Editor,
There has been continuous debate over Bob Dylan getting the Nobel Prize. Well, if we look back at the history of literature, evidently there have been many schools of poets/poetry who have immensely borrowed artistic and stylistic elements from music and vice versa. The Beat Writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso had a strict philosophy of writing ”spontaneous prose/poetry” influenced by the diverse rhythms and seamlessly fluid improvisational chord structures of Jazz music through listening to saxophonists like Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond and trumpeters like Miles Davis. Then there were the Jazz Poets like Vachel Lindsay, Langston Hughes, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Amiri Baraka etc, the Underground Poets like Alexander Trocchi, Adrian Mitchell, Jeff Nuttall, Heathcote Williams, Tom Pickard etc and the Liverpool Poets like Adrian Henri, Roger Mc Grough, and Brian Patten who found their influence and inspiration from music the same way like the Beat Writers.
Bob Dylan is being perceived as a “rock star” and “singer-songwriter”, and not a poet. There is a “musical quality” that every avid reader feels when reading good poetry or prose. Bob Dylan used the “musical quality” of Vintage American Folk Rock Traditions to write thought- provoking lyrics on various issues and subjects concerning life and society.
Musical qualities are the “beating heart” of literature, and are related to all great poets’ and novelists’ art. If the Beat writers, the Jazz Poets, the Underground Poets and the Liverpool Poets whose writings were hugely inspired and influenced solely by music (Most of these poets recited their poems in pubs and cafes to the accompaniment of live Jazz music playing), then why can’t Bob Dylan who fused the best of artistic, thematic and stylistic elements of both literature and music together be considered a poet?
Willie Gordon Suting,
Shillong 1
No Entry hassles
Editor,
This is to bring to the Notice of the Authority concerned the plight of the residents of Umpling, Nongrah and Mawlynrei,during the Durga Puja Celebration due to the ‘No Entry Sign’ put up by the Police Dept. for more than a week. If it is only for one or two days we understand and are ready to co-operate. Further, even the Taxi Stand to Umpling was shifted. This has put the commuters in great difficulty especially the elderly and children.
Kindly take necessary steps in future to solve this problem by shifting the pandal to a bigger open space.
Yours etc.,
N.R.Lyngdoh
Shillong -6
Supporting the suspended !
Editor,
Through your esteemed paper, I would like to air my views on the state of affairs in the KHADC. The grand old party (Congress) seems to be swimming in desperation and all efforts to save itself is but dashed away, by waves that have exposed their degree of confusion, to the extent that their sense of ethics and morals is all but drowned. The five Congress MDCs who were instrumental in engineering the suspension drama of P N Syiem, which was done in contradiction to laid down procedures of the Party, are still clinging on to their respective chairs without fear nor shame. Their Deputy CEM even had the audacity to declare that their support to the PDF is temporary. Alas! where have their moral obligations disappeared? Or is this the culture of the Congress Party? They suspend a member who stood against the unjustifiable (amended) law, which will now cost the public more than Rs 2 crore of rupees, an amount that could have warmed the hearths of many poor homes, and yet support his continuance as the leader in KHADC. This is bundle of contradictions. It is because of such acts that politics for no fault of itself, is often referred to as a dirty game. The current stand of the five Congress MDCs is shameful, degrading and only exhibits their true qualities of being opportunistic, selfish and oblivious to the moral obligation that their position as public representatives holds. This is a benchmark of sorts and one hopes that we the voting public learn from such exhibits and let this enable us to vote wisely in future.
Yours etc.,
Junita Suchiang,
Via email