My TakeThe Nobel literature gong to Bob Dylan? You can’t be serious
There may be such a thing as universal greatness, but the Nobel committee may not be the best judges
Probably no one is more amused and baffled than Bob Dylan that he has won the Nobel Prize for literature. Given the fact that the legendary musician epitomises 1960s counter-culture, civil rights and anti-war, he might as well be given the peace prize too. That would be just as appropriate, or inappropriate. I imagine Dylan already has the perfect reply to the Nobel committee: “No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe/ It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.”
The whole exercise proves once again that we shouldn’t take the Nobels so seriously when it comes to the prizes on peace, literature and economics. Don’t get me wrong. I love the guy. With any other rock stars, I would qualify as a fan. But with Dylan, a true fan needs to feel a personal, almost religious, communion with the great man.
Interestingly, no one finds fandom more burdensome and ridiculous than Dylan. “I was sick of the way my lyrics had been extrapolated,” he wrote in Chronicles, his memoir, “their meanings subverted into polemics and that I had been anointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion, High Priest of Protest, the Czar of Dissent, the Duke of Disobedience, Leader of the Freeloaders, Kaiser of Apostasy, Archbishop of Anarchy, the Big Cheese.”
Watch: ‘Greatest living poet’ Bob Dylan wins Nobel literature prize