“Bob Dylan, Nobel laureate. A new fact so shocking that even the year's most notable deaths have not outdone it for the volume (in both senses) of instant reaction; so divisive, it makes Brexit, the Labour leadership and the US Presidential election seem lesser ruptures.” YearsFactsSeemsElectionSensesReactionsPresidentialInstantLabourBobVolumeShockingDylanNotableNobelPresidential ElectionRuptureUs Presidential Author:David Bennun
“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
“The general sentiment among the Yeas is, no accolade is too high for their man; and the Nobel being, literally, the gold standard among prizes, it is surely his [Bob Dylan] due.” MenStandardsGoldDuesPrizeSentimentsBobDylanNobelAccoladesGold Standard Author:David Bennun
“The [Nobel] prize is for literature.[Bob] Dylan is a songwriter. Here is where the argument starts to get interesting, because here is where it is no longer a question of either cultural orthodoxy or personal taste.” LiteratureInterestingTasteArgumentPrizeBobSongwritersDylanOrthodoxyNobelNobel PrizePersonal Taste Author:David Bennun
“I have seen quite a few folk whom I know to be both fair minded and, as it happens,[Bob] Dylan fans, take up cudgels for this position. To them, it's not necessarily that Dylan doesn't merit the highest honour. It's that he doesn't merit this specific highest honour [Nobel prize], in the way a champion pole vaulter shouldn't be given a medal for the long jump. It is in this group that the Wahey!s are mainly to be found, firing off jests, or mock solemnly reciting Dylan's sillier lyrics as if these are entirely representative of his oeuvre.” IfsKnowsWayLongHappensFoundGivenGroupsFansPositionHighestFairsFolksMeritChampionPrizeHonourBobRepresentativesMedalDylanNobelMockNobel PrizeFiringRecitingLong Jump 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
“There's no reason - not yet, anyway - to believe [Bob] Dylan himself endorses such an attitude; or that he would think of himself as a more profound and worthy recipient than, for instance, any of the brilliant Motown or girl-group lyricists who are more likely to be awarded a Nobel prize for chemistry than for literature. Whether there is more truth and humanity in his best lyrics than in Abba's, or less, is unquantifiable, and it would be meretricious to attempt such a calculation in contesting an argument he has been dragged into.” ThinkingBelieveHas BeensReasonWould BeHumanityGirlLiteratureAttitudeGroupsArgumentProfoundWorthyBrilliantInstanceNo ReasonPrizeChemistryBobDylanCalculationsNobelNobel PrizeMotownAbbaLyricistsGirl Groups Author:David Bennun
“[Bob] Dylan may, for whatever reasons of his own, do nothing of the sort with the Nobel committee. Up there on Parnassus, that is his unquestionable prerogative. But here on my anthill, it's mine to say: oh, do piss off, you ineffable snobs.” MayReasonMinesBobCommitteesDylanNobelSnobPrerogativeIneffable Author:David Bennun
