The big news on the literary front today (you’ve doubtless heard already) is that a Minnesota native (unfortunately not me) has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The somewhat mystifying choice is Bob Dylan.
I’ll admit I don’t get it. In fact I never “got” Dylan. Even his much-praised lyrics do nothing for me.
But then I pretty much didn’t get anything that happened from 1965 to 1980 or so.
In other news, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to Keith Richards.
Kidding.
This is more justifiable than Obama winning the peace prize.
I never much liked his early diatribes. But I have found his later work to have a breadth and depth that is lacking in virtually everything else I hear on the radio. I call it music for thinking people. One line really grabbed me on one of his more recent albums. The song is telling the story of looking out his window where he sees his woman talking to the village priest. After describing the scene he says, “I feel a change coming on.” It gets me pondering what sort of change; single to married or the change of lifestyle that comes from getting religion. I like lyrics that lead me to ponder.