Sobre o Nobel para Bob Dylan e outras reflexoes

O Nobel foi polêmico este ano por alguns motivos:

• Nenhuma mulher ganhou em nenhuma categoria
• Todos os americanos que ganharam sao na verdade imigrantes
• Bob Dylan ganhou o Nobel de Literatura

Estava torcendo para Lygia Fagundes Telles. Os fans do Philip Roth estavam todos raivosos nas redes sociais porque acreditavam que ele seria o ganhador e nao foi. Porém, se os nossos favoritos nao ganharam, isso nao da o direito de desmerecer a obra do Bob Dylan, nao é mesmo? Como eu amo esse homem, prefiro nao opinar se é justo ele ganhar ou nao. Apenas posso argumentar de uma maneira sucinta que ele tem cacife para ganhar SIM. 

Este prêmio foi importante para repensarmos a literatura. Segundo o dicionario:

li·te·ra·tu·ra

sf

Arte de compor escritos, em prosa ou em verso, de acordo com determinados princípios teóricos ou práticos

O conjunto das obras literárias de um país, um gênero, uma época etc. que, pela qualidade de seu estilo ou forma e pela expressão de ideias de interesse universal ou permanente, têm reconhecido seu alto valor estético

Qualquer dos usos estéticos da linguagem, mesmo quando não escrita

A arte de compor musicas pode ser considerada literatura? SIM.
Eu sei que essa ideia tira muita gente da zona de conforto, inclusive muita gente que lê e que escreve, mas tem a mente fechada e acha que so quem escreve romances de 800 paginas merece prêmios literarios.

O artigo e minha pilha de teatro para ler

Coincidentemente, algumas semanas atras, li um artigo na revista "Libraires" (é escrita por livreiros que discutem sobre livros e gêneros literarios. Esta revista tem discussoes de otima qualidade e é gratuita, distribuida na rede de bibliotecas de Québec e em varios outros lugares publicos). O artigo intitulado "Ler o teatro", fala da importância do teatro para literatura universal, faz uma linha do tempo desde o teatro antigo grego com Ésquilo, Sófocles e Eurípedes na tragédia, e Aristófanes na comédia, inclui também Shakespeare, Molière, Samuel Beckett, Brecht, Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Racine, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill, Sartre, Pirandello, Augusto Boal (É do Brasil!!!), entre outros dramaturgos.

A discussao era: mesmo tendo tantas obras teatrais de excelente qualidade literaria, o teatro ainda é considerado uma literatura marginal. Muitas pessoas nao se interessam em lê-lo.

Além do teatro, a poesia também nao é do tipo que agrada todo mundo e muita gente faz cara feia quando um poeta leva o prêmio no lugar de alguém que escreveu um calhamaço.

Resumo da opera: Se as pessoas nao querem reconhecer o teatro como literatura, sendo o teatro tao antigo quanto a propria humanidade, imagina esse povo tendo que engolir composiçao musical como literatura... OMG! Songwriter is a writer! Foi a premiaçao mais avant-gardiste de todos os tempos. Quebrou geral com o tradicionalismo, deixou todo mundo sem entender nada.

Estou sem tempo para fazer um post elaborado, vou direto ao ponto. Antes de criticar o Bob Dylan, sugiro algumas obras que podem transformar esse seu odio por ele em amor:

• Leiam Tarantula, o livro de prosa poética dele, escrito na década de 60.
  
• Escutem as musicas e leiam as letras.
• Assistam ao filme No direction home, do Martin Scorsese

Eu tenho um livro otimo chamado "Bob Dylan, All the songs - The story behind every track", escrito por Philippe Margotin e Jean-Michel Guesdon. Como diz no titulo, conta a historia por tras de cada letra. Vou colocar em inglês mesmo porque estou sem tempo para traduzir, também nao sei se tem esse livro em português. Escolhi apenas 3 musicas dentre as quase quinhentas.
Por exemplo, Blowin' in the Wind foi escrita em 10 minutos, em um café, agora leia a importância dela em varios momentos historicos:

As surprising as it may seem, Dylan wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind” in just ten minutes on April 16, 1962. He was in a coffee shop, the Commons, opposite the Gaslight, the mythical center of the folk scene in the heart of Greenwich Village, where not only Dylan but also Richie Havens, Jose Feliciano, and Bruce Springsteen, among others, got their start. In 2004, when CBS newsman Ed Bradley asked Dylan about the speed with which he wrote, Dylan replied honestly: “It came from… that wellspring of creativity.” 

Listening to “Blowin’ in the Wind,” there is a profound spirituality—a philosophical spirituality, since with Dylan the power of the spirit will always be more important than material or religious spirituality. The songwriter seems to have been inspired by images in the book of Ezekiel to create this message: “How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky? Yes, n’how many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?” Dylan explicitly refers to the Old Testament: “The word of the LORD came to me: Oh mortal, you dwell among the rebellious breed. They have eyes to see but see not; ears to hear, but hear not.”

The melody, as Dylan admitted, was musically based on “No More Auction Block,” a spiritual that he heard Delores Dixon sing every night with the New World Singers at Gerde’s Folk City. “I didn’t really know if that song was good or bad,” he told Scorsese. “It just felt right… I needed to sing it in that language, which is a language that I hadn’t heard before.”6 And the power of this language was such that he would shine in future protest events, such as on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, when “Blowin’ in the Wind” was sung by Peter, Paul and Mary on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Mary Travers recalls: “If you could imagine the March on Washington with Martin Luther King and singing that song in front of a quarter of a million people, black and white, who believed they could make America more generous and compassionate in a nonviolent way, you begin to know how incredible that belief was.” This song continues to carry his message of hope beyond the sixties. Thus, in 1985 at the end of the Live Aid festival, Dylan, along with Keith Richards and Ron Wood, performed it once again for the youth of the world, their words carried by the wind.
“But I didn’t really know that it had any kind of anthemic quality or anything,” said Dylan to Scorsese. Early in his career, he refused the label of a “prophet,” even though people wanted him to be one. 

Essa musica, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) que fala de sociedade, consumo, politica, medo, desilusao, sexualidade, etc.

With “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” written in the summer of 1964, Bob Dylan came back to the protest songs of his early career. Accompanied only by his folk-blues guitar, the singer and poet severely criticizes the hypocrisy and commercialism of a society led by a “junk elite.” On the literary side, there is a connection to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl,” a liberating cry, in which the writer of the Beat generation denounced the obscenity of modern civilization. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” is Dylan’s indictment of false prophets and manipulators. 

“It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” contains the line “But even the president of the United States / Sometimes must have to stand naked.” This had a particular resonance when Bob Dylan performed it on his 1974 tour, months after Richard Nixon resigned as president of the United States as a result of the Watergate scandal. Two years later, Jimmy Carter, future president of the United States, mentioned a line taken from “It’s Alright, Ma” in his speech at the Democratic National Convention: “That he not busy being born is busy dying.” 

(...)

Disillusioned words like bullets bark

As human gods aim for their marks

Made everything from toy guns that sparks

To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark

It's easy to see without looking too far

That not much

Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates

Teachers teach that knowledge waits

Can lead to hundred-dollar plates

Goodness hides behind its gates

But even the President of the United States

Sometimes must have

To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged

It's only people's games that you got to dodge

And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you

Into thinking you're the one

That can do what's never been done

That can win what's never been won

Meantime life outside goes on

All around you.

You loose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand without nobody near

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear

That somebody thinks

They really found you.

(...)

Although the masters make the rules

For the wise men and the fools

I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority

That they do not respect in any degree

Who despite their jobs, their destinies

Speak jealously of them that are free

Cultivate their flowers to be

Nothing more than something

They invest in.

(...)

Old lady judges, watch people in pairs

Limited in sex, they dare

To push fake morals, insult and stare

While money doesn't talk, it swears

Obscenity, who really cares

Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see

With a killer's pride, security

It blows the minds most bitterly

For them that think death's honesty

Won't fall upon them naturally

Life sometimes

Must get lonely.

The Times They Are A Changin' 

Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are A-Changin’” in the fall of 1963, inspired by old Irish and British ballads. Contrary to “Masters of War” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’” did not deal with any specific topic. The song instead expressed a feeling, a shared hope that the sixties would transform society.John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and soon afterward, large numbers of GIs left for Vietnam. The very next day after this tragedy, Dylan reluctantly gave a concert in New York. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was the first song he performed. “It became sort of an opening song and remained that way for a long time,” he explained in the Biograph booklet. In those circumstances, he feared the public would reject him. To his great surprise, the song received a standing ovation.

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no telling who that it's naming

For the loser now will be later to win

Cause the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's the battle outside raging

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changing

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand

Cause the times they are a-changing

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slowest now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fading

And the first one now will later be last

Cause the times they are a-changing

É isso! Ja podem vomitar arco-iris.... ♥♥♥