# Dylan's Nobel lecture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266 "2017-06-06T12:51:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/1 "2017-06-06T12:51:25Z")
Audio and text [here](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-lecture.html). Haven’t had time to listen to the audio yet, but I’ve read the text, and it’s damned good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/2 "2017-06-06T13:47:13Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Audio and text [here](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-lecture.html). > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/3 "2017-06-06T15:40:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/4 "2017-06-06T15:44:17Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …it’s damned good stuff. Maybe he’ll get a Nobel Prize for it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/5 "2017-06-06T16:06:35Z")
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](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-makes-it-darker) 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. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/6 "2017-06-06T17:25:56Z")
So, you’re saying reading that just kinda wasted some of your precious time? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/7 "2017-06-07T03:02:06Z")
I enjoyed it. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/8 "2017-06-07T14:23:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/9 "2017-06-09T22:30:02Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > 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. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/10 "2017-06-09T22:54:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/11 "2017-06-17T03:01:43Z")
[Slate had an interesting article about Bob Dylan’s speech](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/06/did_bob_dylan_take_from_sparknotes_for_his_nobel_lecture.html). ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/12 "2017-06-17T04:13:58Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [Slate had an interesting article about Bob Dylan’s speech](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/06/did_bob_dylan_take_from_sparknotes_for_his_nobel_lecture.html). 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? ---
**Author:** ![Paxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@Paxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paxx)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/13 "2017-06-17T14:31:57Z")
I’m wondering about Dylan’s references to grammar school: > [@](#): > > But I had something else as well. I had principles and sensibilities and an informed view of the world. And I had had that for a while. Learned it all in grammar school. Don Quixote, Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Tale of Two Cities, all the rest – typical grammar school reading that gave you a way of looking at life, an understanding of human nature, and a standard to measure things by. > … > Specific books that have stuck with me ever since I read them way back in grammar school – I want to tell you about three of them: Moby Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Odyssey. 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? ---
**Author:** ![Paxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@Paxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paxx)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/14 "2017-06-21T22:41:05Z")
Dylan went to school in Hibbing, Minnesota. The [Hibbings Public Schools website](http://www.hibbing.k12.mn.us/) 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? > [@](#): > > _The Odyssey_ is a great book whose themes have worked its way into the ballads of a lot of songwriters: "Homeward Bound, “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “Home on the Range,” and my songs as well. Really?? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/15 "2017-06-21T23:23:23Z")
He didn’t say they were _assigned_ in grammar school…just that he read them at that point. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylans-nobel-lecture/788266/16 "2017-06-21T23:31:56Z")
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.