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Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Bob Dylan
- Thread starter LordOfLore
- Start date
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Diprosalic
Banned
I love Dylan but i was rooting for Murakami.
Gurgelhals
Member
Fucking finally!
Though to be honest I wasn't expecting this to really happen eventually.
Though to be honest I wasn't expecting this to really happen eventually.
hydrophilic attack
Member
why not
UnemployedVillain
Member
So glad it wasn't him. Fool me once (IQ84), shame on you. Fool me twice (Kafka on the Shore), shame on me. And yet something compelled me to try Norwegian Wood
Diprosalic
Banned
He's been on the short list too many times which usually means that he'll never get it.
go_straight
Banned
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
Murakami got robbed.
Love you, Bob!
When Hamsun got the nobel prize around 1920 he said something like this. "Why now, I would have needed this when I was young and starving, now there is no point". The prize have always worked like this, going to well established authors that are already famous and respected.
Yes. Anything that can be written down on paper. Like lyrics.
I mean, at the very least 'All Along The Watchtower' is gold, but yeah, don't got much love outside that for him.
How are song lyrics not literature?
EDIT: Saw your edit, song lyrics are merely poems made to be performed alongside music. He didn't get the prize for the songs themselves, he specifically got it for his lyrics.
They are songs - a different category. There is overlap in the area of poetry I admit.
EDIT- Saw yours!
Disagree Guy
Member
"How many roads must a man walk down? Before you can call him a man?"
Well.... apparently none mate. You just called him a man before you even found out how many roads he'd walked down
NOBEL PRIZE
Well.... apparently none mate. You just called him a man before you even found out how many roads he'd walked down
NOBEL PRIZE
Elven_Star
Member
I'm a Literature BA, and I didn't know this guy's work was considered literature. Not saying it should or should not be. The whole situation is just weird. Usually when someone wins a Nobel he/she has been on the radar as a likely candidate for years. This just came out of nowhere.
Kanye was robbed.
Sure lyrics can be considered poetry, literature, but music stands on its own, we have plenty of ways of celebrating great artists. Are we now going to open the doors to this particular prize for musicians? What's the point of this? Making it harder for authors to win?
I guess the prize is meaningless anyway but it just seems slightly desperate. If it's some sort of statement about how Dylan stands above regular artists it's equally dumb.
I'm a huge Dylan fan, but I feel conflicted about this. Yes, song lyrics are of course literature, but something feels intuitively wrong with placing them next to plays, novels, poems and so on. This sets a precedent where now all song lyrics are eligible. I guess I'm sort of wary of the value of "higher" literature being watered down or people caring less for traditional literature in general. It makes me sound really elitist and old, I know, but that's my gut reaction here.
Incidentally, should movie scripts be included as well?
Incidentally, should movie scripts be included as well?
kafka on the shore was great though.
According to the legends he refused the prize a couple of times...although he totally deserves it
Yes he is a songwriter so what? that's literature too, as long as you're something beautiful and with deep meaning, why can't that be literature even when you sing it?
Shake Appeal
Member
Murakami is dull as fuck. Dylan changed popular music for the better.
Disagree Guy
Member
I'd say he definitely contributed to it but the change in popular music is undoubtedly more in the hands of Elvis and the Beatles.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Beatles don't ever get to Rubber Soul without Dylan
Langdon Alger
Banned
I love Dylan, but was rooting for Katy Perry.
/sWhat? Kafka on the Shore is great! You... you... peon ;(.
Chris M. Ferguson
Neo Member
Awesome, and yes, anything that's written should be included.
Gurgelhals
Member
Not really. Dylan has basically been on the radar as a potential recipient for several years now.
It's fully deserved too, imho. I'm not that much into Dylan (never really explored far beyond Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks, to be honest), but this guy was absolutely instrumental in expanding the lyrical (and conceptual) vocabulary of popular music. Of course, it's always far too simplistic to attribute these developments to one single person. Still, there is at least a grain of truth to saying that, before Dylan, pop music consisted mostly of silly, adolescent love songs, and then Dylan came along and showed the world that you could do so much more, lyrically, within that genre or form of artistic expression. Just look at the Beatles, for example: Dylan was an absolutely instrumental influence on their transformation from teenyboppers into the ambitious art rockers of their later years; and that is only the most famous example.
Anybody who wants to understand why Dylan is hugely important should watch Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There". Apart from being a truly great film, it makes a very convincing case for the influence and importance of Dylan.
Disagree Guy
Member
Gaf to be nominated for next year?
lalugubregondola
Member
Weird choise, but understandable. Love his music
Sgt. Garlic
Member
Strange, considering his best work (music & lyrics) came out in the 60s & 70s. They finally got around to him or something like that? I mean, if ONE musician is going to get this kind of award it had to be Bob Dylan, so awesome news.
First post spitting the truth
karasu
Member
That was pretty shitty and reductive of you.
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