Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
Bob Dylan just became the first songwriter in history to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. As a long-time fan of Dylan’s work, I can’t think of a more influential lyricist and really have no issues at all with the Nobel committee’s decision. That’s okay, because there were plenty of folks who found something to gripe about.
Over on Vice News, Bijan Stephen penned an article he called “Nobel Failure.”
“The problem with thinking about Dylan as a literary mind — which, again, is not to say that his every song doesn’t work as poetry — is that it both discounts the incredibly hard work of writing meaningful songs and reduces poetry to its barest components.”
I’m having a hard time figuring out how giving Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize for Literature “discounts the incredibly hard work of writing meaningful songs.” The Nobel folks gave the prize to Bob Dylan, not Rihanna. Even knowing the narrative might not be exactly right, try not getting a chill at the line “…why’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!” from Hurricane. Try not wanting to stab the speaker cone when you hear two seconds of “Rude Boy.”
As for “reducing poetry to its barest components,” I’m a bit of a jaded prick and find poetry itself to be merely language broken down to its barest components of rhythm and meter, iambs and trochees, and then arranged in an artsy-fartsy way. As H.L. Mencken put it:
“A poet of more than 30 years is simply an over-grown child. … Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.”
Others expressed concern that awarding the prize to Dylan further stretches the bounds of what the Nobel committee considers “literature.” In 1953, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was awarded the prize for his speeches; a decision that still confounds some Nobel-watchers to this day. That might be a valid concern. As a twice-unpublished novelist, I’d hate to have to compete against songwriters and orators on a regular basis for the prize should I ever get an agent to bite on a manuscript, not that I’d ever be in any danger of being considered for any award, literary or otherwise. Some, however on Twitter picked up on this potentiality.
“’My worry is not Bob Dylan winning, but flood gates opening for lyricists in future,’ Kabir Taneja said, attaching the lyrics of Rihanna’s song ‘Work,’” CNN reported.
You can Google that mangling of the English language yourself if you’re so inclined. Unpublished save in e-book form, my novel Dirge has a better chance of winning a Nobel than Rihanna does for her lyrics. I’d hope.
Anyway, my dim view of poetry itself aside, poetry is considered literature, and Dylan’s lyrics, as sung and on paper, often sound/read just like poetry; only better. To say he was an illogical choice for the award is itself an unfair and illogical criticism of the Nobel committee.
Besides, it’s not as if giving a folk musician a prize for literature is the oddest thing the Nobel people have done, especially given yesterday’s headline from the Associated Press.
“US strikes in Yemen risk wider entanglement in civil war.”
While the US has been blasting Yemen with unmanned drones firing hellfire missiles since 2010, those attacks don’t “count,” according to US foreign policy and geopolitical strategy. According to the Houthi rebels who lost 140 of their own to attacks by Saudi Arabia, flying Western jets and dropping Western-made bombs on a wedding party, the U.S. involvement in Yemen does very much count. So, the Houthis fired rockets at a US warship in the Red Sea, the USS Mason, missing the vessel, but earning a return salvo of five highly-accurate tomahawk cruise missiles against their radar installations.
Already there have been implications to this. Two Iranian naval vessels began steaming toward the Red Sea after the attack. Meanwhile, Obama has vowed more action if “needed.”
“’We are prepared to respond if necessary to any future missile launches,’ White House spokesman Eric Schultz said,” according to the AP.
This apparent escalation of American involvement in Yemen has many observers concerned as it is eerily reminiscent of the slippery slope Obama has tumbled down in his handling of the Syrian situation; it starts with air strikes, but always comes to boots-on-the-ground. Already Obama has overseen the expansion of U.S. involvement in Libya, Iraq, Syria and now Yemen.
In 2009, the Nobel committee awarded Barack Hussein Obama its prestigious Peace Prize. All of a sudden, Bob Dylan winning the prize for literature doesn’t seem crazy at all.
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