Bob Dylan.

[Togo]

Has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. How good is that? I remember as a young teenager way back in the early sixties being ridiculed by my elders and betters for being so taken with the lyrics and message that Dylan was putting out. Seems that I, and my contemporaries, were right.

[jno]

maybe you were right, or maybe the selection committee these days is just made up of your contemporaries.

[ichkeria]

I am not a Dylan fan in the sense that I don't know a lot about him. I'm intrigued by the furore this has caused in some circles. I'd say he was as worthy a winner as any having seen some of the lyrics. He'd certainly never win a singing competition that's for sure.
But I think Irvine Welsh in particular has made a bit of a fool of himself with his criticism

[jno]

I think the grumbles here

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1517806.html

were premised on the notion that song-writing isn't literature. That seems a tenable argument to me, though I don't agree with it.

[ichkeria]

I don't see the argument that just because it's set to music it's not literature.

When Dan TDM wins it next year then I'll worry :-)

[jno]

some people seem to have felt that if they want to award it to a musician they should set up a music prize. Hence Jodi Picoult asking if she could have a Grammy.

[Baldric]

In 2016, Dylan received the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Wiki.

No problem with that at all.

[Togo]

Ditto Baldric. I missed the thread yesterday or would not have bothered. For some reason it popped up in news. Bit more than what passes for news these days though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Y3KfJs6T0

[jno]

I don't see why there should only be one thread about any particular piece of news.

[Togo]

:))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMc8jcvTZdQ

[jourdain2]

He never could sing - but he got people to listen to his poems. I have always loved him as a poet and have no qualms about the prize. He is a performance poet.

[Togo]

Here you go belladonner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-6gMH9AmLM

[jourdain2]

I also add my thanks. :)

[Togo]

Still relevant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exm7FN-t3PY

[naomi24]

A travesty. Peace at a big push - but literature, no.

[mikey4444]

I still maintain that song writing is not "literature" in the normally accepted sense of the world.

I am not arguing that Dylan doesn't deserve an award for his wonderful efforts over the last 50-odd years, but there isn't a Nobel Prize for Songwriting. Perhaps there should be !

By awarding this years Literature Prize to a songwriter, no matter how good, the Nobel Committee have deprived the worlds writers of literature of a 2016 prize.

Next year, I can predict that Heston Blumenthal will win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for his efforts with the use of liquid nitrogen.