In Reluctant Nobel Acceptance, Bob Dylan Tells His Worshippers To Chill
Bob Dylan is the Boomer Beyoncé— moments of true genius imbued by a generation with cultural significance that demands fealty and is aghast at the slightest criticism.By Mary Katharine Ham
June 9, 2017
So, Bob Dylan. I hear he’s one of the greats. The Nobel Prize Committee codified this notion in 2016 by awarding the folk singer and American icon the prize for literature.
I’m not a fan of Dylan’s music, per se, but I’m not a hater. I like the American folk music tradition, and I’ll listen to “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” on repeat a couple times a year if the mood strikes. Beyond that, I’m sort of befuddled by the Dylan phenomenon. He’s the Boomer Beyoncé— moments of true genius and showmanship, sure, but imbued by a generation with cultural significance that demands fealty and is aghast at the slightest criticism.
If you’re not hyperventilating over Dylan’s towering genius— comparing him to Homer and Sappho, as the Nobel Committee did—you’ve missed the boat.
What I do like about Dylan is that he doesn’t seem to be hyperventilating over his own greatness. He’s an insouciant cult leader, almost accidental. Millions have declared their desire to follow this marble-mouthed bard to the ends of the Earth, and he looks at them and mumbles, “You sure?”
But as Andrew Ferguson, chief chronicler of the cult of Dylan and its many abuses at the hands of its leader, puts it, “Dylan worship is impervious to evidence. It begins and ends in experience and memory, personal and generational.” Luckily, the Nobel folks are among the supplicants because, boy, did he have some indifference to dish out to them!
Despite being the first musician to ever be awarded the prize, Dylan did not accept it in person. In fact, he dodged for weeks the Swedish Academy’s phone call informing him of his win, leaving the world-renowned prize committee burning with unrequited love, enough for one member to declare him “impolite and arrogant.” He didn’t attend the ceremony because he had “preexisting committments.” He is the ballerest Boomer!
I openly admit I would probably loathe this behavior in any other performer. I would think it, well, impolite and arrogant. Most boomers would have to admit if a millennial pulled this, they’d be bemoaning “these kids today” as did their parents before them while they were spinning Dylan 45s in their rooms. But there’s something endearing about Dylan’s stubborn refusal to be the thing people want him to be, to behave as an obedient recipient of his paeans.
Dylan goes electric and lets people boo. Dylan declares himself “tired of the scene” at the height of his fame in the very scene he helped create. Dylan forgets to call back the Nobel Committee.
He instead sent a statement to the ceremony, which the U.S. ambassador to Sweden read. In it, Dylan comes through as clever and funny, with a workmanlike dedication to everyday writing and performing. But he seemed distinctly, if politely, unconvinced he deserved the honor and its attendant adulation.
Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature?’ So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.
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http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/09/reluctant-nobel-acceptance-bob-dylan-tells-worshippers-chill/
