It's the ridiculous idea that won't die: every year as the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature approaches some folks convince themselves that Bob Dylan is in the running for the prize -- his closing odds at Ladbrokes last year were a decent 10/1, barely behind eventual winner Mo Yan's 8/1.
This year the nuttiness starts earlier, as now some ... well, the temptation is to call it a crackpot institution, but it styles itself the Einstein Forum has set up a 'workshop'/symposium, on Einstein Disguised as Robin Hood. Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize, claiming:
This year the nuttiness starts earlier, as now some ... well, the temptation is to call it a crackpot institution, but it styles itself the Einstein Forum has set up a 'workshop'/symposium, on Einstein Disguised as Robin Hood. Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize, claiming:
Since 1996, Bob Dylan has been nominated every year for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a nomination roundly seconded by increasing numbers of poets and professors. After President Obama recently presented him with the United States' highest honor, many have hoped the Swedish Academy would follow suit. There are dissenting voices among Dylan admirers, who hold his work to be sufficiently unique as to make a Nobel Prize otiose; others have argued that while Dylan may not need the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize needs Dylan.Given that the Swedish Academy is secretive about the nomination process (not revealing nominated names until fifty years after the prize has been announced) it's certainly open to debate whether Dylan has actually been in the running all these years. Indeed, unless there's some well-positioned professor who is asked to submit a name each year and can't think of anyone better, or there's a former winner who is an obsessive, die-hard Dylan-fan, I think it's safe to say that it is extraordinarily unlikely that Dylan has been nominated every year since 1996 .....