What’s wrong with me, you might ask? For once I am very familiar with the work of a Nobel Prize winner. And still, I’m not sure I like Bob Dylan as this year’s top literature laureate.
I will admit, many of his illustrious peers are and will remain unappreciated, at least by my book club and me. But be honest, which of Svetlana Alexievich’s works have you read lately? Or Patrick Modiano’s? How about Mo Yan? No? Well, they happen to be the 2015, ’14 and ’12 winners respectively.
In 1895, Alfred Nobel asked in his will that the laureates should have bestowed "the greatest benefit on mankind". All too often, in the field of literature, has this led to shortlisted works of exceptionally difficult content that is phenomenally tough to digest. Not so Bob Dylan’s poetry, I’ll give you that. But does it really bestow the greatest benefit on mankind?
I will keep fond memories of elementary school music classes, singing and drumming to the beat of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’; it was so much more enjoyable than some dry exercise on pitch notations and harmonies. I do remember proudly feeling part of a new idea, a new rebel movement while singing along to lyrics such as “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall” or “Like a Rolling Stone”, even if the political undertones of Bob Dylan’s songs were accusatory hymns of days long gone. Great benefit to me for certain, but for mankind?
There is no doubt the man with the harmonica gave modern rock, pop, folk and soul music an immense impulse. His lyrical poetry is challenging the listener’s intellect; it is relevant today as much as it was in the ‘60s; it is politically pertinent and still vastly successful. Bob Dylan is an exceptional singer-songwriter; he holds a well-deserved place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the Nobel Prize for Literature?
Maybe, just maybe, the Academy felt that, after 23 years it was high time they awarded the top prize to an American again. But then again, maybe, just maybe, the Academy doesn’t like to feel pressured by issues as mundane as their laureates’ nationality. So maybe, just maybe, winning the Nobel Prize for literature somehow clips the rebel wings of a non-traditional writer, an untypical pop star, an accessible poet like Bob Dylan. So I’m not sure I like Bob Dylan as this year’s top literature laureate.