Why Dylan Matters

by Richard F. Thomas

“The coolest class on campus” – The New York Times

When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated, while many others questioned the choice.  How could the world’s most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter who wouldn’t even deign to attend the medal ceremony?

In Why Bob Dylan Matters, Harvard Professor Richard F. Thomas answers this question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on Classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. Dylan’s Nobel Prize brought him vindication, and he immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight as a leading academic voice in all matters Dylanological. Today, through his wildly popular Dylan seminar—affectionately dubbed "Dylan 101"—Thomas is introducing a new generation of fans and scholars to the revered bard’s work.

This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas’s famous course, and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of Classical poets. Asking us to reflect on the question, "What makes a classic?", Thomas offers an eloquent argument for Dylan’s modern relevance, while interpreting and decoding Dylan’s lyrics for readers. The most original and compelling volume on Dylan in decades, Why Bob Dylan Matters will illuminate Dylan’s work for the Dylan neophyte and the seasoned fanatic alike. You’ll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.

 

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Poetry, History, Literary Criticism, Biography Memoir

368 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2017

About the author

Richard F. Thomas is George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. His teaching and research interests are focused on Hellenistic Greek and Roman literature (chiefly Callimachus, Theocritus, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Ovid, Tacitus), intertextuality, translation and translation theory, the reception of classical literature, and the works of Bob Dylan. Publications include more than 100 articles and reviews and the following books: Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition (1982), Reading Virgil and his Texts. Studies in Intertextuality (1999), Virgil and the Augustan Reception (2001), Why Bob Dylan Matters (2017); commentaries on Virgil, Georgics (1988) and Horace, Odes 4 and Carmen Saeculare (2011). He has co-edited and contributed to Classics and the Uses of Reception (2006), Bob Dylan’s Performance ArtistryVirgil Encyclopedia (2014).

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

'I've been sitting down studying the art of love | I think it will fit me like a glove.' (Thunder on the Mountain)

The only Art of Love I knew was the three-book poem of Roman poet Ovid, a playful early work, a 'how-to' for those looking to get and keep a romantic partner. But Modern Times didn't seem to have much to do with that poem, but rather, if anything, with the last poems Ovid wrote.

This extract epitomises what I both liked about this book and yet also highlights its weaknesses: on one hand Thomas takes Dylan seriously as a lyricist and argues that there's no necessary distinction between poetry and song lyric: after all, as he points out, ancient and classical poetry was often sung rather than merely read, and Orpheus, the model of the poet as vates, was famous for his singing to a lyre accompaniment. That accepted, reading Dylan's lyrics intertextually makes perfect sense and that's what Thomas claims to be doing.

The problem, though, is that rather than reading or analysing intertexts, Thomas merely identifies them, and sometimes those identifications are very loose. In the example above, he claims Ovid's Ars Amatoria from Dylan's direct reference but then jumps to his Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto instead; and the only real analysis is the rather vague claim that Dylan adopts the mask of nostalgic exile from Ovid. Oh, but then Thomas claims that Dylan also takes similar tropes from Homer's Odysseus, and the Beat poets, and perhaps Dante exiled from Florence...

The blurb focuses on Dylan's classicism, but actually the book touches on all kinds of other literary influences: Shakespeare, Thomas Campion, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Plutarch. As already noted, though, Thomas notes them in passing, doesn't analyse what they might be doing in, and for, Dylan's lyrics.

There are places where he even undermines his own tentative arguments: 'Dylan did not need Ovid in order to bring out the nostalgia of remembering; indeed most of these instances above are from songs written before he read Green's 1994 translation. But in Ovid he found a kindred spirit.' It's simply not enough to state, for example, that both Dylan and Catullus took their greatest inspiration from unhappy love - it's no doubt true, but that doesn't mean that Dylan was influenced by Catullus, and there are many, many poets and poems that equally articulate the sufferings of love.

For all my disappointment in the scholarly aspects of the book (and it's clear to see why this hasn't been published by an academic press) I really enjoyed reading it - Thomas' sensitivity to Dylan and his lyrics comes through strongly, and his sharing of his love and knowledge makes this addictively readable. As a mere Dylan neophyte I learned a huge amount and, perhaps most importantly, it sent me back to Dylan's music. I just think the blurb makes it sound like a different book from what it actually is.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a mega fan of Dylan and teacher of his music philosophy. I’ve been a Dylan fan since high school and never really paid any mind to his lyrics. This book was a great, almost scientific, account of Dylan’s lyrics, what they’re based on, the truths and impressions behind them and how they reflected the times which Dylan represents. In essence, Dylan’s work is further testament that history repeats itself. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Dylan, as a famous icon, did not enjoy fame like other icons do. He is an artist through and through and I think that’s part of what makes his music and lyrics so influential.

[Michelle Curie · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, it felt like everybody had an opinion on it. From bloggers to literary critics - all of a sudden verdicts on Dylan's literary weight were given everywhere. Amongst those who defended this artistry was Richard F. Thomas, Harvard classics professor and teacher of a course on Dylan. In Why Dylan Matters he makes an argument for why he belongs in the pantheon of classical poets.



I didn't grow up with Bob Dylan's music. When I became a conscious listener of music, Dylan had already been around for decades. To me, he had always been who he is now: a legend. And still, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, I did see why some people didn't feel like he belonged in the pantheon alongside Faulkner and Hemingway, which was why I was interested in hearing an educated opinion.

I should have expected it, but this was a way more analytical argument than I was hoping for. Thomas is both an academic and a fan, which makes his writing educated, I wasn't quite able to feel compelled or engaged by the points he was making. In his essays he points out similarities to Virgil, Ovid and Homer and draws comparisons by saying that both, the ancients and Dylan, explore the essential question of what it means to be human.

"He is part of that classical stream whose spring starts out in Greece and Rome and flows on down through the years, remaining relevant today, and incapable of being contained by time and place."



A question that I found compelling was who gets to define what great literature actually is. Is it only something that gets written down, something that is valued by literate societies, taught in schools or preserved in libraries? Isn't music, and Dylan's music respectively, something that human communities need just as much and don't they convey the same things?

Having all of that said, for somebody who is more of a casual listener of Dylan's musical repertoire than a passionate fan, this was a bit too lengthy. A mere essay would have probably satisfied my curiosity and it's therefore a book that I would only recommend to people with prior knowledge of (and enthusiasm for) Bob Dylan's art and history.

[M. Sarki · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/167583...

Of all the many books regarding the life and work of Bob Dylan this one ranks at the top when it comes to being scholarly. Part of a long-standing Harvard class taught by Thomas, this distillation dissects no few examples of Dylan’s now-classic role in producing great works by stealing from others. More importantly, however, Bob Dylan makes what he steals his own. No small task and something only a very few distinctive artists can pull of successfully. But the great ones in fact do exactly that. What interests me most is Dylan’s process of creation based on the studies, experience, and knowledge of the professor’s obsession with great Classic art. It is no stretch to state that Dylan is one of the best in the business and well-deserving of his 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.

[LPosse1 Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why Bob Dylan Matters by Richard F. Thomas

There are moments as a reader when the right book finds you at exactly the right time. For me, Why Bob Dylan Matters landed in my hands just as Dylan concert week approached—a perfect storm of anticipation, curiosity, and a growing obsession with the man himself.

Richard F. Thomas proudly wears the badge of “Dylanologist,” and yes—he’s a bit of a fanboy. But he’s also a Harvard classics professor, and that combination is what makes this book so compelling. This is not a traditional biography. Instead, it’s something far richer: an exploration of what makes Bob Dylan tick—what fuels the poetry, the voice, and the constant reinvention.

Thomas makes a persuasive and fascinating case that Dylan is, at heart, an ancient soul—almost Roman in temperament. The connections to Catullus, Virgil, and even Homer aren’t forced; they feel earned. Learning that Dylan studied Latin, belonged to the Latin Club at Hibbing High, and once played a Roman legionary only deepens the sense that this isn’t coincidence—it’s foundation. The idea that Dylan once said he might have become a teacher of Roman history if not for music? That hit me right between my two favorite worlds.
.

What struck me most is just how wide Dylan’s net of inspiration truly is—classical antiquity, Shakespeare, American folk traditions, even echoes of long-forgotten Confederate poets. Thomas doesn’t just point this out; he connects the dots in a way that elevates Dylan from songwriter to something closer to a timeless bard.

For me, this book hit a home run. Over the past month, I’ve been on my own Dylan immersion—reading, listening, preparing for two live shows—and somewhere along the way, I’ve become a bit of a “Dylanologist” myself. This is my fourth Dylan book in that stretch, and it may be the most intellectually satisfying of the bunch.

That said, I’ll be honest—this isn’t for the casual fan. It’s dense at times, layered, and unapologetically academic. But if you’re willing to lean in, it rewards you in a way few music books can.

Thomas doesn’t just argue that Dylan matters—he shows you why, and in doing so, he invites you to listen differently.

And as I head into concert week, I’ll be carrying that perspective with me.

“He not busy being born is busy dying.”

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why Dylan Matters is undoubtedly very erudite and it has its interesting facets, but I do have my doubts about the thrust of it.

Richard Thomas is a classicist and Dylan fan who really knows his stuff about both. In this series of essays, he analyses both the content and social impact of Dylan's music often (but not exclusively) with reference to its parallels with classical texts by people like Virgil, Cicero, Ovid and so on. It's interesting for a while, but I have to say that I got a little bogged down in it, especially as I felt that some of what was being said was a bit tenuous. It felt at times like the converse of one of those sort of "Virgil's Relevance Today" seminars; yes, we know that some central themes recur throughout literature and remain true through ages, but that doesn't necessarily make Dylan directly comparable to Virgil, even if some of the writings of each has echoes of the other.

I have only a reasonable general knowledge of Classics and am a Dylan fan rather than an expert, so I may not be qualified to judge, but my sense is that Dylan's lyrics are often so brilliantly out of the ordinary that it's almost impossible to pin them down with any exactitude. This, to me, is much of their greatness, in that they convey and evoke profound ideas and feelings in a very oblique way. Given this, I think it would be possible for someone in all sorts of disciplines to draw parallels; if a particle physicist claimed that the last verse of All Along The Watchtower discusses quantum indeterminacy, for example, or an economist said that It's All Over Now, Baby Blue is actually analysing the causes of recession, it would be hard to refute them completely. I exaggerate, of course, but I did feel that there is more than a hint here of a classicist imposing his own discipline on the songs rather than allowing the songs to develop their own meaning.

These reservations aside, I did find the essays readable and quite enjoyable if I took them one at a time. There is enough here to interest a Dylan fan, but I can only give Why Dylan Matters a qualified recommendation.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

[Victoria Vulaj]

I had a random Dylan hyper fixation since listening to his music for the first time in class last winter, so loved this book connecting his lyrics to literature. Dylan’s Roman Empire really was the Roman Empire which is wild. Really cool book, picked out a few quotes:

- “But the lyrics of Catallus and of Dylan mostly share a focus on love that is lost, that doesn’t work out - that’s where the poetry is.”
- “…Dylan has a free hand, turning the Village into a carnivalesque museum, capturing that moment when the fifties turned into the sixties and the Beats gave way to folksingers.”
- “This is a new form of intertextuality, no longer verbal or reusing specific phrasing, but more aesthetically tuned and almost spiritual.”
- “Every classic starts out as popular…”

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, in the annals of popular music, the work of Bob Dylan matters. To make sense of the title and related objective of this book (which might otherwise seem presumptuous and demeaning) one has to know a little about some recent history of the politics of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (No, not the internal scandal that delayed the issuance of the 2018 Prize to 2019.) In 2016, an American hadn’t won since 1993 (Toni Morrison,) and given the relative volume of publications from America this was coming to be seen as a major “screw you” to the nation’s literary community. The Nobel committee claimed it was because American authors didn’t get their works translated and were too insular with respect to the global literary community. Still, the disparity was on the minds of many. Then, Bob Dylan was issued the Prize. While some who were offended by this disparity were placated, many thought it was an even bigger “screw you” than if the Committee again hadn’t issued it to an American – like it was a “you asked for it, you got it; now shut up for at least the next 15 years!” kind of award. I doubt anyone would deny that, as a pop music lyricist, Bob Dylan is brilliant – if not the best -- but for many that still just made him a middling poet. (Dylan wrote one piece of prose poetry, “Tarantula” as well as “memoirs” [that were apparently largely an act of creative writing,] but only his lyrics could feasibly merit issue of the award.)

It was with that mess in mind that Thomas delivers this book. It seems to be his objective to not just prove that Dylan matters -- generally speaking -- but that Dylan’s work matters as literature – presumably, such that he’s at least as deserving of the Nobel Prize as any living American poet, story-writer, or novelist. The thrust of Thomas’s approach is in showing that Dylan’s work is dialed into the global literary canon. As a classicist, Thomas puts particular emphasis on Dylan’s stealing from, and referencing of, Greek and Roman figures like Homer and Ovid. (I mean "stealing" only in the sense that word used by artists, and there is considerable discussion of that subject, herein.) However, he does also show how Dylan uses and references other poets from Shakespeare to an obscure Confederate poet.

So, the logical question is whether Thomas answers his book’s titular question with enough authority to convince the reader that Dylan does matter. Thomas certainly convinces us why Dylan matters enough to have classes taught about him, like the one Thomas teaches a Harvard. However, I can’t say that I was convinced that Dylan is on-par with… for instance, Cormac McCarthy or Salman Rushdie (who resides in the US, as I understand it) as a major literary figure. While Thomas does show that Dylan’s work is literature because Dylan’s work is wrapped up in literature, the only real argument he offers for whether Dylan is at the highest echelon of literature is his intense fan-boy devotion. We see a lot of comments like: “He had all that he needed to write ‘Masters of War,’ the greatest anti-war song ever written.” Not “one of the best,” not “the best, in my opinion,” not “the best rock-n-roll anti-war song,” but a gratuitous presumption that nothing else could be considered in the running enough for there to be a debate. Thomas’s enthusiasm that Dylan is among the biggest artistic geniuses of our time – if not all time – is certainly potent, but not necessarily compelling.

The book is annotated, has a bibliography and a graphic discography.

I enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about the works of Bob Dylan and I found the author’s fervor for Dylan’s songs contagious -- if not altogether convincing that it merits Dylan’s inclusion with Hemingway and Faulkner as an American literary icon. [Though I would not in the least challenge his inclusion as an icon of folk, rock, or pop music.] If you’re interested in Dylan, or this question of whether he’s the best American for the job of Literary Nobel Laureate, this book is worth a read.

[Micheal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a little disappointed with this. I agree with the author that Dylan matters and deserved his Nobel prize, but I am not sure that this author presented enough detail to convince those who are asking themselves whether Dylan matters. I learnt some things from this but not enough to rate it more than 3 stars.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why Bob Dylan Matters is an important, but flawed "study" of Dylan and his lyrics. Given the relative shortness of the book (358 pages, notes and all), and the length of Dylan's career, that would seem, on surface, to be impossible. But Harvard Classics Professor Richard Thomas, a Dylan enthusiast who has been teaching a class on Dylan since 2004, has applied his academic eye and ear to Dylan's lyrics, and has made some fascinating discoveries. The trigger appears to lie in the discovery that Dylan (as young Bob Zimmerman) took Latin in high school. Back in the 50s, there was nothing unusual in that, since Latin was by far the language most taught in schools. You might call it conventional. Young Bob Zimmerman liked it well enough to also be a member of the Latin Club for a few years. Thomas does a great job of providing a foundation for the importance of Dylan's high school learning in the preceding pages when he writes about how Dylan, upon receiving the gold medal for his Nobel, spending considerable time studying the medal, with its Muse and Lyre scene from the Aeneid. Thomas knows an artistic circle when he sees one.

What follows are a number of song examinations and comparisons with Classic poets (Homer, Virgil, Catullus, Ovid) with, to my mind, concrete examples of where Dylan has used lines or themes from these poets to construct his own songs. Thomas calls these examples "intertexts" (haters will call it plagiarism). I have no problem with how Dylan constructs his songs, since there's little doubt in my mind that was he has constructed is new. The echoes, the fragments, etc, if discovered, just add to the richness of the song. T.S. Eliot would have approved. One example that kind of blew me away was the fairly recent "I Pay in Blood," from the Tempest album. That song, with its "I pay in blood, but not my own" line has puzzled me, but Thomas points to Homer, and Odysseys' bloody return home. Whoa! Bar the gates and bring me my bow. That song is frequently on Dylan's recent setlists.

There are many such revelatory moments in Why Bob Dylan Matters, that I now have a long list of songs and albums to revisit. That said, around chapter 8 Thomas seems to slip into full Bob Love. The concerts are always "perfect," the singing is always "beautiful," every setlist, every gesture, every interview utterance, is pregnant with meaning. A little bit of this kind of adulation can go a long way, and Thomas gives you way more than a little. I will grant that Dylan's singing on the American standards albums (Triplicate) is definitely better than the alarming croaking on Tempest, but I attribute that change to either surgery and/or tossing the smokes. Still, Bob Love aside, Thomas makes a strong case for Dylan being a Classic (and a very well read one). If you thought Dylan was a genius before, Why Bob Dylan Matters just adds to the legend.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first sixty or so pages - biographical in nature - and the last chapter, detailing his Nobel Prize in Literature win, were of the most interest. (Actually, that last chapter is excellent and a fitting conclusion.) The middle part of the book is a longer, slower scholarly section - Captain Obvious knows the author is a Harvard prof, thanks - with much lyrical comparison to Roman / Greek poets and what seemed to be a concentration on Dylan's output only in the last twenty years. My interest waned several times because of that focus, but not because it wasn't well written.

I guess I'm more of a fair-weather Dylan fan -- I enjoy and am most familiar with his legendary 60's to mid-70's songs / albums, and was hoping there'd be some interesting takes or facts on some of those tunes, but they seemed to be relatively minor part of this book's content.

[Zak · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Enjoyed this but was more classicsy than I thought, Richard is a classicist so I suppose I can't really hold that against him.

I most appreciated him talking about his own love of Dylan, and why he should be considered a living classic.

[Wade Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, although I don't need an explanation of why Bob matters. It took me a while to get into it, because the author spent a while trying to make a connection between Bob and classical Roman and Greek writers. The case didn't feel particularly strong. I enjoyed the author's analysis of Dylan's songs, however, particularly Dylan's later works.

[Robert Strandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did it. It answered all my questions about Dylan as well as others I didn’t know to ask. It's an amazing book even though the title assumes its own answer. But my most recent question is ‘why was Bob Dylan selected as the 2016 Nobel Prize recipient for Literature?’ When the award was announced to the world, I immediately recalled the most recent American recipient, 23 overdue years ago, Toni Morrison back in 1993. Then, I thought of the first American recipient, Minnesota’s own Sinclair Lewis in1930, both esteemed novelists. Now MN has 2 and one is a poet! To his own surprise, Bob said that he had never thought his song lyrics were ‘literature,’ “but neither did Shakespeare,” he said. Dylan said, “both of us were too busy with more mundane matters about how to begin a song or a play; which musicians or actors would be best for this one?” But, the Nobel Committee declared that his writings “created new poetic expressions in the great American song tradition.”
Tracing the truth and veracity of this claim is author Dr. Richard Thomas, a Harvard professor of Classical Literature. He’s a die-hard Dylan fan who has attended concerts here and abroad for decades. He even offers a Dylan course of study every other year to Harvard freshmen. This text is a condensing of those lectures. In this book he offers multiple, convincing answers to the title’s implied question filling not only the 323 pages of text but also includes nearly 100 footnotes (endnotes) regarding specific quotes, as well as a 50-source bibliography followed by 5 pages of citations for lyrics quoted from Dylan’s 38 albums. Plus, at the end, there’s a 17 page-long Index of references and cross-references. Holy Cow! Obviously, Thomas knows how to create and fulfill a thesis.
Thomas’ book is worth reading only if you wonder why Dylan has been so revered throughout the past 6 decades. There’s more to him than meets the ear.

[Mishehu · Rating 1 out of 5]

WBDM is an excruciatingly dull book. Thomas may be a fine classicist (I have no idea) but he's a tepid music critic. I've always known that Dylan matters but had hoped this book would challenge me to consider his significance anew. I'll grant this: having read WBDM, I now know more about Dylan's varied sources of inspiration, and about the impressive reading list he's amassed throughout his life, including classical literature. But so what? How Dylan arrived at a particular set of lyrics may be exciting to super-fans of his, and to Dylanologists. But Dylan's creative process isn't why he matters, and nearly the entirety of this book meditates solely on that process. I don't know Dylan one whit better for having read WBDM, and I doubt the author does either for having written it. Though I'm sure writing it was a labor of love, the results could not be less compelling. WBDM reads like a very over-long lit crit essay by a precocious high school student. I couldn't wait to be done with it.

[Dbaguti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, he answered, just because

[Django Laić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard F. Thomas ‘Why Bob Dylan Matters’ – među kraljevima ranog Rima

Knjiga harvardskog profesora klasične poezije koji na sveučilištu drži i seminare o Dylanu donosi začuđujuće dugačak popis poveznica između poezije antičkih velikana i Dylanovih stihova.

Nobelova nagrada za književnostu Bobu Dylanu je dodjeljena prije više od godinu dana, ali čini se kako se o kontroverznoj odluci Švedske akademije ne prestaje pričati. Može li se tekstove pjesama vrednovati jednako kao poeziju, makar oni bili djelo najvećeg od majstora te discipline? Dok dio snobova i dalje frkće nosom, drugi poput Salmana Rushdieja, upućuju na činjenicu da je od Orfeja naovamo poezija bila usko povezana s pjesmom i glazbom.

Sličnog je razmišljanja i Richard F. Thomas, profesor klasične poezije na Harvardu i čovjek koji svojim studentima osim o rimskim pjesnicima drži i seminar o Dylanovoj poeziji. On u svojoj novoj knjizi, možda nespretno nazvanoj, “Why Bob Dylan Matters”, odnosno “Zašto je Bob Dylan bitan” donosi začuđujuće dugačak popis poveznica između poezije antičkih velikana i Dylanovih stihova.

Nije nepoznata činjenica da je Dylan uvelike citirao pjesnike poput Ovidija i Vergilija u svojim pjesmama, ali Thomasova knjiga iznenađuje skretanjem pozornosti na sve slučajeve u kojima se Bob intertekstualno referira na njih od samih početaka, ali pogotovo u posljednjih dvadeset godina karijere, od albuma “Time Out of Mind” naovamo. Album “Modern Times” tako vrvi od doslovnih citata Ovidija, dok se na “Tempest”, osim očitih naslova poput “Early Roman Kings”, našlo mnogo toga iz Homerove “Odiseje”.

Thomas osim po pjesmama s albuma spretno kopa i po Dylanovoj polufiktivnoj autobiografiji “Chronicles: Volume I”, kao i po brojnim intervjuima i na koncu u predavanju napisanom povodom primanja Nobela, gdje pjevač spominje antičke izvore, kao i povezanost s Rimom od školskih dana i članstva u latinskom klubu. No njegova je knjiga najbolja kada nije usredotočena isključivo na utjecaje klasika na Dylana, već kad razmatra njegov ingeniozan postupak stvaranja u kojemu pjesnik uzima postojeću građu odasvuda, od Biblije, preko rimskih epova, do folk i blues tradicije i šund romana i pritom od takvog kolaža stvara jedinstven i originalan, često dvoznačan i autoreferencijalan, samostojeći sadržaj vrijedan najveće književne nagrade.

T.S. Eliot je rekao da nezreli pjesnici imitiraju, dok iskusni kradu. Dok jedni pokvare ono što su uzeli, drugi od toga naprave nešto još bolje ili barem novo. Nitko to ne radi bolje od Dylana, iako je i u tome imao svoje prethodnike od Vergilija naovamo. Naoružao se svjesno ili nesvjesno i njihovom obranom od optužbi za plagiranje: “Probajte i vi učiniti isto, pa da vidimo kako će ispasti.”

(HarperCollins, 368 str., studeni 2017.)

[Michael Bagnoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Volume One of Democracy in America, Tocqueville writes that “if America has not yet had great writers, we ought not to seek the reasons for this elsewhere: no literary genius exists without freedom of mind, and there is no freedom of mind in America.” Tocqueville didn’t believe that a great writer could emerge from under the thumb of the tyranny of the majority. Richard Thomas proves in this book that, at the very least, Bob Dylan succeeded in exercising his freedom of mind to compose great works. The book ends with analysis of Bob Dylan’s response to winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, both proving his exceptional writerly ability as well as the fact that America does produce great literary talents.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

(4/5 stars) This book is probably aimed at people fairly familiar with Dylan’s entire body of work (including more recent albums) and at least moderately aware of poets like Homer, Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. Thomas does a good job explaining who the ancient authors are but it is generally assumed that you’ve heard the songs he discusses.

As a whole, I found his analysis good but somewhat surface-level. He mostly identifies and analyzes intertext between Dylan and Dylan’s source materials (the above-mentioned ancient authors but also more modern poets and folk songs). There is some shrewd insight here that had previously escaped my attention as a serious Dylan fan, of not Dylanologist. A few instances of intertextuality feel more like coincidence but that might be my own wary eye and ear.

I have two major quibbles. First, it is roughly chronological, ending with Dylan’s Nobel Prize for Literature. That’s all well and good, but Thomas has a habit of bopping in and out of chronology, jumping ahead in the early chapters and back in later chapters, leaving me a tad disoriented.
The other complaint is that he repeatedly wonders if some biographical detail might give insight or meaning to the lyrics of the song. For example if we know Dylan was in Rome at a certain time, does that tell us anything about the songs written then (hint: yes). My issue is that Thomas himself says that in the class that is the origin of this book, he tries to show students that the songs are much more than biography and transcend Dylan’s own loved experience; they are literature. That’s great! I just wish he’d left his musings about biography and authorial intent for another book.

***

Updated review after a second read (3/5 stars): I still appreciate the main idea behind this book, to make the case why Bob Dylan matters as a major literary figure on par with Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, et al. Reading it again, it really stood out how much Thomas relies on interviews with Dylan (which are notorious for being fabricated) or Dylan's biography to try to identify what he was thinking when he was writing his songs. I don't really have a problem with using Dylan's biography, but Thomas himself says that he tries to teach his students that the songs should stand on their own, apart from the author. He also has an entire chapter near the end of the book that seems to argue that Dylan was a performer above all else, which is possibly the most "no duh" thesis I've read in a while. Ah well. Still probably enjoyable for casual fans of Dylan or classical authors like Ovid and Homer.

[Mat C · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book but a misleading title. Richard F Thomas is a Classics professor at Harvard and has taught a course on Dylan for a while. You can read the syllabus here. I wish I could have taken his course when I was in university. His course looks like Dylan 101, so you would expect that Why Bob Dylan Matters would act act as a good general intro, but it's not really interested in that. There are so many Dylan books out there that I was ok with that, but would warn anyone interested that this isn't Dylan 101.

Thomas is a Classics professor so he is most interested in how Dylan refers and adapts the works of classical authors like Homer, Ovid, and Virgil in his songs. Dylan has been accused of plagiarism at times, but Thomas defends him by arguing that Dylan is working under a long tradition of intertextuality, which according to the Cambridge dictionary stands for "the connections between different works of literature and art, and the meanings that are created by them."

In other words, Dylan is not stealing from these classical poets (or other folk or blues singers), but knowingly borrowing and reworking other works to add new meaning and be in conversation with the past works. I'm mostly on board with Thomas' argument, but I didn't buy his defense why it was fine for Dylan to sue Hootie & the Blowfish for using some of Dylan's lines in "Only Want to be with You." That does seem hypocritical to me based on what Thomas says Dylan is doing with his "borrowing."

Thomas also talks a lot about Transfiguration but that part kind of lost me. My final impression is that Thomas used Dylan's Nobel Prize in Literature win as an opportunity to release this academic book. A more honest title would have been something boring like Ancient Footprints: Intertextuality and Transfiguration in the Works of Bob Dylan but that wouldn't have sold as many copies.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard F. Thomas, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University, dylanologist and the creator of a course at Harvard on Bob Dylan, gives us an incredibly erudite analysis of Dylan's poetic genius and a thorough back-to-back with authors to the likes of Virgil, Homer and Ovid.
Dylan's life-long obsession with Ancient Rome ("Going back to Rome / That's where I was born"), the transfiguration of himself into some other spirits belonging to other eras (Odysseus?) and the use of the intertextuality among other techniques, bring his magistral way of playing with words and nostalgia to a level beyond the question "Is this literature?" that was on everybody's mouth at the news of his winning of the highest prize for Literature, the Nobel in 2016.
He's a master of songwriting and that's a fact, and, as mentioned above, he's a master of intertextuality, of borrowing, readapting, stealing, recreating and giving new life to words and melodies of the past, words known and words forgotten and now brought back to life. He's not a plagiarist, everything he takes he wants us to know from where.
As T.S. Eliot said “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

I have to admit I am a huge fan of Dylan's oeuvre, and definitely I had my reasons to believe Dylan mattered immensely even before the Nobel or before reading this book, but I have learnt a lot more about him and I would have surely enjoyed this long length essay even as a non-fan.

I have also rediscovered curiosity towards some of the classic poets and I'm about to read Catullus and Rimbaud for the first time after more than a decade.

[Jim Vander Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything He Could Steal

Richard T. Thomas book, Why Dylan Matters gives valuable insights into Bob Dylan’s art. Thomas is a professor of the classics at Harvard and explains Dylan’s relationship to Greek and Roman poets such as Ovid, Virgil and Homer. He defends the charges of plagiarism Dylan has faced throughout the years. Thomas gives us the perspective the of literary tradition of borrowing lines to produce new meaning from the creative use of existing texts. Known as intertextuality it is used in all types of art. The best quote comes from TS Elliot who said: “Good poets borrow and great poets steal”. This book is a must for Dylan fans and would be valuable for those who wonder why he won the Nobel Prize.

I am a lifelong Dylan fan and sometimes find it hard to explain why. I have especially loved his work since Time Out of Mind. My favorite album is Love and Theft. Not sure if there is an original line on there but somehow it all works. The most impressive Dylan performance of the shows I have gone to was his rendition of Working Man Blues about five years ago in Kalamazoo. The author explains how some of the text from Ovid’s exile poetry is mixed in with his own creativity to create the feeling of the song. It is a song that Dylan seems to love. He was center stage and barked out every line from the bottom of his heart. You could tell this song meant a lot to him. I tell you so it must be so.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Dylan matters. Don’t go into this expecting a comprehensive history of Bob, Richard F. Thomas comes off more like an impassioned fan than a historian (and that’s a good thing!). Thomas (a professor of literature and classical poetry) spends a lot of this book connecting Bob to his own area of expertise, poets like Homer, Ovid, and Virgil, particularly in relation to Bob’s late career masterpieces from Time Out of Mind to Tempest. As a big fan of Bob’s later works, I loved seeing them get the praise they deserve and I was fascinated by Thomas’s analysis of Bob’s intertextual use of quotes from these poets in his songs (the breakdown of all the “thefts” in “Trying to Get to Heaven” was particularly mind blowing to me and gave me a new layer of appreciation for the song!).

You could argue he’s kind of stretching to make connections at times (he spends a lot of time discussing how Bob’s experience in high school Latin club could have influenced him, which like, sure, I guess?), but that’s the beauty of Bob Dylan’s work to me. The man himself will never give us a straight answer, so people like Thomas and all of us can read into whatever we want and dig up endless connections, which I think is a lot of fun. So while this may not be an all encompassing analysis of Bob’s work, it’s still a very interesting piece of Dylanology, especially for fans of Bob’s later works.

[Peter Wolfley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a huge Bob Dylan fan since discovering his music in my early teen years thanks to the Forest Gump soundtrack my parents owned. I've spent hours listening to his music, thinking about his lyrics and trying to figure him out. This book was overflowing with useful and interesting tidbits about his life but the arguments about why he matters were not what I was hoping for. Basically the author says he matters because he is continuing on the tradition of the ancient Greek and Roman poets. That's all well and good but isn't what makes him great in my mind. One of the best parts of the book was a section about how many people are disappointed and even angry when they see him perform live because he doesn't match the Bob Dylan in their minds. When I saw him at the Eccles, I was livid but with the passage of time and with help from this book have come to understand the error of my ways and I actually look forward to seeing him again if the opportunity arises. This book is highly academic but a must read for any die hard fan. Now that this book is finished I need to go back and work my way through the 32 albums.

[Ned · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contagious enthusiasm

The author is certainly enthusiastic about his subject. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot about Dylan since I have really only a tangential knowledge of his work. I am a fan of some of his iconic songs but wouldn't consider myself a fan of the man and I am far from a "Dylanologist." The most attractive thing to me is Dylan's reserved nature, his unwillingness to publicly commit himself to popular "causes." In fact, the more popular the cause the more suspicious he becomes. That is such a rare quality as to be nearly unheard-of. No virtue signaling here. I think Dylan deserves his accolades for his deep and wide body of work and it was nice to acquaint myself more with his development as an artist. A man who won't be pigeonholed or bandwagoned is worthy of admiration for that reason alone.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all have that Dylan obsessed friend who loves to break down the songs and tells us what Dylan really means. Usually that person whispers lyrics slowly and with great emotion. Well, this book is that guy writ large. Worse yet, it’s a really smart guy.

I love audio books but this is a book that you should read. You will want to put it down, go listen to your old albums and go look at the source materials. The author loves lists. The author throws in chunks of poetry. The author writes in triads.

If you love Bob Dylan you will Iove this book. If you are the guy who likes to slowly recite Dylan to your friends this book is your bible. If you feel like you don’t get Dylan you might just be turned into that guy.

[Floyd Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book written by a Harvard University classicist, who traces Bob Dylan's master works to classic Roman poets and other historical literary figures. I have been a Dylan fan since High School and never really worried where his songs came from. I just knew that I loved the music. I think the following sentence from the introduction sums up Dylan's greatness: "Dylan's art has long enriched the lives of those who listen to his music, through a genius that captures the essence of what it means to be human." I think this book would be enjoyed by those who are not as particularly taken with Dylan as I am. In addition to his music's classical lineage, I enjoyed learning the "back story" of many of his more notable songs.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another addition to the lengthy list of Dylan critiques. 'Why Dylan Matters' comes hot on the boot heels of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Harvard Professor Richard F. Thomas, not just a Classics lecturer, but a long time fan, examines the complete canon of Bob's work and makes comparisons with the likes of Virgil, Ovid and Homer.
I enjoyed this book and certainly found it to be an original and thoughtful academic analysis. More engaging than, for example, 'A Darker Shade of Pale' from Professor Wilfrid Mellers.
It also caused me to realise that I had missed adding 'Chimes of Freedom' onto my Ipod!

[Rebecca Marino Heckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would consider this book required reading for all Dylan devotees as well as any lover of the Humanities. I enjoyed the way the author explored intertextualization in Dylan’s work and shined a light on the depth and breath of classical themes present in his lyrics from both giants of verse such as Homer and Virgil as well as little known folk songs, parables poems and stories. I also enjoyed the fact that he concentrated on Dylan’s work as a whole versus only the early years and the theory he put forth about his current concert set lists and rituals. I couldn’t put it down.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, ok, I've read an embarrassing number of books about the great Bob Dylan, good, bad, and stupid. This one links Bob with the likes of Homer, Ovid, Virgil, Milton, Rimbaud, and a number of lesser known lights. The key word here is "intertextuallity," a.k.a., stealing, but not - I repeat - not plagiarism. Fascinating, in a geeky sort of way. Necessary to nuts like me. There you have it.