Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mortte Jousimo
Dylan has never been one of the greatest to me, but year after year I have started to like him more. But quite recently I found that Cohen is lot more greater than Dylan & deserves to be in the place of Dylan.
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Whoah, whoah. Let's not get crazy here. That quote is from an interview with Robert Anton Wilson; the answer is to a question about his feelings toward major pop culture phenomena borne of the "hippie" era. Because it's RAW, a prankster by trade and vocation, I'm not sure how seriously it can be taken.
The interview was conducted in 1976, via mail. Wilson apparently misspelled his own name on the return address and decided to take over the role of interviewer intermittently, posing questions to himself which he then answered.
I don't understand the logic behind the quote, assuming the statement is genuine. Dylan is a lot of things, but a symbol of masochism? Of Deathism! Surely not. Especially since “Deathism” is the very word RAW uses to describe the U.S. government later in the same interview.
He also said this, of Poul Anderson:
Quote:
: Originally by Robert Anton Wilson
I decided Poul loved the Vietnam War so much, that he could actually watch a cop hit an old lady and remember it as a young communist hitting the cop. I haven't bothered keeping up with Anderson's hallucinations since then.
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So I think it's safe to say that some responses were deliberately rabble rousing & tongue in cheek. I mean, this is Robert Anton Wilson we're talking about here.
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As to the Cohen comment, I must disagree. Cohen occupies an entirely different place in the cultural zeitgeist than Dylan ever has or ever will. Though both are logical extensions of the beat philosophy of Kerouac and Gibsberg, Dylan was never a poet or a dreamer. Dylan doesn't deserve the treatment given to him by RAW, and life certainly would be no better if Cohen had taken his place.
But shit, I don't know. I'm probably wrong. I just don't like thinking that someone I respect so much had such a negative attitude toward the man behind Blonde on Blonde & Highway 61 Revisited.
Insanity!