The world is abuzz with the surprise from Sweden - Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize
in Literature.
It would seem to be the last word in a debate but, it's got many around the world divided
on the decision.
Do lyrics like "I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now" and "You don’t
need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" put Bob Dylan on par with William Faulkner,
Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison?
Here's Lee Jiwon.
Bob Dylan's Nobel prize win has set off a buying frenzy around the world,... causing
sales of his books and music to skyrocket.
Not long after Thursday's award announcement, his memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One," shot
up 15-thousand-412 places on Amazon's best-seller list... and his hit song "Knockin' on Heaven's
Door" jumped up to third on Naver Music's Top 100 Global Pop Songs list.
Over in the States, the unconventional winner -- he's the first songwriter ever to win the
literature prize -- has generated a controversy among critics.
Some, like Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone, have expressed delight at his win,... writing
that Dylan "won for inventing ways to make songs do what they hadn't done before."
But not everyone agrees.
Critic Stephen Metcalf of Slate praised Dylan as a genius, but says he does not think that
a musician should have been awarded the highest prize in literature.
Metcalf says a literary prize should not go to an economist or a political saint -- and
it should not go to Dylan.
The debate played out here in Korea, too, with one critic firmly in the "for" camp.
"I think the academy's tried something very new, which is understanding 'literature' in
a wider sense.
Currently, the definition of literature is widening, especially with technological advancements
and new media.
And yesterday's decision shows that the Swedish Academy has and will identify any content
that can bring out literary inspiration as literature."
The 75-year-old singer-songwriter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday.
The Swedish Academy's citation said Dylan deserves the award "for having created new
poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.