by Pa Rock
Arts Appreciator
Today is the birthday of two American literary treasures. Bob Dylan was born as Robert Allen Zimmerman on this date in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota - and Michael Chabon arrived in the world twenty-two years later (1963) in Washington, DC. Both were born into Jewish households, though Dylan converted to Christianity later in life, and both went on to receive international acclaim for their work - including the Nobel Prize for Literature to Dylan as well as a special citation from the Pulitzer Committee, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Chabon.
Bob Dylan, of course, has been holding a mirror up to American society since the 1960's. During the Vietnam War years he created what eventually became the soundtrack for that turbulent decade. Over the past sixty years or so he has gone on to capture much of the social and political turmoil and has ebbed and flowed across the American and world landscapes.
There are literally no documentaries on American life in the 1960's that do not contain some of the music of Bob Dylan: "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," "It Ain't Me, Babe," "The Times They are a-Changin', "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Like a Rolling Stone" - and so many others.
(When my oldest son was about to enter his senior year in high school he somehow managed to acquire tickets for our entire family to see Bob Dylan live in an outdoor concert in Branson. It was a beautiful night under the stars as we listened to many old standards - and many that were more recent works of the ever-evolving artist. Twenty years on from there and I would be in a bookstore buying my grandson - who was a budding guitar player - a Dylan songbook that was literally too heavy to mail!)
And today the seventy-nine-year-old singer/songwriter is still at work guiding us toward our better selves.
I became a fan of Michael Chabon when I stumbled across a copy of his first book - The Mysteries of Pittsburg - in a bookstore. That novel was written as a master's thesis in college, and his supervising professor was so impressed that he sent it off to a literary agent who promptly found a publisher who was anxious to get it into print. My enjoyment of The Mysteries of Pittsburg led to me buying and quickly devouring Chabon's second novel, Wonder Boys.
Several years later I was sitting in a movie theatre with my youngest son - who was probably in college at the time - when a trailer began that was featuring a new Michael Douglas film. As the preview got rolling I began to realize that the storyline was familiar. Suddenly I told Tim, "I've read that book!" It was Wonder Boys, and it was great - the book and the film adaptation.
(That son has gone on to have two of his own screenplays made into full-length motion pictures. Undoubtedly part of his success is rooted in the fact that he appreciates good literature, both on the page as well as on the screen, the works of dedicated and talented writers such as Michael Chabon as well as gifted poets and songwriters like Bob Dylan.)
Next I read Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, an ethnic take on the comic book industry in the era of World War II, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001. And my final encounter with the highly talented author was a very incisive alternative history entitled The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
Michael Chabon teaches creative writing at UC Berkley, and in addition to being a highly regarded novelist, he is also a successful screenwriter and short story writer. He has penned several other novels - and shame on me for not having read them - yet!
So happy birthday to two very successful cultural icons as they continue to fill our hearts and souls with with their distinctive and provocative cultural output. Bob Dylan and Michael Chabon are both truly American treasures - and their works enrich our lives immensely!
Arts Appreciator
Today is the birthday of two American literary treasures. Bob Dylan was born as Robert Allen Zimmerman on this date in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota - and Michael Chabon arrived in the world twenty-two years later (1963) in Washington, DC. Both were born into Jewish households, though Dylan converted to Christianity later in life, and both went on to receive international acclaim for their work - including the Nobel Prize for Literature to Dylan as well as a special citation from the Pulitzer Committee, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Chabon.
Bob Dylan, of course, has been holding a mirror up to American society since the 1960's. During the Vietnam War years he created what eventually became the soundtrack for that turbulent decade. Over the past sixty years or so he has gone on to capture much of the social and political turmoil and has ebbed and flowed across the American and world landscapes.
There are literally no documentaries on American life in the 1960's that do not contain some of the music of Bob Dylan: "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," "It Ain't Me, Babe," "The Times They are a-Changin', "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Like a Rolling Stone" - and so many others.
(When my oldest son was about to enter his senior year in high school he somehow managed to acquire tickets for our entire family to see Bob Dylan live in an outdoor concert in Branson. It was a beautiful night under the stars as we listened to many old standards - and many that were more recent works of the ever-evolving artist. Twenty years on from there and I would be in a bookstore buying my grandson - who was a budding guitar player - a Dylan songbook that was literally too heavy to mail!)
And today the seventy-nine-year-old singer/songwriter is still at work guiding us toward our better selves.
I became a fan of Michael Chabon when I stumbled across a copy of his first book - The Mysteries of Pittsburg - in a bookstore. That novel was written as a master's thesis in college, and his supervising professor was so impressed that he sent it off to a literary agent who promptly found a publisher who was anxious to get it into print. My enjoyment of The Mysteries of Pittsburg led to me buying and quickly devouring Chabon's second novel, Wonder Boys.
Several years later I was sitting in a movie theatre with my youngest son - who was probably in college at the time - when a trailer began that was featuring a new Michael Douglas film. As the preview got rolling I began to realize that the storyline was familiar. Suddenly I told Tim, "I've read that book!" It was Wonder Boys, and it was great - the book and the film adaptation.
(That son has gone on to have two of his own screenplays made into full-length motion pictures. Undoubtedly part of his success is rooted in the fact that he appreciates good literature, both on the page as well as on the screen, the works of dedicated and talented writers such as Michael Chabon as well as gifted poets and songwriters like Bob Dylan.)
Next I read Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, an ethnic take on the comic book industry in the era of World War II, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001. And my final encounter with the highly talented author was a very incisive alternative history entitled The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
Michael Chabon teaches creative writing at UC Berkley, and in addition to being a highly regarded novelist, he is also a successful screenwriter and short story writer. He has penned several other novels - and shame on me for not having read them - yet!
So happy birthday to two very successful cultural icons as they continue to fill our hearts and souls with with their distinctive and provocative cultural output. Bob Dylan and Michael Chabon are both truly American treasures - and their works enrich our lives immensely!
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