Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel prize in literature

[MickGael]

Absent Native Americans, there is no "American" ethnicity. It is the confluence of the traditions you cite, as well as many others. That is why it is fairly described as "American."

So we are all really just Americans, wherever we live

I didn't realize So, where is my green card

[rp314]

Some 20th century greats who didn't win one:

James Joyce
Vladimir Nabokov
Jorge Luis Borges
Virginia Woolf
Franz Kafka
Marcel Proust

It's just a prize.

[fmr]

Some 20th century greats who didn't win one:

James Joyce
Vladimir Nabokov
Jorge Luis Borges
Virginia Woolf
Franz Kafka
Marcel Proust

It's just a prize.

Yes, but some prizes, like the the Nobel and the Oscar, mean more than others, so, they matter more. When you read that someone wins the Nobel Prize of Literature, you expect that someone to be, at least, a writer, no?

But now that I am thinking of it, I think I remember that, in one of the last editions of the Oscar, there was a cartoon movie character that was nominated for an Oscar...

[Hink]

Some 20th century greats who didn't win one:

James Joyce
Vladimir Nabokov
Jorge Luis Borges
Virginia Woolf
Franz Kafka
Marcel Proust

It's just a prize.

Yes, but some prizes, like the the Nobel and the Oscar, mean more than others, so, they matter more. When you read that someone wins the Nobel Prize of Literature, you expect that someone to be, at least, a writer, no?

But now that I am thinking of it, I think I remember that, in one of the last editions of the Oscar, there was a cartoon movie character that was nominated for an Oscar...

Bob Dylan was a writer, he was a poet and I think because his poems were in the form of songs should not matter. His poetry did have an impact on an entire culture as did many. Other poets have won the prize so it's not without precedent.

[Numanoid]

Bob Dylan was a writer, he was a poet and I think because his poems were in the form of songs should not matter. His poetry did have an impact on an entire culture as did many. Other poets have won the prize so it's not without precedent.

Well, I can understand that.

But as his best output was during the 60's, it would have made more sense to hand the prize to him sometime in the 70's. Why wait until 2016?

Now it becomes like a footnote to an aftermath

[Hink]

Bob Dylan was a writer, he was a poet and I think because his poems were in the form of songs should not matter. His poetry did have an impact on an entire culture as did many. Other poets have won the prize so it's not without precedent.

Well, I can understand that.

But as his best output was during the 60's, it would have made more sense to hand the prize to him sometime in the 70's. Why wait until 2016?

Now it becomes like a footnote to an aftermath

why are you asking me?

[Numanoid]

why are you asking me?

You mean, you are not in the Nobel Prize committee

[rp314]

Some 20th century greats who didn't win one:

James Joyce
Vladimir Nabokov
Jorge Luis Borges
Virginia Woolf
Franz Kafka
Marcel Proust

It's just a prize.

Yes, but some prizes, like the the Nobel and the Oscar, mean more than others, so, they matter more. When you read that someone wins the Nobel Prize of Literature, you expect that someone to be, at least, a writer, no?

But now that I am thinking of it, I think I remember that, in one of the last editions of the Oscar, there was a cartoon movie character that was nominated for an Oscar...

Yeah, they're just not great at determining the importance of an author or his or her works.

One positive effect that winning one sometimes can have is to give an author greater exposure outside his nation. I wonder how many people around the world had read the works of Jose Saramago, for example, before he won in 1998.

So, as someone who grew up back then, Dylan winning is fine but I can think of some novelists and poets around the world that one would have chosen before him.

[Numanoid]

Eric Blair

https://eyeoflynx.wordpress.com/2014/03 ... y-reasons/

[fmr]

One positive effect that winning one sometimes can have is to give an author greater exposure outside his nation. I wonder how many people around the world had read the works of Jose Saramago, for example, before he won in 1998.

More than you can imagine ... Of course, the Nobel gave him a worldwide impact, as does to any winner. Anyway, when Saramago won the prize in 1998, as you wrote, Dylan had already "written" basically ALL of his work already, and the most important part already had like 30 years. The prize would be already strange in 1998, but in 2016, when many people don't even know who is Dylan anymore, it is simply bizarre.

Why not give the prize to Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka or James Joyce then, if they want to celebrate someone from the past? Any of these was much more important than Dylan will ever be, and will have more influence in 100 years from now than Dylan, IMO (which will be forgotten by then, almost for certain).

[fmr]

Eric Blair

https://eyeoflynx.wordpress.com/2014/03 ... y-reasons/

This quote from the article you linked explains a lot: "Sven Hedin made the bold claim that other Nobel Prize judges were as judgemental as he. A judge, he claimed, so hated Russians that he prevented Tolstoy, Chekhov and Gorky from winning the Nobel Prize."

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

Congratulations, Bob Dylan!

[fluffy_little_something]

Never liked his music, and the way he behaves now totally sucks. The Nobel people have been trying to contact him repeatedly, but he keeps ignoring them, doesn't answer their calls etc. Does he think the world revolves around him? Grow up old man and get some manners. If you don't want the f**king prize, just say so. There are lots of writers who deserve it more than you...

[Michael L]

Its great that song lyrics are recognized as real writing and that someone as influential as Dylan (who still constantly performs) is awarded a prize when he is alive so new generations of song writers can be reawakened to his work.

[PatchAdamz]

''Lay lady lay. Lay across my big brass bed.'' Wow Bob. That's awesome. Here's a Nobel prize.

More like:



Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'