Dylan is a reminder of how America used to talk to itself.
— Lili Loofbourow
"A great poet in the English-speaking tradition," Bob Dylan became a Nobel Laureate yesterday.
Killjoys will kvetch. "Someone who performed in Las Vegas the same day he became a Nobel Laureate doesn't belong to the club of Lewis, O'Neill, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Bellow and Morrison."
I refuse to accept this.
In his Banquet Speech, Faulkner said:
I refuse to accept this.
In his Banquet Speech, Faulkner said:
I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
