The academy said it would meet Dylan, 75, in private in the Swedish capital, where he is giving two concerts. He will not lecture in person but is expected to send a taped version. If he does not deliver a lecture by June, he will have to forfeit the prize money....From the Nobel website:
In a few days Bob Dylan will visit Stockholm and give two concerts... Please note that no Nobel Lecture will be held. The Academy has reason to believe that a taped version will be sent at a later point.....
The Academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature. The setting will be small and intimate, and no media will be present; only Bob Dylan and members of the Academy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes.
ADDED: Poll results:
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18 comments:
Crap-oh! Or get offa de Pot-oh!
Maybe he's embarrassed put off by getting the award in the first place--which was wildly unexpected--and is still unsure how to react.
Gentlemen, he said
I don't need your organization, I've shined your shoes
I've moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either getting ready for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards
I voted for 4, which was closest to my opinion that he is just being polite. It would have been super rude to go to Stockholm and ignore them. Dylan has manners, in his own unusual way.
I don't think nothing of it. That's for sure.
This reminds me of the story I heard (probably on this blog) where Dylan was in London and went to visit a producer at his home and went to the wrong address. Had to wait for the guy, and when he saw it was the wrong guy, he still chatted with him anyway.
Maybe he will just chat randomly with some employee at the Nobel foundation.
I think Dylan cares about the award, the medal and the recognition; and he has the good mid-western manners to feel obligated to accept their award. I also think he does not care at all about the monetary component of the prize. Hence his indifference to the "performance" requirement.
He seems irked by their requirement of a public performance, spoken word or otherwise. It does seem odd that you forfeit the monetary prize unless you grace them with your performance. It isn't clear to me whether the "taped" offering will satisfy their requirement. Maybe I should click through and scour the source material but I'm not reading nothing I don't want to.
As a fan, I mean no disrespect. If Dylan reads the Althouse blog or is ever shown his tag posts here, he would have to either want to meet you to make you happy, or have his people begin drafting language for a restraining order.
"As a fan, I mean no disrespect. If Dylan reads the Althouse blog or is ever shown his tag posts here, he would have to either want to meet you to make you happy, or have his people begin drafting language for a restraining order."
I don't like meeting famous people.
I don't like meeting famous people.- who are you kidding.
More often than not, his lyrics are enigmatic and obscure. It is only fitting that his Nobel response be enigmatic and ambiguous. His response is of a piece with the work for which he won the award. I hope he wears spats at his appearance.
5: Would have voted for 4, but it's too long. Poll options should be brief enough to take in at a glance.
"(Dylan) would have to either want to meet you to make you happy..." wasn't meant from your perspective, but from Bob's. I am obsessed/fascinated by the Beatles, always have been, then there is a long drop-off to maybe Neil Finn. I think it'd've been nice to have been a fly upon the wall when either John or George may have been on an upswing, but other than that, I'm w you on not wanting to meet most people, not just the famous.
I think Dylan, if he took the time to read all of your tags and ruminations on him, his songs and lyrics would either go the restraining order route, or think it'd be a nice thing to make your acquaintance ~ bc from the way you write about him, it could seem to him to make you happy.
I get the impression he is at a good place in his life, and has been for a while, making others (who like him bordering on obsessive but not in any bad way) happy by doing a simple thing w little attention may be a cool thing for him.
I'm a Dylan fan (and my husband is an absolute fanatic who has read everything about the man ever). My hunch is that Dylan has Parkinson's disease, or some other sort of motor impairment, and that is why he does not want to deliver the lecture in person in the traditional fashion. Dylan is very controlled in his presentation at concerts. He always has his keyboard to lean on and hold, or a mic stand. (I suspect his hands visibly shake otherwise.) It may be that the traditional Nobel format would show his symptoms too overtly. It doesn't seem he wanted to snub the Nobel people -- his gracious written words contradict that idea. And it doesn't seem that he was unable to travel. So Parkinson's is my (sad) conjecture. -- Jessica
So the ploy of having the U.S. Ambassador read the lecture in his place didn't work? I feel let down.
Dylan is sui generis. I gave up trying to figure him out about 50 years ago.
He just did his taxes. He needs the cash.
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