have always considered Bob Dylan the Shakespeare of the modern world. He uses words in combinations that no one else ever thought of and paints amazing word pictures.

The only other whom I would consider to be gifted enough to compare to Shakespeare in the way he used language was Robin Williams. He was also an insanely talented wordsmith.