maybe Michael Crichton or the Harry Potter lady will win it next year...
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
51–60 of 362 posts
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#52Everything is Broken always felt like a theme song for my job in telecommunications at a service provider. Especially the parts about broken lines and broken switches. That's just how universal Dylan's literature really is:
Broken lines, broken strings
Broken threads, broken springs
Broken idols, broken heads
People sleeping in broken beds
Ain’t no use jiving
Ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken
Broken bottles, broken plates
Broken switches, broken gates
Broken dishes, broken parts
Streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken
Everything is broken
Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
...
YouTube version of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngVMh3vJsVU
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#53Bob Dylan now has Nobel Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Officier de la Legion d'honneur, Pulitzer, 12 Grammy's, Golden Globe, Academy Award, ...
He's the second person in history to have an Oscar and a Nobel Prize. The first being George Bernard Shaw.
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#54It boggles my mind how people still are paying attention to the nobel's price. Other examples of useless shit they done: * giving Obama the peace price after he failed to shut down Guantanamo * giving president of Colombia the peace price after he failed to make peace with FARC.
To be fair, they gave Obama the prize before he failed to shut down Guantanamo.
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#55Bob Dylan was never a rebel. He was a generic pop singer loved by basics for generations.
> a generic pop singer
So, er, have you ever actually heard him sing?
(I'm not a big fan myself, though I admire his craft. But generic? Really?)
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#56Despite being a massive admirer of Dylan's work, I'm not sure that I'm good with this > for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition There's no doubt he did this, but ... do songs count as literature? I'm not really sure they do, and much as I love the songs, the lyrics by themselves don't have anything like the impact (on me at least) of top-notch poetry
C'mon, look at 'Hard Rains Gonna Fall'? Writing something with such wisdom and poetic deft at 22 years old? This award is massively overdue - not undue.
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#57Fantastic! Anyone know if it's the first Literature Nobel given to a pure singer-songwriter? Here are three Dylan songs with big literary value: * "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts": an amazing example of musical story-telling * "The Ballad of a Thin Man": Some of the most post-modern lyrics ever put to music... * "Like a Rolling Stone": One of the most influential songs of all time
I read the lyrics to Dylan's Forever Young at my nephews baptism as a poem, and half the audience was crying. Excerpt:
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#58Despite being a massive admirer of Dylan's work, I'm not sure that I'm good with this > for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition There's no doubt he did this, but ... do songs count as literature? I'm not really sure they do, and much as I love the songs, the lyrics by themselves don't have anything like the impact (on me at least) of top-notch poetry
In general, I'd have to say no, but artists like Dylan operate on a totally separate level. This is well deserved.
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#59It boggles my mind how people still are paying attention to the nobel's price. Other examples of useless shit they done: * giving Obama the peace price after he failed to shut down Guantanamo * giving president of Colombia the peace price after he failed to make peace with FARC.
The Nobel peace prize has little to do with the 'real' Nobel prizes or Nobel committee. It's administered by an entirely different organization, in a different country and with different rules and criteria.
> It's administered by an entirely different organization, in a different country and with different rules and criteria.
This part is true, but that's because Nobel explicitly specified it this way. The peace prize is one of the original "real" ones. As opposed to the one for economics, which was made up later by others.
(And, well, that contributions to world peace are judged by "different rules and criteria" than physics... makes some sense.)
Re: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
#60Despite being a massive admirer of Dylan's work, I'm not sure that I'm good with this > for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition There's no doubt he did this, but ... do songs count as literature? I'm not really sure they do, and much as I love the songs, the lyrics by themselves don't have anything like the impact (on me at least) of top-notch poetry
There was a Spanish band which used to take poems by various authors such as García Lorca and make songs from them. Did this mean the poems suddenly became worse?
Now, I do agree that you can have a great song with lyrics that wouldn't be that great by themselves. But that doesn't mean genuinely good poems can't be written as lyrics.