“The Yeas are relatively uniform. They view [Bob] Dylan as one of the greatest artists of his or any era, who deserves to be taken as seriously as any litterateur. Where they vary is in some cases not even accepting the distinction: Dylan in their eyes is a literary titan, and the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature is simply official affirmation of what they already knew.” EyeArtistLiteratureViewsAcceptingCasesTakenDeserveErasOfficialsDistinctionPrizeAwardsBobUniformsAffirmationDylanVaryNobelNobel PrizeTitans Author:David Bennun
“On another front of the category-error argument are the insufferable fogeys who think the [Nobel] award is an outrage upon literature itself. That the problem is not simply a mistake may have been made about definitions, but that awful vulgarians are encroaching upon their sacred places. [Bob] Dylan, to them, is the harbinger of the low-culture mob; the latest in an unending number of final straws, or the thin end of a wedge that never seems to get thicker.” ThinkingMayHas BeensMadeEndsProblemSeemsCultureLiteratureNumbersMistakeFrontsLowsArgumentSacredErrorsFinalsDefinitionsAwfulAwardsCategoriesBobDylanOutrageNobelStrawsUnendingWedgesInsufferableHarbingerSacred Places Author:David Bennun
“[I have] my own view about [Bob] Dylan's Nobel prize. Which is, I'm firmly in the Nay camp. I do think the award is a category error, but that's not why. Not in itself. What bothers me is the perceived status of the categories. If pop lyricists were routinely considered for the prize as are authors and poets, I'd still think it mistaken, but I wouldn't much care. But I am quite certain that Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, for example, both at the very least Dylan's equals as writers, have never been in the running and never will be.” IfsThinkingStillsCareRunningCertainMy OwnViewsExamplePoetErrorsPopsBotherPrizeWhy NotAwardsCategoriesCampsBobMistakenDylanNobelNobel PrizeLyricists Author:David Bennun
“The [Nobel] award [of Bob Dylan] is no affront to literature; it is an insult to pop music. It is a condescending ruffle of pop's hair while handing it a lollipop. An act of beaming condescension whose transparent message is: "This one guy, and just this one guy, he's so good, he transcends his trivial idiom and elevates himself into our significant one."” GuyLiteratureHairMessagesPopsSignificantInsultAwardsBobDylanTransparentNobelPop MusicIdiomCondescendingCondescensionAffrontRufflesLollipop Author:David Bennun
“The point is not that [Bob] Dylan doesn't need a Nobel to attest to how good he is (although he doesn't.) It's that pop music, pop music of any kind, doesn't need the Nobel committee to damn it with the faint praise of such an award to its sole chosen representative.” NeedsKindPraisePopsChosenDamnAwardsBobSoleRepresentativesCommitteesDylanNobelPop Music Author:David Bennun
