I guess I had the opposite reaction sort of? I'm not sure I was expecting to disagree with it but I was skeptical that they could make a reasonable argument, and came away thinking that their core argument was fundamentally sound, even if someone might disagree with it in the end.
I'm not sure their examples are really the best but for me you could cut out the examples and I think the argument would still stand. Maybe put differently, I'm not sure anyone would be talking about Bob Dylan's work if it were not for the music; that's a counterfactual that's impossible to determine but I suspect it is true. Given that, you have to ask yourself about the role of the music and whether or not you're comparing apples and oranges at some level when you compare poetry with and without music. There's lots of examples throughout history of written poetry and other works that would probably be forgotten were they not integrated into more famous musical works (Schiller's Ode to Joy is a good example, being part of Beethoven's 9th Symphony).
I can see why someone would disagree though. For me the decision always seemed off, and this rationale put into words for me why. I think there was a pattern around that time with major awards but that pertains to several slightly different issues.
I'm not sure their examples are really the best but for me you could cut out the examples and I think the argument would still stand. Maybe put differently, I'm not sure anyone would be talking about Bob Dylan's work if it were not for the music; that's a counterfactual that's impossible to determine but I suspect it is true. Given that, you have to ask yourself about the role of the music and whether or not you're comparing apples and oranges at some level when you compare poetry with and without music. There's lots of examples throughout history of written poetry and other works that would probably be forgotten were they not integrated into more famous musical works (Schiller's Ode to Joy is a good example, being part of Beethoven's 9th Symphony).
I can see why someone would disagree though. For me the decision always seemed off, and this rationale put into words for me why. I think there was a pattern around that time with major awards but that pertains to several slightly different issues.