On the subject of Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize

I absolutely love the choice of Bob Dylan being named as the recipient of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, not least because it's the one I hope for every year. I've lived with his songs on my stereo and in my mind, day in, day out, for the vast majority of my time here on earth. No writer in my lifetime has ever inspired me or moved me as deeply, and there's nobody whose words I hold as dear. Based on the early news reports, It's a fairly divisive and controversial call on the part of the Swedish Academy, but I think it also pushes the boundaries of what gets to be considered literature (the way the choice of the as-of-yesterday late Dario Fo did when he was honoured, back in the 90's). As Bob himself says, “The Times They Are A-Changin'.”

Okay, so there's music attached to the words, but these words are as finely and as imaginatively crafted as any written by anyone. Why is that not 'poetry'? Not 'literature'? Is it flippant to say that playwrights need actors to tell their stories, and novelists need paper? “It is the tale,” Stephen King once wrote (though, as a saying, it sounds far more ancient), “not he who tells it.” To this, can we add, “or the manner in which he chooses to do so”? And, surely needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), the artistry that makes it transcendent.

For me it's about that, rather than about influence – though, of course, where Dylan is concerned, that too is profound, and I'd be hard pushed to point to a songwriter who has done as much to elevate that particular form to the level of art.

I've read some pretty dismissive comments from writers on Facebook and Twitter (most claiming to be fans of Dylan, but...) bringing the aspect of craft into question,and insisting that there are dozens of writers as deserving. And that's certainly true, but there were dozens just as deserving when Alice Munro, Patrick Modiano and Svetlana Alexievich won, too (to name just the last three laureates), and that won't change, since there's only one prize given out each year.

Anyway, this is all just my long-winded way of saying (as I sit here listening to Brownsville Girl (as spellbinding and just magnificently conceived and structured a song/piece of literature/piece of art as you can ever surely hope to find) that this announcement has lifted my heart beyond measure (... oh, how shallow we can be, with all that's going on in the world… and what small lives some of us lead!)