The noble Bob Dylan

November 12, 2016, will be remembered. Four days ago, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded not to Philip Roth or Haruki Murakami, but to a singer-songwriter known for his poetic talent and his musical genre, folk rock, which he popularized in the 1960s and developed in the 1970s and beyond: Bob Dylan.

Even today, this artist—who has inspired both Francis Cabrel and Guns N’ Roses—proves his artistic genius with every album. But does that mean he deserves a Nobel Prize? It’s hard to say. At the Regard Libre, no one has a set opinion on the matter. No one can remain unmoved by the musical world of this pioneer of modern rock—that’s not the issue. The question remains: by awarding their prestigious prize to Dylan, aren’t the Swedish Academy members mixing things up?

For example, we might think that while everyone listens to Bob Dylan, no one actually reads his work. So he shouldn’t be awarded a major literary prize, especially when renowned writers are rightfully waiting their turn. I’ll go even further: if an artist writes a song to be a song, it will always remain a song. We can certainly marvel at the poetic quality of many songs, but that doesn’t make them poems, unless they are conceived from the outset as being poems as well—as is the case with Brel’s repertoire, which we enjoy reading.

Yet even in Brel’s case, no one thinks of the Nobel Prize. It would almost be an insult to award a literary prize to a man whose work cannot be considered apart from its musical richness. «In music,» Michel Polnareff said in a recent interview, «we’re too quick to pigeonhole people. We often talk about Brel the poet, but he wrote fantastic melodies. In the same way, I think I’ve written lyrics that are significant.»

The best thing to do in this situation is to focus on the positive. Whether this award is justified or not, whether Dylan accepts it or not—it doesn’t really matter in the end. At least people who had never heard of Bob Dylan now have the chance to discover him. Everyone on this Earth should listen to him at least once. Mr Tambourine Man and Blowin’ in the Wind before his death. Long live Dylan’s work, and long live music—which will never be literature, for it is so far superior to it!

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