I doubt anyone will be surprised at Dalrymple’s reaction to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize for literature:
When I heard the announcement, I thought it was a spoof. I thought, “Why not award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to a celebrity chef?” Poetry is made of words; Dylan wrote words. Food is made of chemicals; chefs mix chemicals.
…But I accept that tastes differ (though it must be remembered that humanity is more divided by taste than by anything else).
A terrible selection from The Guardian. Perhaps these lines might be more congenial to Dalrymple’s parish, from Dylan’s song ‘My Back Pages’:
“A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
‘Equality’, I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now.”