Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature
 

Amazing! Well Deserved! Wonderful!

"Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. In doing so, the prolific musician became the first American to win the prize in more than two decades. Not since novelist Toni Morrison won in 1993 has an American claimed the prize.

Dylan won the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," according to the citation by the Swedish Academy, the committee that annually decides the recipient of the Nobel Prize. The academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, announced the news Thursday...."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...-in-literature

No one saw this coming .... wow!

Huge Dylan fan here, but, well, I don't know, Pynchon would have deserved it more I think. When it's the next American's turn in 23 years, he'll probably be dead.

apparently he's been a contender for a while, but yes I don't think anyone expected it.

The Washington Post has a bit more in-depth story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...fae_story.html

and CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/world/...ze-literature/

Yeah, he's been nominated every year for ages. But nobody took it seriously except a few hardcore fans. His betting odds were a lot better in some years than this time around.

I have no problem with Bob Dylan; and I have no problem them with massaging his "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" into being considered literature. It just seems to me that there was some damn fine straight-up literature (which didn't need to be massaged to fit the category) that probably should have won.

It opens the door for NAS and Snoopdogg twenty years down the road, though. ;)

Let's celebrate with a passionate rendition of one of His Bobness' greatest lyrical masterpieces:

:eek:
:rofl:

I'm a poet.
I know it.
Hope I don't blow it.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

OK, Wiggle Wiggle has long been a joke among Dylan fans, of course, and I don't think he took it too seriously himself. So to balance that out, here's what I think is probably his greatest song. And yes, now I'm happy he has won that prize!!

My favorite song: FOREVER YOUNG. (Not complete, due to copyright restrictions.)


May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
....
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
....
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung


Written by Bob Dylan • Copyright © Bob Dylan Music Co.


Here's my favorite cover, performed by Rod Stewart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T9apksOv6k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3_RCJ3Szjc

I personally think they should keep music and literature separated, but what do you expect from a prize organization named after the inventor of dynamite. But just like most other awards organizations, the awards or the opinions of a very few people. I don't really care who wins a Nobel, Oscar, Grammy, or most any other awards based on the opinions a few people. Other than the Fickle Finger of Fate award, they are all pretty much meaningless IMO.

The Darwin Awards are meaningful ;)

Jeeze, man, have you always been like this and I hadn't noticed, or are you a recent convert to curmudgeonliness ?

As much as I hate to admit it, but this part of your statement applies to me to.

I don't understand this decision and think it is a serious downgrading for those authors who have already received the prize.

I would have hoped there'd be a distinction between people spending years to write a book and it being literature and someone writing a song. And before everyone get up to stone me, I know how songs are written, having been friends over years or decades with some of the biggest in music ever. Still, there is a difference IMO.