We are considering what may be the implicature behind the "personal letter," as
the Swedish Academy has it, that Dylan cared to write to it -- or 'them'
(Geary: "Surely, while an academy may contain just ONE member, and thus
properly be referred to as "it," we in Memphis prefer "them"").
McEvoy explains:
"Bowling Green Wal-mart was a guess. Perhaps there are no public engagements
that clash. Until the NYT says otherwise I'm leaving all possibilities open -
including that the promise was made in a Wal-mart in Bowling Green."
One good thing about the NYT is that you read it. I read it. But when I wanted
to copy and paste the fragment to share with lit-ideas, I notice that there is
a hyperlink, that it may be worth revising now that we are into the details of
Dylan's implicature. First the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/books/bob-dylan-nobel-ceremony.html?_r=0
"No trip to Stockholm for Mr. Dylan. The news came in the form of an
unobtrusive announcement on the academy website.“Yesterday evening the Swedish
Academy received a personal letter from Bob Dylan, in which he explained that
due to pre-existing commitments, he is unable to travel to Stockholm in
December and therefore will not attend the Nobel Prize Ceremony,” the group
said on its website."
-- where "on its website" is a hyperlink. If we visit it we get an idea of what
that personal utterance or letter might look like. I hope they display it on
the ceremony.
It reads:
"Bob Dylan has decided not to come to Stockholm."
So far, no mention of Bowling Green, or as I prefer, even if it does not scan
in the song referred to by McEvoy, "THE bowling green": the implicature is that
it was a green were people bowled.
The Swedish Academy continues:
"Yesterday evening the Swedish Academy received a personal letter from Bob
Dylan,"
This implicates that he wrote it earlier. Receving a letter, and using the
deictic 'yesterday', can trigger the wrong implicature. If it was FEDEX we may
assume that Dylan, qua Griceian utterer, uttered the utterance the day before
'yesterday' -- or something.
The Academy continues:
"in which he explained that due to pre-existing commitments, he is unable to
travel to Stockholm in December and therefore will not attend the Nobel Prize
Ceremony. He underscored, once again, that he feels very honoured indeed,
wishing that he could receive the prize in person."
-- in the person of Bob Dylan, that is. "In person" is sometimes used otiosely,
but not here ("I walked the dog in person," for example, is otiose, and
triggers the wrong implicature that it's the DOG that is the more important
'person' in the walk -- vide Aquinas, "Animalia personalia?" Summa Theologiae).
The Academy Continues:
"That laureates decide not to come is unusual, to be sure, but not exceptional."
Grice would love this. They spent two weeks in the Saturday morning Play Group
(that's two Saturdays) analysing, via 'linguistic botany', the concept of
'unusual' vs. 'exceptional'. "I can say Warnock plays cricket exceptionally,
but to say he plays unusually would INSULT him." It didn't. (The question was
posed by Warnock, as to whether Austin could play golf properly but not
correctly).
The Academy goes on:
"In the recent past, several laureates have, for various reasons,"
-- or as Grice prefers, "varied" reasons. ""Various reasons," unless you care
to EXPLICATE them rather than IMPLICATE what they are, remains an otiose turn
of phrase, in all European languages I know." (He read the Aeneis in Latin).
The Academy goes on:
"been unable to come to Stockholm to receive the prize, among them Doris
Lessing, Harold Pinter, and Elfriede Jelinek. The prize still belongs to them,
just as it belongs to Bob Dylan. We look forward to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture,
which he must give – it is the only requirement – within six months counting
from December 10, 2016."
Grice wrote a whole book -- his John Locke lectures, actually, "Aspects of
reason," Clarendon, on "must". He noted that 'must' allows for an internal and
an external reading:
i. Dylan MUST give a lecture within six months counting from December 10.
This is a deontic operator, it is not like:
ii. What goes up must come down.
which is an alethic operator of necessity. However, Grice adds, "I would not
multiply the senses of 'must' beyond necessity'". "I don't want an
ichthyologist to tell me that he has discovered a new type of ichthyological
necessity."
The operator is the square "[ ]".
iii. [ ] Dylan gives a lecture within six months counting from December 10.
McEvoy is just guessing about Bowling Green. But to help Dylan, I'm providing a
draft of the lecture.
iv. Dear Academy,
So, allow me to talk about Bowling Green.
Some controversy exists over the source of the town's name -- but then,
there's usually (if not exceptionally) some controversy about ANYTHING, if you
can find it. The city itself follows the first county commissioners' meeting in
1798 -- an early date if you ask me -- which named the town "Bolin Green". I'll
spell that for you: "B O L I N G R E E N". And the commissioners stated that
they were naming the city thus "after the Bowling Green "in New York, where I
lived for years, where patriots had pulled down a statue of King George III (or
bad king George, as I prefer) and used the lead to make bullets during the
American Revolution. Now, some historians dispute this, however, but I'm no
historian (Churchill was, and he got the Nobel Prize for Literature, like I
did). Anyway, these historians credit Bowling Green, Virginia (if you've been
there -- of even if you haven't [stop for laughter from audience here] -- or a
personal "ball alley game" of Robert Moore's instead. So the issue is indeed
complex. To make things worse (what's the antonym of 'ameliorate'?), erly
records indicate that the city name was also spelled "Bowlingreen" -- that
would be usual, and hardly exceptional as we New Yorkers (I count myself as a
New Yorker, after all the years I lived there --) would drop an otiose 'g'
anyway, and "Bowlinggreen" sounds almost German!
In any case, dear Academy, founded by pioneers Bowling Green was the
provisional capital of Confederate Kentucky during the American Civil War. The
city was the inspiration for the 1967 Everly Brothers song "Bowling Green,"
written by Terry Slater/Jackie Ertel. (Incidentally, this was cut not just by
The Everly Brothers ('67), but by Glen Campbell ('67), Gordon Brothers ('68),
Jesse Winchester ('77), Sarah Brightman ('98) and Neko Case ('98).
Now the Everly Brothers song is NOT the traditional song (I know this because
my poems or songs draw a lot on traditional material), "I Wish I Was In Bowling
Green", also known as "Bowling Green", recorded by Cousin Emmy, The Weavers,
Pete Seeger and others. I always loved this traditional song, because of the
'was'. You know, at school, I was taught to say, "I wish I were". But surely,
the implicatures are different: "I wish I was" carries what I call (or actually
Grice calls) an 'indicative' implicature -- whereas 'were' is, well,
subjunctive. I'm sure you have that distinction in Swedish, too. Or not, of
course! I use "sure" hyperbolically. The melody was lifted, as I like to say,
from an old fiddle and fife tune. I append some references below!"
REFERENCES
original: Cousin Emmy (1947)label: Decca
Real name: Jo May Carver. Own lyrics.
Cut by: Ray Boguslav (1956) [as Bowling Green], Kossoy Sisters (1956) [idem],
Weavers (1958) [as Good Old Bowling Green], Pete Seeger (1962) , Brothers Four
(1963) , New Lost City Ramblers (1968) [with Cousin Emmy], Jesse Winchester
(1977) , Laurie Lewis (1986) [as Bowling Green].
Cheers,
Speranza
