Bob Dylan Nobel Prize for Literature

[spike]

WOW -
Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for literature for 'creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition'

 

[BigMartin]

Somebody please, please tell me this is a joke .

 

[Tomasz]

Somebody please, please tell me this is a joke .

Unfortunately it's true. Here's confirmation from the BBC:-

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Literature Prize - BBC News

If they were going to give it to a poet, how about Philip Larkin when he was still alive? Unbelievable...

 

[Jonesy]

Dylan hasn't written anything good for over 50 years.

 

[Tomasz]

Dylan hasn't written anything good for over 50 years.

Larkin did:-

Aubade

 

[Targa]

Dylan hasn't written anything good for over 50 years.

Did you 'boo' and walk out when he went electric?

 

[Targa]

Somebody please, please tell me this is a joke .

OK it's a joke, but here's the list how many of them have you read at least one piece of work?
List of Nobel laureates in Literature - Wikipedia

 

[BigMartin]

OK it's a joke, but here's the list how many of them have you read at least one piece of work?
List of Nobel laureates in Literature - Wikipedia

Maybe a dozen or so, but I tend to go for older stuff. But I expect the ones I haven't tried yet would mostly be more rewarding than leafing through Bob Dylan's Greatest Works, which I've been heavily exposed to despite my wishes.

It's not supposed to be a popularity contest. I'm sure most of us (in the UK) have eaten Smarties. It doesn't make them great cuisine.

 

[Targa]

Not popularity, if they want a 'singer/songwriter/poet' I'd prefer Leonard Cohen, more judging the standards applied to previous winners. I've probably read about thirty of them but still wouldn't be able to say why they were chosen over others.
Look on the bright side it wasn't McCartney.

 

[Alice]

McCartney... Now there's a man who makes me shudder for all of the wrong reasons.

 

[Jazzaferri]

Methinks someone on the selection committee is a Dylan fan.

@Targa I was on a roll in the 50's and 60's having read much of what all the writers in English and a few in translation. The 70's drops away and from then on only 2. My claim to fame I know and would see Alice and her husband Jim Munro quite frequently in the 60's and 70's.

 

[jonf]

Dylan hasn't written anything good for over 50 years.

Dylan hasn't written anything good.

Look, it's just my opinion. But a Nobel Prize? Madness. In fact, I'd rather it went to Madness.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Have to agree - on that basis Cole Porter was hard done by, or Gershwin, or Novello... I was surprised how many authors in that list I has read as I don't do that much 'serious' literature.

 

[Dave McLaughlin]

I thought PM on Radio 4 was in rather bad taste when a reporter said something along the lines of "It isn't given posthumously, so they'll have to get a move on if they want to give it to other singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell or Leonard Cohen." (either of whom, incidentally, I would consider more deserving).

 

[Tomasz]

Have to agree - on that basis Cole Porter was hard done by, or Gershwin, or Novello... I was surprised how many authors in that list I has read as I don't do that much 'serious' literature.

Giving the Nobel prize to Bob Dylan is a total farce. Who's it going to be next year? A rapper like Eminem?

 

[kevgermany]

It's about as ridiculous as knighting Rod Stewart.

 

[Tomasz]

It's about as ridiculous as knighting Rod Stewart.

Which as you know also happened this week...

Sir Rod Stewart knighted at Buckingham Palace - BBC News

Funny how Rod Temperton who died earlier this month (and was a much better song-writing talent) never even got an M.B.E.
Temperton wrote songs on "Thriller" - the best-selling-album-of-all-time, including the title track:-

Rod Temperton: Thriller songwriter dies aged 66 - BBC News

Mind you, Alan Turing is estimated to have shortened the Second World War by a couple of years due to his ground-breaking cryptanalysis of the "Enigma" codes, yet all he got was the O.B.E. and a criminal conviction for being gay:-

Alan Turing - Timeline - History's HEROES from E2BN

If it wasn't for Alan Turing's work (he was also a computer pioneer back in the 1940s) you wouldn't be reading these words...

 

[Alphorn]

It is really surprising. What a misjudgment. There are quite a few authors that come more readily to mind for the prize. On the other hand they had awarded Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize based on hope. So you have to expect the unexpected from time to time. My sole Bob Dylan CD will not get company because of that decision. I wonder what bookshops will sell tomorrow: playalongs...?

Alphorn

 

[Alice]

Rod Stewart.. ugh. Horrible tacky man who is a parody of himself and music that needs to go in room 101.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Rod is a legend. I think honours are given for charity works etc not for "Do you think I'm sexy?"

The Killing of Georgie turned my head and Maggie May. So many hits and a great family man.