Bob Dylan? At Electric Literature, Lincoln Michel acknowledged that no one is quite sure how to feel about the news. At Slate, Stephen Metcalf praises Bob Dylan’s genius, but argues that he’s a musician, not a poet:
The objection here hinges in the definition of the word literature. You wouldn’t give the literary prize to an economist or a political saint. You shouldn’t give it to Bob Dylan.
However, at the Guardian, Salman Rushdie, among others, shared his delight over the decision, noting that Dylan’s lyrics have been “an inspiration to me all my life ever since I first heard a Dylan album at school” and that “[t]he frontiers of literature keep widening, and it’s exciting that the Nobel prize recognises that.”
