Dylan lyrics tangled up in controversy

Christopher Ricks, co-director of Boston University’s Editorial Institute and author of ‘Dylan’s Visions of Sin,’ analyzed and defended four Bob Dylan songs concerning civil rights issues last night to about 180 attendees in Metcalf Hall.

The songs he explored, which included ‘Oxford Town’ and ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,’ have elicited accusations from critics who charged Dylan with trying to mimic a black person’s struggle. However, Ricks, a William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities, argued otherwise.

‘Absence of accusation is evidence that nothing seriously bold, adventurous or worthy of the name of art has been attempted,’ Ricks said.

Ricks stressed the important difference between Dylan’s use of sympathetic imagining of the plight of black people during the Civil Rights movement instead of identification with them. Sympathy, unlike identification, does not presume to understand what the other person has experienced, he said. Identification is too sentimental, which is dangerous, Ricks said.

‘Sentimentality is a false feeling,’ Ricks said after the discussion.

‘Sentimentality is kidding yourself that you care about something you don’t care about. I think Dylan is wonderfully aware of the dangers of doing what he’s doing.’

After playing each song and then explaining the accusations against each, which usually involved Dylan taking black suffering upon himself, Ricks repeatedly said Dylan does not impersonate or mimicry of black people in his songs.

Instead Ricks said Dylan uses subtle, poetic techniques within his songs that are discovered when the audience acts more like a writer than a political activist, and focuses on ‘self-investigation’ rather than ‘self-righteousness.’

For example, he pointed out that one missing syllable in one line of ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,’ which describes a white man killing her with a cane, makes all the difference.

‘This is a moment when a life is amputated as casually as one syllable is omitted,’ Ricks said.

Ricks ended his presentation with a question and answer session. In response to a question about his opinion on the ratio of consciousness to natural genius in Dylan’s writing, he joked that the extent of his natural genius is ‘three and a half inches.’

‘Great feats of art are like great feats in athletics, or anything,’ he said. ‘They require a certain combination of the two.’

‘But when it comes down to it, conscious intention doesn’t play a big part in athletics,’ he said. ‘It’s like when we write ‘the’ without the intention to put an ‘h’ in it. We have to program our brain so as to stop it from being in control.

‘Dylan delights us with coincidences,’ he added.

Dan Salerno, a graduate student, said Ricks’ work on Dylan is ‘cutting edge’ in the field of literary criticism.

‘I think he’s a really engaging speaker,’ Salerno said. ‘He has a special appeal because he’s one of the few literary critics who’s done work on Bob Dylan.’

Zak Bos, a BU graduate student, said he liked how Ricks never urged Dylan fans toward one general consensus about the meaning of his songs.

‘He never made any pronouncements about Dylan’s opinions or attitudes on race,’ Bos said. ‘All he did was say there are ways we can evaluate these, and we will be irresponsible if we don’t use more sophisticated terms.’

Christopher Gately, a BU Research and Public Information Administrator who helped organize the event, said BU students continue to ask Ricks to speak about Dylan every year, and turn out in huge numbers.

‘Every student has fallen in love with Professor Ricks and asked for more,’ Gately said.

Ricks left students a piece of advice for listening to Dylan.

‘My advice is to close your eyes,’ Ricks said. ‘Then you’ll hear better.’