shall have prizes

[calimac]

So Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. This might or might not be much of a new extension of the prize's coverage of literature: I'm familiar with the poetry of virtually none of the previous poets who've won the prize, so someone else will have to tell me whether any of them wrote on the same scale as Dylan's lyrics.

I would just like to say that I would far rather see Bob Dylan win a prize in literature than one for music.

ETA: And I should have added this from the beginning:

I heard Eric Bogle sing this at an outdoor folk festival in Vancouver in 1982, and we were all rolling on the floor laughing. Literally: we were already sitting on the ground, so it was easy.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

My god, you're actually serious. I was wondering if someone had moved April 1 to mid-October. . . .

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Don't mind his music as long as someone else is singing it!

Nic Jones with 'boots of Spanish leather', perhaps?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Maybe. Listen to the song I just added to the original post.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

KFJC did a special a few years back: Part one, a huge variety of groups covering Dylan songs. Awesome! Part two: Dylan covering a huge variety of songs by other songwriters. Excruciating!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I have long loved Eric Bogle, so thanks for posting that. Once, I saw him live, in a pokey little venue on the north-east coast (of the UK); he was awesome. As to Bob Dylan, I am amused to think back to my young days, when I argued fiercely with poets as to whether or not he counted - but of those who were being touted this time around, I did so want Ursula Le Guin to get the nod.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, Yeats and Eliot are generally considered the two greatest poets writing in English of their century, so by that standard Dylan has a lot of catching up to do.

Might be better to think of Dyan like Kipling: (the first writer in English to win the award) an eloquent and influential advocate of a point of view. And his influence has been enormous.

--John R