Audio and text here.
Haven’t had time to listen to the audio yet, but I’ve read the text, and it’s damned good stuff.
I just read it, and although I’m familiar with the three books he discusses, I haven’t read them in detail.
A very good read. Thanks.
Not my cuppa. Three long synopsis of three novels and a tiny bit of commentary on himself and his own work, followed by a dis to the committee (“songs are meant to be sung, not read!”).
Lame.
Maybe he’ll get a Nobel Prize for it! 
I’m afraid I have to declare myself underwhelmed, despite the praise this thing has garnered from the Nobel Committee and some other quarters. Frankly I think the casual New Yorker interview with Leonard Cohen last year was far more eloquent and moving. Sure, there were some interesting insights into his early years, but then it turns into three book reviews. Which are then followed by a quote from John Donne about which Dylan says the following, and I quote: “I don’t know what it means, either. But it sounds good.” This is an insight?
I’m not trying to take anything away from Dylan’s deservedly revered status in the echelons of music, although I’d personally rate Cohen higher for literary and overall artistic quality even if Cohen didn’t have the same impact on the genre. But this attempt at a Nobel lecture, coming as it does after his Nobel no-show and mere days before the deadline that would have canceled his monetary prize of nearly $1 million, strikes me as cynical and contrived. It was a case of quite literally “phoning it in”. Again, not to detract from his genius, but even a genius might phone it in sometimes, especially when he’s old and tired.
So, you’re saying reading that just kinda wasted some of your precious time? 
I enjoyed it. Thank you.
Those weren’t “book reviews,” they were insights into how Moby-Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Odyssey influenced the writing of his lyrics.
I thought it was excellent, and I enjoyed the piano accompaniment. Love ya, Bob.
This.
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I read the text and, despite loathing Bob Dylan*, thought it was pretty well done. Maybe I loathe him a teeny bit less now 
*hands down the least popular opinion I’ve ever expressed on the SDMB.
Alright, maybe I don’t loathe him any less.
My opinion* has always been that he reeks of inauthenticity, and this kind of supports that take on him.
*No, you Dylan lovers out there, I can’t explain this opinion with an analysis of his Art, it is totally just an intuition/feeling about the way the guy sings/emotes/move/talks. He thoroughly activates my “I’m kind of a jerk and a creep who cares more about fame than anything else” spidey-sense, and that’s Just. The. Way. It. Is. So leave me alone, okay? You love him, and that’s peachy keen by me. We are all entitled to have our own, genuine, gut-level, aesthetic/emotional reactions to art and the artists who create it, and since I’m not running around posing as a music critic, who cares what I think, right?
I’m wondering about Dylan’s references to grammar school:
I’m not familiar with the educational system in mid-20th-century Minnesota but it seems strange to me that Dylan would have studied *Don Quixote *and The Odyssey in grammar school.
Am I missing something?
Dylan went to school in Hibbing, Minnesota. The Hibbings Public Schools website talks about elementary schools and Hibbing High School.
Is Dylan wrong in the way he uses “grammar school” or am I wrong in thinking that he couldn’t possibly have studied Don Quixote and The Odyssey in elementary school?
Maybe he’s just messing with us.
Is he doing the same with this bizarre sentence?
Really?? :dubious:
He didn’t say they were assigned in grammar school…just that he read them at that point.
I wouldn’t interpret his use of grammar school that narrowly. In the U.S., it has come to mean elementary school, but it refers to a type of secondary school in the UK, and historically has meant any school before the university level. Since Dylan’s language is often archaic or unusual, I just thought he was using the term in an older sense to mean his pre-college education.
I don’t find it surprising that he can see the themes of the Odyssey, which is about a journey home, in songs that are about the longing for home.