All doctrine is ultimately the death of joy - even when the doctrine is the elevation of the light above the serious, because joy is too varied and e…

- David Bennun

There's no reason - not yet, anyway - to believe [Bob] Dylan himself endorses such an attitude; or that he would think of himself as a more profound …

- David Bennun

Bob Dylan, Nobel laureate. A new fact so shocking that even the year's most notable deaths have not outdone it for the volume (in both senses) of ins…

- David Bennun

The same is true of ranking him thus against any work of literature. [Bob Dylan] has been made, through no fault of his own, the object of odious tok…

- David Bennun

The [Nobel] award [of Bob Dylan] is no affront to literature; it is an insult to pop music. It is a condescending ruffle of pop's hair while handing …

- David Bennun

On another front of the category-error argument are the insufferable fogeys who think the [Nobel] award is an outrage upon literature itself. That th…

- David Bennun

The point is not that [Bob] Dylan doesn't need a Nobel to attest to how good he is (although he doesn't.) It's that pop music, pop music of any kind,…

- David Bennun

Look, dear! How adorable. When pop music tries its very hardest, it can be almost as good as Sven Hassel.

- David Bennun

The question now becomes about defining your terms. What is literature? Unless we allow it to encompass the oral tradition from which it grew, which …

- David Bennun