[OT] Re: [RRgraphix] TL.rev . . .

Judy Perry jperryl at ecs.fullerton.edu
Thu Dec 15 22:43:10 EST 2005


I agree with you, FWIW.  I very nearly posted the Dylan/Boswell passages
but decided not to.

Judy

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Charles Hartman wrote:

> <sorry! sorry!>
> <totallyAndCompletelyOT>
>
> That complaint about Dylan, which has been around for 40 years, rests
> on several profound misunderstandings. First, of folk music, the
> medium in which Dylan began. Second, of  how art works and how
> artists work. (T. S. Eliot: "Bad poets borrow. Great poets steal."
> Every poem enters, and alters, a vast context of other poems.) Third,
> of how audiences work. In "Sweetheart Like You" he sings, "They say
> that patriotism is the last refuge / To which a scoundrel clings. /
> Steal a little and they throw you in jail, / Steal a lot and they
> make you king." The first half is lifted from Dr Johnson ("Patriotism
> is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Boswell, Life of Johnson, October
> 18, 1769), and recognizing it gives complicated pleasure, because it
> sounds so odd in the mouth of that song's narrator. And the second
> half of Dylan's stanza? It's certainly nor original, but is he
> stealing it?
>
> </totallyAndCompletelyOT>
> </sorry! sorry!>




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