Ethan kicks it off well:
I was about to ditch Dylan because of the risk he’d just mail his seminar in. Then I read the Nobel speech he mailed in, at https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2016/dylan/speech/
I want his real words, even remote, rather than the ones Geisel invents.
On the other hand, apparently these were not Bob’s actual words. From Andrea Pitzer:
During his official lecture recorded on June 4, laureate Bob Dylan described the influence on him of three literary works from his childhood: The Odyssey, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Moby-Dick. Soon after, writer Ben Greenman noted that in his lecture Dylan seemed to have invented a quote from Moby-Dick.
Those familiar with Dylan’s music might recall that he winkingly attributed fabricated quotes to Abraham Lincoln in his “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” So Dylan making up an imaginary quote is nothing new. However, I soon discovered that the Moby-Dick line Dylan dreamed up last week seems to be cobbled together out of phrases on the website SparkNotes . . .
In the past several years, Dylan seems to have expanded his appropriation. His 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One is filled with unacknowledged attributions. . . . For Dylan, recapitulation has replaced invention. . . .
Dylan turned in his lecture just before the six-month deadline, ensuring that he would get paid. In the interest of settling any potential moral debt, I would encourage him to throw some of his $923,000 prize to whoever wrote the original version of the online summary.
Slugger counters with:
Let’s hear from Geisel. Zimmy got his shot at the Nobel’s, and a good shot it was. I’d like to hear about the cartoonist’s ideas of Japanese people and why there were no cartoons about German people. Vonnegut said that the only German he ever wanted to kill was his uncle Peter; surely Geisel must have had mockable people in his family.
But the deciding argument comes from Manuel:
Lucky Wilbury puts Zimmerman ahead of Geisel in number of alt-identities. He might tell us stories about his Baptist minister dad, who was called “a cad and a bounder” by some people.
Plagiarism, multiple identities . . . this Zimmy character sounds like a cross between Ed Wegman and Mary Rosh. Bring him on!
Seuss would be fun, but I think he left it all on Mulberry Street.
Today’s matchup
This is an interesting one. A legendary punisher pitted against someone who suffered a lot. A king vs. a communist. Politics time!
Again, here are the announcement and the rules.
P.S. Whoops! I misread the bracket. It’s actually Hammurabi vs. Alison Bechdel.
This one definitely calls for a nuanced argument, with these two legendary and totemic figures!
That said, the principle of using bad puns of your name in a seminar to break the ice, suggests that while Hammurabi would struggle greatly (best I can come up with is: what do you call the beef loving, unfunny Jewish teacher? Wait, unfunny… Hah! Moo Rabbi), Frida Kahlo has endless opportunities (such as: what do you say when you see her custom car passing by? Frida’s car’s low).
Quickly dropping by the Eugene Public Library today, I noticed they have an abundance of books on Frida Kahlo. I did not check any out, since I have learned my lesson from the James Naismith debacle, now being stuck with the biography of the inventor of basketball and the loser of a contest against Henry Winkler. (Reading a few pages at a time, Naismith’s life is fairly interesting. He’s about to invent basketball, about 1/5 into the book, having ditched his plan to be a minister. I don’t know how he’ll occupy himself for the other 4/5; I think he gets drafted.)
I did not look at the Hammurabi shelf, but, if it exists, I’m sure it’s smaller. I don’t know who this is a vote for.
That’s enough distraction for now, since I should be working on a grant. It’s for the NIH, which not long ago rejected a graduate training grant submitted by people I know because the course syllabi that were provided exceeded the two page limit, even though (i) no sensible syllabus should be that short, and (ii) this is a stupid rule. What would Hammurabi say?
Raghu:
1. I just went to see Hammurabi’s pillar the other day. It’s cool.
2. I think syllabuses should be less than 2 pages. Or maybe I think a course should have 2 syllabuses, a short version with the key information and a long version with details.
3. I don’t know for sure what Hammurabi would say, but I’m guessing it would be, “Off with his head,” or something of that sort.
An eye for an eyebrow.
Am I taking crazy pills or should it be Alison Bechdel vs Hammurabi? That feels like a very appropos mistake somehow. Maybe we wish it could have been Kahlo vs Bechdel rather than comparing their skill as a speaker to a 3800-year dead guy.
Anon:
Yeah, I misread my own bracket! See new post.
P.S. Good use of the term “crazy pills”!