[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Lee Dillion]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch Martin Scorsese's documentary
> on Bob Dylan just after reading that. The documentary is filled with
> numerous clips of an interview with a painfully inarticulate Bob Dylan,
> along with numerous clips of Dylan whining the unintelligible gibberish
> that he foisted off as lyrics back in the 1960s. The documentary filled
> me with a kind of wonder, as I marvelled at the fact that people
> actually used to enjoy listening to Bob Dylan. Hell, even I used to
> enjoy it. But why? His material was so lacking in substance that it
> can't even be called shallow, let alone profound. So why did so many of
> us like it? Mass delusion? Quién sabe? (Sorry, but my keyboard does not
> make those upside-down question marks that Spanish writers use to warn
> the reader that a question is about to be posed.)
> 
> While reflecting on the question of what it was that a generation of
> Americans saw in an incomprehensible poet who started his career by
> telling everyone the lie that he grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, I also
> began to reflect on the equally puzzling question of why I used to enjoy
> writing on buddha-l, even though I really had nothing of consequence to
> say. Things change. 

hehe.  I watched the documentary as well, but seemed to enjoy it more 
than you did.  In particular, the scene where a British reporter is 
asking Dylan about his music and Dylan ducks and weaves by using the 
common Buddhist usenet technique of reversing the process and asking the 
reporter how he would answer the question.  The reporter says he doesn't 
know how he would answer it since he hasn't heard Dylan sing but that 
its his job to ask these questions -  at which point Dylan chuckles and 
says something like "You ask me all these questions about my music and 
you haven't even heard me sing?"

The silliness of it all was rather appealing.  Much like discussions of 
Buddhist practice.