Nobel academy member calls Bob Dylan ‘impolite and arrogant’

As American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has remained unresponsive and failed to even make a comment after he was named the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, a member of the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel literature prize openly blasted him as being “impolite and arrogant.”

According to the New York Times and other sources on Saturday, Swedish writer Per Wastberg said, “It’s impolite and arrogant” in his interview with the Swedish public broadcaster SVT on Friday. “This is an unprecedented situation.” He expressed discontent by saying that the academy has decided not to contact him.”

Since being named the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature on October 13, Dylan has not even made a single comment. The Swedish Academy has sought to contact Dylan several times for the award ceremony to be held on December 10, but has yet to confirm‎ even whether the U.S. singer will attend the event or not.

As the situation has deteriorated, various speculations have emerged widely. When the media reported on the words "the Nobel laureate in literature," which were included in a post related to his new wordbook’ on Dylan’s official website on Thursday, the words were immediately deleted. When the fact that the title of the final song that Dylan sang at his concert in Las Vegas on October 13 was "Why try to change me" was made public, rumors had it that he expressed discontent about his selection as Nobel laureate through his song.

On Wastberg’s criticism of the famed singer, the Swedish Academy said that it was his personal view, adding that it is completely up to a winner’s own judgement as to how the winner will accept the selection, and the academy will continue to do so.

The literature community, which is not very enthusiastic about Dylan being named a Nobel laureate for literature, seems to be enjoying this mood.

황인찬기자 hic@donga.com