Thursday, November 17, 2016

Bob Dylan should rethink attending the ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

I am sure the Nobel committee can accommodate some of the expense of his travel. I am also sure Europe would like to know him better and welcome him into their world as well. This could be an entirely new audience for his work and he should welcome that.

Bob Dylan may even find inspiration for new lyrics in Europe. He should take all the factors of his trip before completely decliniing the presentation.

16 November 2016
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen

...He underlined (click here) that he feels “incredibly honoured by the Nobel prize,” they added.
The Swedish Academy said it “respects Bob Dylan’s decision” but stressed it is “unusual” for a Nobel laureate not to come to Stockholm to accept the award in person.
Dylan is not alone in not attending the ceremony. Novelist Doris Lessing was too old, playwright Harold Pinter was in hospital and writer Elfriede Jelinek had crippling social phobia. Nonetheless, the academy noted: “The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to Bob Dylan.”
As this year’s Nobel laureate, Dylan is required “to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded”. The lecture should be given before, or no later than six months after, the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm in December.
Making the award announcement in October, Danius the academy “hoped the news would be received with joy, but you never know.”
She compared Dylan’s work to that of ancient Greek writers Homer and Sappho. Asked about the comparison, Dylan said: “I suppose so, in some way. Some [of my own] songs – Blind Willie, The Ballad of Hollis Brown, Joey, A Hard Rain, Hurricane and some others – definitely are Homeric in value.”...