Bob Dylan wins Nobel Literature Prize

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Comments

  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,568
    Ultimately, I think the article just shows that the writer knows a little more about ancient Greece and its etymology than he does about the work of Mr Dylan. It looks to me that he therefore had to shoehorn his "knowledge" of ancient Greece in to an article on a subject of which he had little knowledge . . . Idiot Wind
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    laurentian wrote:
    Ultimately, I think the article just shows that the writer knows a little more about ancient Greece and its etymology than he does about the work of Mr Dylan. It looks to me that he therefore had to shoehorn his "knowledge" of ancient Greece in to an article on a subject of which he had little knowledge . . . Idiot Wind

    Definitely he's used basic writers tricks to construct an article. Set-up, confrontation, resolution. All of the basics are there, An attention-grabbing opening, extended metaphors using ancient Greece as the vehicle to try to prove his deluded thoughts...
    It's as pretentious as this cr@p i've just made up :D
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    Back when I pretty much got into Dylan, buying up his work in secondhand record stores on tape because I was a poor student, I got hold of a biography on Dylan. A weighty tome in pulp paperback format but it was almost academic in it's content. I tried to hard to read it, picked at bits and took some bits in.

    I gave up and decided I didn't need to know everything about him to enjoy his body of work. I put it away and listened to another tape instead.

    My advice is to stop reading and put on a bit of Dylan. BTW what track of Dylan's suits your mood right now? I'm thinking subterranean homesick blues. How about you?
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    Back when I pretty much got into Dylan, buying up his work in secondhand record stores on tape because I was a poor student, I got hold of a biography on Dylan. A weighty tome in pulp paperback format but it was almost academic in it's content. I tried to hard to read it, picked at bits and took some bits in.

    I gave up and decided I didn't need to know everything about him to enjoy his body of work. I put it away and listened to another tape instead.

    My advice is to stop reading and put on a bit of Dylan. BTW what track of Dylan's suits your mood right now? I'm thinking subterranean homesick blues. How about you?
    Positively 4th Street, there's one person who i need to say the lines...

    I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
    And just for that one moment I could be you
    Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
    You'd know what a drag it is to see you

    :)
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,568
    bianchimoon wrote:
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    Back when I pretty much got into Dylan, buying up his work in secondhand record stores on tape because I was a poor student, I got hold of a biography on Dylan. A weighty tome in pulp paperback format but it was almost academic in it's content. I tried to hard to read it, picked at bits and took some bits in.

    I gave up and decided I didn't need to know everything about him to enjoy his body of work. I put it away and listened to another tape instead.

    My advice is to stop reading and put on a bit of Dylan. BTW what track of Dylan's suits your mood right now? I'm thinking subterranean homesick blues. How about you?
    Positively 4th Street,

    :)

    Quite possibly my favourite Dylan track.
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • ballysmate
    ballysmate Posts: 15,996
    On a bit of a tangent
    Obama's Peace Prize, WTF?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34277960

    Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 failed to achieve what the committee hoped it would, its ex-secretary has said.
    Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr Obama.

    I thought prizes were awarded for achievements not to further political agendas.

    Silly me! :wink:
  • mrfpb
    mrfpb Posts: 4,569
    bompington wrote:
    It's clearly a dangerous thing to earn the wrath of the devotees of St Bob :?

    and don't ever give Bob a one star review on Amazon.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    I googled "Best Bob Dylan Lyrics" and best "Leonard Cohen Lyrics" and here are the first listed lyrics in the first Google hits of each (yes, very scientific, I know!!)

    Bob Dylan "Yes, I wish that for just one time/You could stand inside my shoes/You’d know what a drag it is to see you"
    Leonard Cohen "Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in.” *

    And, thus MiLud, the case for the prosectution rests...... :D

    *Personally, I slightly prefer "I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
    Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
    But I hear him coughing all night long
    A hundred floors above me
    In the Tower of Song" - but that's Google for you!
    Faster than a tent.......
  • mrfpb
    mrfpb Posts: 4,569
    Dylan:

    "They say I shot a man named Gray,
    and took his wife to Italy
    She inherited a million bucks,
    and when she died it came to me

    I can't help it if I'm lucky"

    Cohen:
    "I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
    I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
    And I'm neither left or right
    I'm just staying home tonight,
    getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
    But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
    that Time cannot decay,
    I'm junk, but I'm still holding up
    this little wild bouquet:
    Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    Cohen:
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    For trying to change the system from within
    I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
    First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
    I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
    I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
    I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
    First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

    Dylan:
    Come you masters of war
    You that build the big guns
    You that build the death planes
    You that build all the bombs
    You that hide behind walls
    You that hide behind desks
    I just want you to know
    I can see through your masks
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    So has Dylan even acknowledged his Nobel prize yet? Press comments by panel member said they'd not managed to contact him. He's blanking them it seems.

    Isn't that a little impolite to not even acknowledge it or turn it down? A little press release or tweet from his current label would do it surely?
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    So has Dylan even acknowledged his Nobel prize yet? Press comments by panel member said they'd not managed to contact him. He's blanking them it seems.

    Isn't that a little impolite to not even acknowledge it or turn it down? A little press release or tweet from his current label would do it surely?

    He did acknowledge it on his website for a few days, then took it down, perhaps he's embarrassed or doesn't feel worthy or decided a prize from a founder of explosives isn't to his taste, he wouldn't be the first to turn a nobel prize down, hey ho each to their own
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • Lookyhere
    Lookyhere Posts: 987
    jeez no wonder educational standards are through the floor, if Dylan, a guy who spent most of his time on drugs, gets this prize........
    Could have picked any number of 1960s anti war song writers/bands but it is not literature, would any of you be impressed if your son/daughter came home and said that as part of their English lit A level/degree the main topic of study was Bob Dylan?
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    Aaah! He has acknowledged it but hasn't been in touch with the Nobel prize panel/organization to accept. I think as a fan of his work and the guy too, I'd like to see closure. Either accept it or refuse to accept it. I agree either option has valid points that can and has been argued online no doubt for years. It's just silence without knowing what side of the argument Dylan is on is kind of making me wonder what is going on.

    No matter what your views of the source of the foundation's money is the award is a major internationally recognized award. I'm sure it's more widely known than perhaps Dylan is so IMHO simple manners would be to get a public reply out. Or reply to the body so they can go public. What's the procedure for non-acceptance? Does it get re-awarded?
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    Aaah! He has acknowledged it but hasn't been in touch with the Nobel prize panel/organization to accept. I think as a fan of his work and the guy too, I'd like to see closure. Either accept it or refuse to accept it. I agree either option has valid points that can and has been argued online no doubt for years. It's just silence without knowing what side of the argument Dylan is on is kind of making me wonder what is going on.

    No matter what your views of the source of the foundation's money is the award is a major internationally recognized award. I'm sure it's more widely known than perhaps Dylan is so IMHO simple manners would be to get a public reply out. Or reply to the body so they can go public. What's the procedure for non-acceptance? Does it get re-awarded?
    nope, it's awarded to Dylan, he can accept and turn up for presentation or not, but the award isn'r rescinded (that would be shallow on the part of the nobel committee, they're above all that)
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    Lookyhere wrote:
    jeez no wonder educational standards are through the floor, if Dylan, a guy who spent most of his time on drugs, gets this prize........
    Could have picked any number of 1960s anti war song writers/bands but it is not literature, would any of you be impressed if your son/daughter came home and said that as part of their English lit A level/degree the main topic of study was Bob Dylan?
    Actually, having read some lyrics written down I'd say as part of the A-level I would not be concerned either way. To critically analyze work is possibly the main skill being taught. They're not being taught to just read work but to be critical of it surely?

    I never went down that side of school education being science kid through and through so might be very wrong about English lit at school. I fulfilled my literary interests outside of school through reading what I felt was important not some academic setting the syllabus. As a result I have my own critical opinion on Dylan and others.
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    Seems it's impossible to refuse a Nobel prize, they're awarded and your name as a laureate gets added to the list. You can only refuse the prize money.

    Personally I don't see a re-awarding of refused Nobel prizes/laureate as shallow. I see it as recognition of someone's output. It might not be the first choice but I'd rather it went to someone who valued it and accepted it. Perhaps even checking before going public. It's their choice of course and I can see the merit of that route.
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    Seems it's impossible to refuse a Nobel prize, they're awarded and your name as a laureate gets added to the list. You can only refuse the prize money.

    Personally I don't see a re-awarding of refused Nobel prizes/laureate as shallow. I see it as recognition of someone's output. It might not be the first choice but I'd rather it went to someone who valued it and accepted it. Perhaps even checking before going public. It's their choice of course and I can see the merit of that route.
    I think they have it right, to check if someone is happy to receive it before awarded, takes the objectivity and value out of it. Say for arguments sake 10 people decline it and the 11th accepts what is the value in giving to 11th on the list
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    I'm sure the 11th on the list would still have plenty of merit.

    Take the physics prize, just how many bodies of work have merit worthy of recognition? How many millions of research is carried out? I'd hazard a bet that the Nobel prize foundation could have a shortlist of 30 pieces of physics research that is significant advance in the subject.

    Behind the scenes they could quietly sound out the recipient in order of preference. Your perception of value is your own, if you had no idea of such a behind the scenes action you'd probably have no issue over objectivity and value. Besides I'm sure if you're involved in one of the subjects covered by this prize organization you'd have views over the value of the winner over another body of research not awarded the prize.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Well it seems that nowadays they could always award the Physics prize to a talented garage mechanic...
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    bompington wrote:
    Well it seems that nowadays they could always award the Physics prize to a talented garage mechanic...
    Really? Why do you think that?

    Why isn't there an Nobel prize for mathematics? It was not because of Nobel's rivalry with a prominent mathematician of his era.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Tangled Metal wrote:
    bompington wrote:
    Well it seems that nowadays they could always award the Physics prize to a talented garage mechanic...
    Really? Why do you think that?
    viewtopic.php?f=40088&t=13071642
    :wink:

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