The Nobel for literature is an accident of history, dependent on the vast endowment that fuels its million-dollar award. What it reveals more than anything else is the collective desire, at least here in the West, that there be winners and losers, at the global level, that a story be constructed about who are the greats of our era, regardless of the impossibility of doing this in any convincing way.
Bob Dylan: The Poetry Stays Home Interesting article by Tim Parks, who goes on to argue that while almost everybody knows Bob Dylan’s songs, for most of the world’s population the poetic aspect gets lost in translation.
Thoughts?