breaking news

Thursday, October 13, 2016


"Bob Dylan has been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature."


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(New York Times Reader Comments)




Harleymom
Adirondacks
Really?  A pop star wins the Nobel?  There are SO many fine writers of literature out there working hard, changing lives, & not making millions. 


Establish a Nobel for music if that's what's wanted.  These comments will come as heresy to Dylan fans, but if wild musical popularity is what has come to qualify someone for a Nobel prize, then what about ABBA?  Madonna?  The Beatles?  The Rolling Stones?




Richard Grayson
Brooklyn, NY
American writers have had a long drought in winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, mostly because the award's selectors feel that most U.S. writers' focus don't speak to most of the world. 


In Bob Dylan, they have picked a writer who appeals to people all over the planet.  He honors our country with his work.




Bob
East Jesus, Utah
What a joke.





JimBob
Los Angeles
A brilliant choice.




Clyde Wynant
Pittsburgh
I have loved Dylan since a childhood friend stuck a record player in his window and we listened as we shot baskets outside. 


At some point we stopped and just listened.  I'm still listening today.  Just last week I pushed the "Blonde on Blonde" CD into the player in my car and sang along to "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." 


I don't know what "With your mercury mouth in the missionary times, And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes" means per se, but to me, it is poetry -- pure, simple and evocative.




Rich
Colorado Springs, CO
Finally, some news in this world to laugh and sing and dance to...




Southern boy
The Volunteer State
Doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows




JG
New England
What happy news in a bleak time.  His lyrics are more powerful, more prescient and more relevant than ever.  How many times can a man turn his head / and pretend that he just doesn't see -- indeed.




Gail Terry
Miami
His work is the best of the oral tradition in poetry.  This is a wonderful choice.




Raymond
Brooklyn
Phillip Roth is far more deserving.




tito perdue
occupied alabama
Right up there with Faulkner, and the others!  Next up?  Rap lyrics, and beer ads.
No conscientious writer should ever agree to accept this "award."








(Pillsbury Mine in the Mesabi Range, near Hibbing, Minnesota - Dylan's hometown)


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