Bob Dylan, singer song-writer turned Nobel Prize laureate now seems to have shifted to plagiarism as part of his “artistic endeavors”. Dylan accepted his noble prize earlier this year and upon acceptance has finally delivered his overdue Nobel-winning lecture via an audio link last week, mere days ahead of the deadline to claim the accompanying $1.3 million paycheque.
This is not Dylan’s first brush with accusations of plagiarism. This time around, however, the artist is being accused of using online literature cheat sheet Spark notes not only as inspiration for his take on the characters in Moby Dick, but also of directly lifting key phrases in framing his analysis from the eighth grade resource website.
And while the noble laureate might have understandably been bored by the influx of whaling knowledge that comes with reading Moby Dick, one would expect him to at least form a valid opinion about the characters rather than picking and choosing from spark notes.
It would obviously be natural, however, given the state of the world and that both candidates for President and First lady have been witnessed blatantly plagiarising their speeches:
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Perusing through Spark Notes barely inches away from the impending doom of an English exam deadline is characteristic of the life of High School students worldwide. It seems this ritual fueled by procrastination is not limited to students but has now been validated by Mr. Dylan himself, whose speech was well over due. Ben Greenman even goes as far as to argue that in his lecture Dylan seemed to have invented a quote from Moby-Dick.
Moreover Dylan’s recounting, a “Quaker pacifist priest” tells Flask, the third mate, “Some men who receive injuries are led to God, others are led to bitterness”. No such line appears anywhere in Herman Melville’s novel. Those familiar with his music will be reminded of the fabricated quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln in “Talkin World War II Blues.”
Perhaps the deepest irony of this situation stems from the fact that Dylan received his controversial prize in Literature, and thus such accusations not only fail to help legitimize his win but may also bolster the confidence of students and scholars with an aversion to citing in their answers.
