We are considering if Dylan went to Oxford. Under a transparent reading, this
may implicate if he'd heard of Grice (an Oxford philosopher). In Letters to the
Editor, in the NYT, there was reference to Dylan's background, from the State
in the USA he comes from, to the effect that this might explain the 'meaning'
(or implicature) of his silence.
In TODAY's NYT there is a further elaboration, triggered by an utterance by
Dylan which, as his typically are, implicature-laden.
The piece starts:
"We finally have an answer. Bob Dylan will, indeed, accept his Nobel Prize in
Literature — probably."
This reminds me of the use, by McEvoy, of "maybe," at the end of an utterance,
which renders it irrefutable. So let's go on:
"In his first comments on the award, made in an interview with The Telegraph,
Dylan was asked whether he would attend the Nobel ceremony in Sweden in
December. His response was characteristically mysterious."
Or, as I prefer, enigmatically Griceian.
"“Absolutely,” Mr. Dylan said. “If it’s at all possible.”"
Let us have the exchange:
i. Q: Are you attending the Nobel ceremony in Sweden this December.
D: Absolutely, if it's at all possible.
The 'it', in Dylan's response, refers to the proposition:
ii. Dylan will attend the Nobel ceremony in Sweden this coming December.
Since Dylan is aware of Aristotle example of the future naval fight, and
'contingent futures,' his response makes a lot of Dylanian and indeed Griceian
sense (vide Grice, "Intention and Uncertainty"). Grice notes that Dylan's
expansion, "if it's at all possible" is usually otiose ("and thus deletable, or
cuttable"). But the Dylanian geniality is to combine the 'uncertainty' of the
conditional ("if it is at all possible") with the Americanism, "Absolutely".
"Absolutely" is an Americanism in that Kant never used it (For Kant, and later,
the Hegelians, the Absolute is a paralogism of practical and theoretical
reason).
The piece goes on:
"His comments in the interview — ostensibly to promote a new exhibition of his
visual art in London"
as opposed to auditory music, aka music.
"— came after two weeks of public silence by Dylan about the Nobel, during
which time members of the 18-person Swedish Academy became increasingly
agitated. First they noted, with some puzzlement, that they had not spoken to
Dylan personally. Then another member called his non-response “impolite and
arrogant. (And why couldn’t they reach him?)"
McEvoy suggests that he (Dylan) was busy on the phone with him (McEvoy).
"“Well, I’m right here,” Mr. Dylan said, “playfully,” and without further
explanation."
The deictic status of
iii. I'm right here.
is possible irrefutable, and thus anti-Popperian. There is no way "I'm right
here" can be falsified. Dylan, qua Griceian, knows this, hence the 'playfully'.
"In the interview, his first in almost two years, Dylan is described as being
surprised but pleased by the honour. “It’s hard to believe,” he said."
The implicature is, Dylan having read Lewis Carroll, "but not impossible."
Recall the episode where Alice is puzzled to find things which are hard, yet
possible, to believe, as opposed to things which are hard AND IMPOSSIBLE to
believe.
"His reaction upon being told that he had won: “Amazing, incredible. Whoever
dreams about something like that?”"
The Dylanian use of adjectives applies to propositions, again, "IT IS amazing;
IT IS incredible". This is followed by an anti-Popperian rhetorical question
(Popper hated rhetorical questions):
iv. Who dreams about something like that?
Dylan may be referring to Malcolm's essay, "Dreaming". To KNOW if someone is
DREAMING ABOUT SOMETHING *LIKE* winning the Nobel is so complicated, that
Malcolm thought it refuted behaviourism.
"In typical fashion, Dylan also resisted giving much endorsement to
interpretations of his work — even those by the Swedish Academy, which, in
announcing Dylan’s prize on Oct. 13, likened his songs to the poems of Homer
and Sappho."
"“I suppose so, in some way,” Dylan said of that comparison."
This is DOUBLY, guardedly Griceian: "I suppose" and "in some way". The
implicatures, being: (a) "but I would not know" (in the State where he comes
from, people are modest) and (b) "in the way in which I compare to Sappho and
Homer".
Since the conversation was about Dylan's endorsement to a SIMILE (or
'comparison'), Dylan's "in SOME way" (implicating, "but not in others" -- cfr.
his previous "absolutely") is brilliantly Griceian.
"Some of his songs, including “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna
Fall,” “Hurricane” and “some others,” he said, “definitely are Homeric in
value.”"
I.e. they have Homeric value. Whitman has studied the ballad tradition of Homer
as it survives in parts of Eastern Europe, e.g. the use of formulaic repeated
phrases. Dylan's use of "definitely" is definite -- It's the 'value' which is
Homeric, which certainly does not mean that more than that. This is Griceian.
"But: “I’ll let other people decide what they are,” he said. “The academics,
they ought to know. I’m not really qualified. I don’t have any opinion.”"
This is genial and Socratic, "I have one opinion, and that is that I don't have
an opinion". In this case, the opinion is focuses: it's about what the
academics (such as H. P. Grice, but more precisely, Dylan is implicating the
members of the Swedish Academy. The first Academy, founded by Plato, was thus
named after Hekademos, a local deity.
The interview, conducted by Edna Gundersen, a veteran entertainment journalist,
also quotes Mr. Dylan musing on some of his nonmusical interests. He has been
painting since the 1960s, and his iron sculptures include an archway for a new
resort casino in Maryland.
"“I’d like to drive a racecar on the Indianapolis track,” Dylan said. “I’d like
to kick a field goal in an NFL football game. I’d like to be able to hit a
hundred-mile-an-hour baseball.”"
These three propositons seem a flout to Grice's maxim, "be relevant," and are
thus genial in the implicatures they invite.
"He added: “Everything worth doing takes time. You have to write a hundred bad
songs before you write one good one. And you have to sacrifice a lot of things
that you might not be prepared for. Like it or not, you are in this alone and
have to follow your own star.”"
Dylan is genially using 'write' for what he does. Pedants distinguish between
'write' and 'compose': 'write a song' would for a pedant involves write the
lyric and then SET IT TO MUSIC. So necessity for such pedantic analysis for the
Griceian that Dylan is.
"His new art show, “The Beaten Path,” will open Nov. 5 at the Halcyon Gallery
in London. The Nobel ceremony is on Dec. 10 in Stockholm."
In between, Dylan will do things.
Cheers,
Speranza
