Prize Watch: History of Literature

Gotta say I was pretty chuffed to hear of Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Sure it is an unconventional choice, but who has contributed more fresh language, more fresh images, more fresh idiom to the culture over the last fifty years?

Here's me rooting for him eighteen months ago.

Besides, we need to get over this idea that real literature only comes in the form of made-up book-length prose narratives.  Strike a blow against fiction bigotry, Nobel people!

One downside: it has sure put a spike in Leonard Cohen's chances.  Here's the New Yorker, in a long Cohen profile just published, getting Dylan and Cohen to ponder on each other.

Meanwhile, here's the New Republic explaining just last week why Bob Dylan will never win a Nobel Prize

Bob Dylan? Despite being beloved by people who don’t know anything about the kinds of writers who actually win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan is not winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. If Dylan does win, I will eat my copy of Blood on the Tracks.