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The Swedish Academy's decision to award last year's prize for
literature to Dylan, who had "created new poetic expressions
within the great American song tradition", was seen by some as
slap in the face by some mainstream writers of poetry and prose.
In his Nobel lecture, the notoriously media-shy Dylan said: "Our
songs are alive in the land of the living. But songs are unlike
literature. They’re meant to be sung, not read."
"If a song moves you, that’s all that’s important. I don’t have
to know what a song means. I’ve written all kinds of things into
my songs. And I’m not going to worry about it – what it all
means," he said in the speech posted on the Academy's website.
Dylan, the first singer-songwriter to win the prize, was silent
about the award for weeks after it was announced and he did not
attend the prize ceremony and banquet.
Nobel laureates need to give a lecture within six months from
the Dec. 10 award ceremony in order to receive an
8-million-crown ($900,000) prize sum. It does not necessarily
need to be delivered in Stockholm.
In his lecture, Dylan tells how Buddy Holly and a Leadbelly
record transported him as a teenager into an unknown world, and
he discusses three of his favorite books: Moby Dick, All Quiet
on the Western Front and The Odyssey.
"The speech is extraordinary and, as one might expect, eloquent.
Now that the lecture has been delivered, the Dylan adventure is
coming to a close," Swedish Academy secretary Sara Danius said
in a statement.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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