Bob Dylan: Nobel Prize Ceremony for Literature

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1. Ohio Algebra II Teacher says:

   December 11, 2016 at 5:33 pm

   One can only imagine how great Dylan would have been had he been trained in a Common Core curriculum.

   Sarcasm put aside, and I’m sure some disagree, I found the choice of Dylan to be an inspired one.

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2. Joel Herman says:

   December 11, 2016 at 5:48 pm

   Probably far more graciously than Bob would have.

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3. Joel Herman says:

   December 11, 2016 at 5:52 pm

   Think positive with a little luck four years from now you could be playing .

   The Times They Are a-Changin’ or negatively Shelter from the Storm

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4. marek breiger says:

   December 11, 2016 at 8:16 pm

   If Hard Rain isn’t great poetry, nothing else is. We are, with the horror of Trump, 10,000
   miles in the mouth of a graveyard. We need a hard rain that will
   end with a rainbow. Despite everything, Dylan communicates hope and
   a real love for American music and history–it is an honest hope and not–
   like the phony elect, a cynical pose…it is poetry not flim flam. I thought
   Patti did a great interpretation even when she stumbled…not slick,
   not false…

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5. Christine says:

   December 12, 2016 at 10:00 am

   I love the mistake, the acceptance, the starting over and moving on.
   I realize the depth of my fear for our future.

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6. FLERP! says:

   December 12, 2016 at 10:19 am

   I’m a big Dylan fan, but I imagine there were a lot of novelists and poets who were pretty disheartened by this year’s award.

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   • Joel Herman says:

     December 13, 2016 at 8:55 am

     After this last concert ,I can say I am over him . Not his music but him.

     Can you think of a writer who has moved as many people to thought,in the same time frame as Dylan. The poetry does not end with his raspy voice it continued with not only all that covered his music . But all those who were inspired to follow his lead.

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     • FLERP! says:

       December 13, 2016 at 9:21 am

       Good question. Anne Frank?

       I think of Dylan as a songwriter and performer, not a “writer” in the modern sense. But he certainly had a big impact in a compressed period of time. The kind of impact that only a celebrity can have.

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7. marek breiger says:

   December 13, 2016 at 9:06 am

   And the lead was to think for yourself, to follow one’s conscience and heart and not be
   wed to an ideology or party–whether right or left..it is an American message out of
   Emerson, Whitman, John Steinbeck. The lead was not to follow leaders but to “trust yourself.” And you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

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8. teacher says:

   December 13, 2016 at 6:13 pm

   My favorite lyrics ever. Btw, I met Bob 4 times and had a few conversations with him.

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9. marek breiger says:

   December 13, 2016 at 8:25 pm

   Dylan is a vernacular writer as was Mark Twain, Woody Guthrie, Steinbeck.
   As was Carl Sandburg…Dylan also learned from and was a student of B.J.Rolfzen, a
   Hibbing Minnesota poet and well as Dylan’s English teacher…He is the teacher
   that Dylan wrote a 20 page essay on Grapes of Wrath…the essay is a real appreciation
   not only of Steinbeck but of the suffering Dylan saw in his home town. There’s a nice
   appreciation of Rolfzen by Greil Marcus in Marcus’ book named Bob Dylan
   Writings 1968-2010. Dylan kept in touch with his old teacher and me with him
   after Bob’s dad’s funeral….the essay by Marcus also describes Hibbing High
   School, a school with murals honoring the various ethnicities that inhabited
   the Iron Range, including Jewish people like the Zimmerman’s
   Dylan is a true son of the Midwest and one hell of a poet. We are lucky to
   be alive in his time which is our time as well.

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10. marek breiger says:

    December 13, 2016 at 8:31 pm

    I wrote last message too quickly. Should read Dylan kept in touch with his old
    teacher and Rolfzen with him after Bob’s dad’s funeral…I’ve never spoken to
    Dylan though I have published essays about him. I think Dylan expanded our

    universe as readers and teachers and writers…he broke down walls and
    connected Johny Cash with Sinatra…we are in his debt.

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