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Lisa's Reviews > Tarantula
Tarantula
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Closing my Nobel Laureate reviews for this year with a contribution to my Irony Removal Course, with only a tiny bit of copy and paste, as I can not put it better than the cynical initial publishing house, worshipping mammon just as much as its rock star author.
The original publisher’s note speaks for itself:
“In the fall of 1966, we were to publish Bob Dylan’s “first book”. Other publishers were envious. “You’ll sell a lot of copies of that”, they said, not really knowing what THAT was, except that IT was by Bob Dylan. A magic name then. “Besides, look how many copies of John Lennon’s book were sold. This would be twice as big - maybe more!” Didn’t matter what was in it.”
The deification process had already started and the songwriter could do no wrong. Good thing I do not have to consider what is in it, because I have spent a fruitless Saturday trying to make an ever so tiny bit of sense out of the rambling cocktail of words thrown into the “novel” hidden behind the bestselling cover of its author’s name and fame. Glancing at the autobiographical Chronicles to shed some light on the text, I find something that may offer an explanation:
"I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else."
I have heard that before. In my quest to make sense of Coelho’s The Alchemist, which I consider one of the lamest examples of overrated literature, but at least, as literature (trashy as it may be), I stumbled several times over the idea that if you really want something, all universe will conspire to help you achieve it. That is what happened, I think. And all universe in its incarnation as the Swedish Academy actually served Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize in Literature on a plate. What a wonderful, wonderful world …
So Brazil: there is hope for your Nobel-worthy rambling prophet. He might win the trophy next year. In the meantime, I’ll be reviewing my music and art. You never know!
The original publisher’s note speaks for itself:
“In the fall of 1966, we were to publish Bob Dylan’s “first book”. Other publishers were envious. “You’ll sell a lot of copies of that”, they said, not really knowing what THAT was, except that IT was by Bob Dylan. A magic name then. “Besides, look how many copies of John Lennon’s book were sold. This would be twice as big - maybe more!” Didn’t matter what was in it.”
The deification process had already started and the songwriter could do no wrong. Good thing I do not have to consider what is in it, because I have spent a fruitless Saturday trying to make an ever so tiny bit of sense out of the rambling cocktail of words thrown into the “novel” hidden behind the bestselling cover of its author’s name and fame. Glancing at the autobiographical Chronicles to shed some light on the text, I find something that may offer an explanation:
"I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else."
I have heard that before. In my quest to make sense of Coelho’s The Alchemist, which I consider one of the lamest examples of overrated literature, but at least, as literature (trashy as it may be), I stumbled several times over the idea that if you really want something, all universe will conspire to help you achieve it. That is what happened, I think. And all universe in its incarnation as the Swedish Academy actually served Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize in Literature on a plate. What a wonderful, wonderful world …
So Brazil: there is hope for your Nobel-worthy rambling prophet. He might win the trophy next year. In the meantime, I’ll be reviewing my music and art. You never know!
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
October 16, 2016
– Shelved
October 16, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
October 16, 2016
– Shelved as:
nobels-for-musicians
October 16, 2016
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-21 of 21 (21 new)
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Jibran
(new)
Oct 16, 2016 02:06AM
Great. Coelho's central theme in The Alchemist vindicated. I shall treat it as a triumph of popular trash literature. Or "secondary literature" as the Nobel put it in their announcement.
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Jibran wrote: "Great. Coelho's central theme in The Alchemist vindicated. I shall treat it as a triumph of popular trash literature. Or "secondary literature" as the Nobel put it in their announcement."Yes, I thought it was about time to honour the huge impact of trash literature for its contributions to newthink while implementing the traditional tuneless oldspeak from ancient times ;-)
Jean-Paul wrote: "I see you are still "digesting", Lisa. I now refer to the Swedish Academy in the past tense and concentrate on its former historic importance. The Academy closed the doors of my mind to its existen..."You are right, Jean-Paul! And I am doing the same. I just want to maximise and exploit the sensational news like a true human being of the starstruck consumerist era, and use its huge potential for humour. I have recovered enough to see the incredible opportunity to analyse my favourite fairytale: The Emperor's New Clothes.
Also, I have listened to a 5-hour audiobook of Stephen Fry reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (review coming when I have stopped laughing...), so I am a happy convalescent!
I have been assuming the prize was for his body of work in song lyric? That is obviously a massive corpus.
Ned wrote: "I have been assuming the prize was for his body of work in song lyric? That is obviously a massive corpus."So I can't evaluate his"novel", only his music? I will do that soon, when I have installed my "Music I Have Read" shelf. But I plan on starting with my personal favourites Alice Cooper and Bob Marley, moving on to Swedish and German punk and pop, ABBA first (absolutely unparalleled in their impact!), and then finally back to American mainstream. Then God Dylan will be first up, with a review of The Lyrics Of Bob Dylan.
In my "Hard-Boiled Wonderland..." review, I talked about a Bob Dylan song which is significant to the main character. In the middle of a very lyrical atmosphere, I called Dylan "a poet". I think the committee took my review way too seriously. (?) Great review, Lisa!
Florencia wrote: "In my "Hard-Boiled Wonderland..." review, I talked about a Bob Dylan song which is significant to the main character. In the middle of a very lyrical atmosphere, I called Dylan "a poet". I think th..."Oh Florencia! If the Academy had put in the effort to read your exquisite collection of reviews, they would have made a wiser choice!
I just am struck with bewilderment that people don't see the difference between seeing "something like poetry" in his songs and actually giving him the highest literary award worldwide, thus snubbing hundreds of authors of incredible depth and talent, with a major literary oeuvre to show. Even if the academy could convince me that it is not music but literature (which it can't), it is by no means in the highest category of literature by default. As songs, they work splendidly, though.
Maybe Tarantula should be sung as well. I thought of it while reading.
Lisa, I have a different perspective: namely that it is poetical as well as historical, philosophical, and musical. I'm doubtful there has ever been a master as talented as Bob in our time. Comparing him to ABBA is, I hope, facetious.
Ned wrote: "Lisa, I have a different perspective: namely that it is poetical as well as historical, philosophical, and musical. I'm doubtful there has ever been a master as talented as Bob in our time. Compari..."A tiny bit, Ned. But not in genre. Both fall into the category music, and should be appreciated as such. I assume there is taste and quality involved in that business as well, not only in the literary one that I know more about. Coelho is not Marquez, and Bob Dylan is not ABBA. I just make the appeal to compare rotten pears to good pears, and wormy apples to shiny apples. My take on it is that a pear should not win the highest award for being an apple, however delightfully fruity it may taste.
I have no problem comparing Dylan to ABBA. Pop culture is pop culture. BTW, I can listen to Dylan. The ABBA gene is completely missing from my Swedish DNA.
Michael wrote: "This is ironic, Has anything changed?http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/No..."
I saw a Swedish version of that article yesterday, with the Secretary of the Academy looking like a snubbed groupie, not knowing whether the pop star can be bothered to show up and bow to the king of Sweden or not. Pathetic!
But a clever move from Dylan, enhancing his superior godlike status, showing contempt for a literary award he does not need to be worshipped. No reaction is a perfect tool to show power.
Authors can't do that in the same cool way, it takes a pop star with fifty years of experiencing hysterical groupies to play that card properly.
I figured that's what he was up to. And it turns into an embarrassment for the Academy. Serves them right for trying to be too "hip."
as you probably saw, the American media was overloaded with coverage of the award, with numerous articles from my Boomer generation why this award was justified, etc. Part of the sad state of our fading newspapers, is that it's not uncommon for a single edition of the "paper" to have a half-dozen articles on the same topic. There's no research any more, it's all opinion. I think the NYT, for example, had about five articles/op-eds defending the award when first covered. I love the irony of Dylan snubbing it. We Boomers are just too full of ourselves.
Michael wrote: "I figured that's what he was up to. And it turns into an embarrassment for the Academy. Serves them right for trying to be too "hip.""Yes, the academy looks rather silly at the moment. But you know, following the reviews of authors of highest quality every day here on GR, authors that would have been happy and pleased to win the highest award for their life time work, I think they deserve some awkwardness.
Pop culture is everywhere, is the message they are sending, and now they will have to deal with the consequences of that, as pop culture does not play by literary rules or standards.
They diluted their own authority more than anything.
Michael wrote: "the saga continues....http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment..."
Thank you Michael for your lovely updates. They put a smile on my face. So the morale of the story is, if you act in carelessness and ignorance, what you receive is impoliteness and arrogance.
I cringe when I think of next year, when they will try to make amends by choosing a particularly conservative writer who is more than likely to kowtow in front of their hurt egos - thus making the prize not only ridiculous, but a complete farce!
No author will ever be able to enjoy the honour again without the stain of the academy's bad taste.
I quote BBC above. But I see this has been painful for the NYT. Within 24 hours of the prize being announced, the NYT ran about five stories in one edition of why the prize was justified. (Never underestimate the smugness of we Boomers) and now have to cover this refusal story.
I am disappointed that you wrote such a negative review of this work. I suspect that you read it without being stoned. All of Bob Dylan's fans would have been smoking Marijauna while reading it.
Czarny wrote: "I am disappointed that you wrote such a negative review of this work. I suspect that you read it without being stoned. All of Bob Dylan's fans would have been smoking Marijauna while reading it."I try to read the news from the Swedish Academy only when properly drunk though, Czarny! They still seem weird to me, and worthy of this particular laureate. The nonsense starts to make sense, in a way.
Are you happier now that the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a traditional American. Ich wünsche Ihnen Glück.
