MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

barryem · 10-14-2016, 08:32 PM

I'm not sure the Nobel Prize has to do with who writes the best songs or books. Here's a quote from Alfred Nobel according to Wikipedia: "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction".

There's some discussion of the meaning of "ideal direction". It seems that early on that was taken to refer to idealism but in recent decades it's become more liberal so that it can mean either idealistic or having literary merit.

It's worth reading the article about this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature

Barry

10-14-2016, 08:32 PM	#95
barryem Wizard Posts: 2,459 Karma: 68781975 Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Arkansas Device: Paperwhite 4	I'm not sure the Nobel Prize has to do with who writes the best songs or books. Here's a quote from Alfred Nobel according to Wikipedia: "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". There's some discussion of the meaning of "ideal direction". It seems that early on that was taken to refer to idealism but in recent decades it's become more liberal so that it can mean either idealistic or having literary merit. It's worth reading the article about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature Barry