Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize For Literature*

Fair enough.

 

somewhere on this thread was a link to an article called IIRC "I nominated Dylan, you're welcome."

In that the person (a professor) revealed they'd been nominating him for years.

 

And the dance continues...

Dylan erases line about Nobel prize »

 

But it still says "Dylan has edited dozens of songs for this volume" which is what I'm intrigued by!

Tim

 

If someone rejects the Nobel Prize, do they give it to another? Or is the person still the recipient whether they like it or not.

 

The person is still the recipient whether they like it or not. It's not given to anyone else instead. What happens is simply that the prize money goes back into the fund.

Only two people have declined a Nobel prize voluntarily: Jean-Paul Sartre and Le Duc Tho.

 

There is Dylan and then everybody else. His body of work as a writer over such a long time and his influence on music probably will never be duplicated. I agree with what I read somewhere that said in a few hundred years there will be Dylan scholars who study him much in the same way we study Shakespeare's today. To me this just goes to further illustrate the gap between Dylan and everyone else. I remember the days when people were routinely saying this or that person was going to be the next Dylan or eclipse Dylan. Springsteen for one example, hindsight clearly shows us there is nobody in his class, and because of the timing of when he appeared on the scene and the point of history we were in at that time, he more than likely will never be equaled. Obviously I'm a lifelong fan but not to the point where I'll be listening to all 36 CDs of his upcoming set, I wouldn't even say he is my favorite artist but certainly in my top 10, just someone who can honestly see the impact he had and consistent excellence through decades of change and turbulence

 

Dylan will be whisked away in the dark of night with a sack over his head, flown to Oslo and be forcibly honored.

 

Here's an interesting passage from the recent New Yorker piece on Leonard Cohen related to the place Dylan has in the songwriting canon:

One afternoon, years later, when the two had become friendly, Dylan called him [Cohen] in Los Angeles and said he wanted to show him a piece of property he’d bought. Dylan did the driving.

“One of his songs came on the radio,” Cohen recalled. “I think it was ‘Just Like a Woman’ or something like that. It came to the bridge of the song, and he said, ‘A lot of eighteen-wheelers crossed that bridge.’ Meaning it was a powerful bridge.”

Dylan went on driving. After a while, he told Cohen that a famous songwriter of the day had told him, “O.K., Bob, you’re Number 1, but I’m Number 2.”

Cohen smiled. “Then Dylan says to me, ‘As far as I’m concerned, Leonard, you’re Number 1. I’m Number Zero.’ Meaning, as I understood it at the time—and I was not ready to dispute it—that his work was beyond measure and my work was pretty good.”
​

So I guess there must be a penthouse in the tower of song....

L.

 

I think Dylan's take on the award is that it's just another attempt to hoist the "spokesman of a generation" label upon him. It was unexpected, unwanted, and he wants it to just go away.

 

This is kind of outside the scope of what we're really discussing. But I found this explanation of why Sartre refused the Nobel to be interesting reading:

Sartre on the Nobel Prize »

 

Apparently Sartre contacted the Academy years later and wanted the money anyway, but it was too late.

 

It should perhaps also be emphasized that choosing not to attend the ceremony is not the same as declining the prize. Many have accepted the award, but not showed up in Stockholm: Hemingway, Pinter, Lessing, and recently Alice Munro.

Here's someone who did show up for the ceremony, after spending several weeks on a transatlantic ocean liner:



At 6:44.

 

Well, I've heard that claim, but apparently there's only one source for it, and people seem to question it:

Sartre and the myth of the Nobel Prize money »

I agree that it would seem out of character for Sartre.

 

What happens if Bob Dylan keeps ignoring his Nobel Prize? »

But although Sartre may have refused the prize, the Nobel committee still listed him as the winner. "The fact that he has declined this distinction does not in the least modify the validity of the award,” they said at the time. In other words, while it is possible to refuse to accept the prize money (currently a cheque for $900,000), it isn't possible to refuse the title. According to the statutes of the Nobel foundation, Nobel prizes cannot ever be returned or rescinded.

Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, emphasised the fact that Dylan has won it whether he acknowledges it or not: "If he doesn't want to come [to the prize ceremony], he won't come,” she said. “It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him."

So, Bob Dylan can ignore the academy all he likes, but the award is still listed in his name. Whether or not he makes an appearance at the ceremony, and at which we will be invited to give a lecture, he will always be known as the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature.

Sounds like the Nobel club is a little bit like Hotel California!

 

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

 

I will accept Bob's prize money if he doesn't want it. It will help to pay for all those future $500 bootleg series releases.

 

Bootleg Series 362 - The Nobel Speeches

 

"He seems to be a very grumpy and reluctant man"
says Per Wästberg, a member of the Swedish Academy.
Member of the Swedish Academy on Dylan: ”Rude and arrogant” »

 

They only realized that now?

 

"Go way from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed"

Having said which, I have to agree ...

Tim

 

Accept it and then give the money to struggling college students. Then take the award and hang it over the neck of Oscar.Skip the brunch. Tell them its ridiculous and thanks for supporting college kids. Done.

 

This is a good and thought-provoking line of argument. I'm not sure how far I'm willing to follow it, however.

A Chekhov play on the page follows different printing conventions from a Chekhov short story but, in my experience, can work just as effectively in the mind of the reader. Yes, plays are written for performance, and often for specific performing companies. But Shakespeare exists independently of The Globe and The Seagull isn't diminished if staged by someone other than Stanislavski.

Dylan's work, on the other hand, seems to me to be more or less inseparable from its performance - by Dylan. Take away Dylan's delivery and what remains of a line like I waited for you in the frozen traffic, or The merry little elves can go hang themselves? To award him the Nobel isn't to honour his lyrics as a separate entity or even, I suggest, to recognise the artistic merit of his songs as they might be performed by Joan Baez or (perish the thought) Adele. It's surely intended as recognition of the cultural impact of specific bits of plastic called Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks, as conceived, played and sung by Bob Dylan and enclosed in cardboard sleeves adorned with pictures of the man himself.

To me this seems a perfectly natural way of honouring an artist in the age of mechanical reproduction. But it's really not the same thing as awarding the prize to Pinter or Fo.

 

Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012):

 

Bob accepted the French Legion of Honor award in 2013:



http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/dylan-joins-frances-legion-of-honor/?_r=0

France also honored Dylan in 1990, making him a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. Now that sounds IMPORTANT!! Maybe Bob considers the Nobel Prize to be a lesser award...