Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Paths of Victory


While the Swedish Academy still mulls over the question, the Pulitzer Board has finally taken a call.

After being nominated 6 times for Nobel Prize in Literature, the man gets a nod from the literary sorts of his homeland. Bob Dylan gets the 2008 ‘Special Pulitzer’ for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.

Dylan becomes the first 'rock'n'roll Honorary Pulitzer winner, joining the likes of other musical greats like George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk (both of whom were given the Honorary Pulitzer posthumously) and Duke Ellington (whom the jury had voted for the Pulitzer for Music Award in 1965 but the board refused).

Congratulations!

How would the man himself react to this? Perhaps, in the form of these lines from his 1991 song, ‘Paths of Victory’.

Trails of troubles,

Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
I shall walk.

ps: The picture above is from the The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan days, which will be...1963.