Every year I am looking forward to the day where the newest winner of the Prize for Literature is announced. As most of my book friends know, I mostly root for Joyce Carol Oates who is one of the greatest contemporary writers in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I was flabbergasted when I saw the announcement. Totally unexpected but well deserved. The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Bob Dylan. The 75-year-old rock legend received the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
He's been the hero of my youth, there is hardly a singer-songwriter whose lyrics I know better. He has always been honest in his music. And I think it is great that he has won now. His lyrics are as important today as they were sixty years ago. The times were ready to be a-changing back then and it is time they are a-changing again. Robert Zimmerman had a message back then and we better listen to it now. Otherwise there might be more things blowing in the wind than just the answer.
Congratulations, Mr. Dylan! Guess what I've been listening to for the last couple of days?
In the meantime, I have read his biography, "Chronicles".
I've always been a Dylan fan, though less so after seeing him in concert last year. I'm just not sure if his lyrics are worthy of a Nobel Prize in Literature. He'll tell you himself, and has, that he took them frequently from newspapers and the bible.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he took his inspiration from everwhere as most authors do, but nobody put the words in that order.
DeleteI think it is not just an award he is getting for what he has written in the past, I do believe it is a message the Swedish want to send to the world, especially some Americans. ;)
Anyway, let's look forward to new and great books.
Happy Reading,
Marianne
Yes, flabbergasted and pleased at the same time! I was the folksinger who knew all the words to his longest songs. Many of them I know still. The other day I was thinking sorry thoughts about our presidential campaign and these lyrics popped up in my mind: "Something's going on here and you don't know what it is, Do you Mr Jones?"
ReplyDeletethose are my thoughts exactly. Most of his lyrics are spot on, just as much today was they were back when he wrote them. So much insight. I truly think he deserves this.
DeleteThanks for thinking the same,
Marianne