Bob DYLAN delivers (sort of) his Nobel Lecture
Comme chacun sait, c’est à Bob DYLAN que le Prix Nobel de Littérature a été attribué l’année dernière. L’intéressé ne s’est pas déplacé pour la cérémonie officielle et il est passé en coup de vent à Stockholm, il y a deux mois, pour récupérer sa médaille. Restait à savoir s’il remettrait le traditionnel discours que le règlement du Nobel exige en contrepartie des 8 millions de couronnes (800 000 €) auquel il aurait alors droit. Et ce avant la date butoir du 10 juin.
Ledit discours, il l’a finalement prononcé et enregistré dimanche dernier à Los Angeles pour l’expédier le lendemain à l’Académie Nobel - qui l’a mis en ligne. Il fait une petite demi-heure, explore les liens entre ses chansons et la littérature, en citant les œuvres qui l’ont inspiré. Il reconnaît notamment ce qu’il doit à Moby Dick, À l’Ouest rien de nouveau, à l’Odyssée… il ne manque cependant pas de laisser entendre que : De même que les mots de Shakespeare étaient faits pour être joués sur scène. Tout comme les paroles des chansons sont faites pour être chantées, pas lues sur la page d'un livre.
Le lendemain, 6 juin, les colonnes littéraires de nos organes de presse bruissaient de ce texte : enfin, profond, émouvant, superbe, écoutez-le...
De l’autre côté de l’Atlantique, nous parvient quelque chose, de semblable à la fois mais d’une autre tonalité aussi :
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was, bizarrely, awarded to Bob DYLAN, and DYLAN couldn't be bothered to show up for the official ceremony and only picked up the medal -- furtively -- two months ago, when he was passing through Stockholm anyway.
Nevertheless, while he had the official stamp of approval -- he was their Nobel laureate, regardless of how boorish his behavior -- to get the cash (a decent SEK 8,000,000 for the 2016 prize) he had to present, in one form or another, a 'Nobel Lecture', with a deadline of six months after the official ceremony to get that in -- by 10 June.
Just under the wire, DYLAN came through, sending in not the apparently hoped-for video, but at least an audio recording -- yes, he literally mailed it in, rather than showing up in person: you can read it, or listen to it.
And, hey, it's an actual lecture -- not just some rambling -- and though he doesn't sing, there's a musical accompaniment of some sort (I have no idea what that's about...).
At her official blog, the Swedish Academician-in-charge, Sara DANIUS hopes: "the DYLAN adventure is coming to a close" -- but I'm afraid this embarrassment (and its many humiliating chapters) will take generations to get over.
(Sara DANIUS is permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy)
Still, one has to admire her being able to write with a ... straight face (oh, I assume some pens and papers and laptops got crushed in the process ...) [...] Playing them until the very end, DYLAN not only kept them waiting, he held onto the copyright for the Nobel lecture:
The Nobel Foundation has not obtained the right to assign any usage right to the Nobel Lecture to any third party, and any such rights may thus not be granted.
This is unheard of and, quite honestly, outrageous: all Nobel lectures have always been copyright © The Nobel Foundation, but apparently in their desperation to get some words from DYLAN they didn't even get that. This will probably go less-noticed, but is yet more proof that the awarding of the prize to this guy was a disastrous misstep.
(Regarding the copyright issue, I do imagine there are some very irate Nobel laureates lodging complaints with the Foundation at this very moment, wondering why the guy with the guitar gets this special, kid-glove treatment -- without even having to show up in that silly white-tie outfit for the king.)
(Posted by: M.A.ORTHOFER - 6 June 2017 - Tuesday)
Michael ORTHOFER was born in Graz, Austria in 1964. He currently lives in New York. He founded the complete review in the spring of 1999, adding the site's weblog, the Literary Saloon, in the summer of 2002. Most of the archived material on the site is his work, as is all the new material.. M.A.ORTHOFER on Twitter: @MAOrthofer. (M.A.ORTHOFER does not currently have a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. page.)
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