Bob Dylan

How was Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" involved in controversy during the Bush administration?

Bob Dylan's song 'Masters of War' is essentially a protest song written to protest against the Wars that were being fought at that time.Even though the song was written in the 1960's its power can still be seen today. I think this song is still very powerful as it still is relevant all these years later. In the song Bob Dylan is very clear on the position that he holds and his negative view towards war.

The song became embroiled in controversy on February 21 1991 at the Grammy Awards, where Bob Dylan would receive the Lifetime Achievement Award when he delivered the rendition of Masters of War happening in the middle of the first war between America and Iraq during the George Bush administration. This reinforced his view and his answer to conflict on the topic of war. This became one of the most memorable performance of his entire career and struck a chord with the audience and not only with the Americans but also with audiences around the world.

Again when George Bush made it clear that he wanted to launch a second war against Iraq, on 11th November just after securing the midterm elections Bob Dylan once again performed the song. This time his performance came at Madison Square once against protesting Bush strategies and intentions of launching another war against Iraq. Then again when George Bush John Kerry were contending for the title of the presidency. On this intense night when the votes were being counted with one state being left fought for Bob Dylan again Masters of War.

The song had so much power that it also influenced a group of "Your basic juvenile delinquent types," school kids as described by their teacher to use the song as their act for their annual talent show. The named themselves Taliband made the cut and gave a blunt performance of the song changing the lyrics "I hope you die" to Die, Bush, Die". This led a parent of a student call the news stations and the situation escalated to the point where the Secret Service turned up and took the lyrics to the "Master's of War" and then left. The band decided to change their name to the Coalition of the Willing. With such commotion having taken place the band negotiated with the school administration to have footage of Bush and Iraq being shown in the background whilst they played the song. The administration were hesitant and at the end came to a compromise of allowing generic war footage alongside the American flag.

Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" is an extremely powerful protest song and this was proven by it's impact during the Bush administration. It's meaning was projected by not only Bob Dylan himself but by those influenced by the song also.

Marcus,G. (2006). Stories of a Bad Song. Retrieved May 9, 2013, from http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/marcus_w06.html

Week 10-12

Modernism
What does 'the wasteland' mean? (Lol - joke)

1. How has it been interpreted?
2. What are some of the key features?
3. In what ways has it been influencial?

 
Post Modernism

1. What common qualities do 'the beats' share?
2. How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3. How has Bob Dylan's 'Masters of war' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4. On what ground was 'howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defence?
5. What kind of protest song/rap or other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?

On what grounds was ‘howl’ accused of being obscene? – Grounds for the defence

Ginsberg’s ‘howl’ was written in a San Francisco apartment in the summer of 1955. The creation of this poem sparked a lot of controversy which lead to a court case where it was then ruled as obscene. In support of the trial, there testimonies given from “nine literary experts who spoke out in favor of the poem’s merits” (Chandler, 2012) City Lights Books were the publishers of this text and were later prosecuted. Brown (2011).

Ginsberg’s ‘howl’ was accused for being obscene for a number of reasons. “Howl is a rage against conformity, inhibition, censorship, puritanism, and everything else that restricts and limits the realization of one's true self.” (Sederberg, n.d.). Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled this very poem as not obscene and stated his reason why. He said that the poem had “redeeming social importance” regardless of the fact that it mentions sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll which were all argumentative at that particular time period. (Chandler, 2012 - quoted Horn)

The first couple of lines of the poem is enough, well for me, to get the reader’s attention. After reading this poem, I thought that it literally was a howl! A howl from a writer’s perspective of being in the so called ‘land of the free’, having rights such as freedom of speech and what not, and then later having your own poems marked as obscene! All he was trying to do was voice his opinion about political and cultural conservatism that had “destroyed the best mind of ‘his’ generation” (Ginsberg, 1956).

 

Brown, M. (2011). Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’: ‘I scribbled magic lines from my real mind’ – Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8333075/Allen-Ginsbergs-Howl-I-scribbled-magiclines-from-my-real-mind.html

Chandler, A. (2012). Looking Back at ‘Howl’ and the obscenity Trial – Tablet Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/113218/howl-and-the-obscenity-trial

Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl andOother Poems. San Francisco.

Sederberg, James. (n.d.). The Howl Obscenity Trial – FoundSF. Retrieved from http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Howl_Obscenity_Trial

Weeks 10-12

Modernism.

What does "The Wasteland" mean? (This is apparently a joke question)

1. How has it been interpreted?
2. What are some of the key features?
3. In what way has it been influential?

Post Modernism

1. What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why were they called 'beats'?
2. How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3. How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversies during the Bush Administration?
4. On what grounds was 'howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defence?
5. What kind of protest song/rap/other media have come out in the last decade. Is there a spirit of Protest any more?

Weeks 10-12

Modernism

What does 'the wasteland' mean? (Lol - joke)

1. How has it been interpreted?
2. What are some of the key features?
3. In what ways has it been influential?

Post Modernism

1. What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why were they called 'beats'?
2. How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3. How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversies during the Bush Administration?
4. On what grounds was 'howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for defence?
5. What kind of protest song/rap/other media hae come out in the last decade. Is there a spirit of Protest anymore?

Weeks 7-9

1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...

2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...

3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).

4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).

The Wife of Bath's Tale

Cite some variations in the loathly lady fabula across the three tales in your reader. Focus on the conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/”hero”

Chaucer

When Chaucer’s lady is first introduced she is referred to as a woman (line 998), ugly creature (999), old wife (1000) and a mother (1005). However as we read further on, this lady voices her desire – to be wedded to the knight. He had no idea this was coming! This lead to him exclaiming “Alas and woe is me!... Take all my goods and let my body go”. The one thing that the lady desired was the one thing he wanted to avoid. He was grateful for a moment that she had given him his answer that saved his life BUT to be married was another story in itself – he objected “for God’s love, choose another request” (1060), this was because of her outward appearance.

In lines 1067-1072 the knight doesn’t necessarily say anything about her looks, rather he talks about the shame that will be brought to him and his family now that he has to marry her - “Alas, that any of my family should ever be so foully degraded!” This indeed didn’t need any description of her looks because the statement was self-explanatory. It was shaming to be seen with her and to marry her would bring shame to the family name. After their marriage he “hid himself like an owl, so woeful was he, his wife looked so ugly.” (1081-1082).

Throughout the whole tale he is bitter about the situation he’s in - trying to find the answer to the question put forth by the Queen “what thing is it that women most desire” (905). After finding his answer through the woman in the forest – “women desire to have sovereignty as well over her husband as her love, and to be in mastery above him” (1038-1040) he was even more startled that this woman desired to be his wife and wanted nothing to do with her. This goes to show that he was clearly selfish, self-centred and cared about himself and no one else which takes us back to the beginning of the tale where we learn of his selfish desires of raping the innocent maid. He isn’t very ‘knightly’ throughout the whole tale.

Hahn

The difference between Hahn’s and Chaucer’s ladies is that Hahn’s text goes into a lot of detail in describing how ugly this woman is. She was ‘that’ ugly that “King Arthur surely marvelled.” He goes on to describe her ugliness by saying “her nose running, her mouth wide, her teeth all yellow…her teeth hung out of her lips.” It’s no wonder why he marvelled so much! He even said “she had ugliness to spare”.

So she basically gives King Arthur an ultimatum, ‘listen to me or you’ll die’. The king’s life was in jeopardy so he had to talk to Gawain (the knight), in which Gawain’s loyalty to his king is something to remember. The knight knew his obligation and loyalty to the king, hence he’d do anything for him, even marry someone he’d never seen before - who was ugly! “You are my honoured king and have done me good many times. Therefore I hesitate not to save your life, my Lord. It is my duty”. The king’s response was that of praising and honouring the knight for saving his “life and reputation forever”. I think this is the difference between Hahn’s knight and Chaucer’s – one knows his role to the king and was willing to do anything for him. The other took advantage of his role as a knight and raped an innocent maid and later on paid for it by marrying someone he didn’t want to.

Span

I find Span’s version rather interesting, it is however the shortest of the three texts (well, that we’ve been given) and he describes her as a “grisly ghost trampling on the floor”. Was she even mortal? Anyway, it goes on to say that when she entered the house she must have been that ugly or scary looking that huntsmen “fled the hall”. Now we know that when we hear the name huntsman we think of someone that is not scared of anything, and then we hear this description which only leads us to think that this ‘grisly ghost’ was disturbingly inhuman.

Describing her, Span says that “her teeth were like the tether stakes, her nose like club or mell, and nothing less she seemed to be than a fiend that comes from hell”. She demands, so to speak, king Henry to do whatever she wanted and he obediently follows commands because he was the only one left in the room. His actions/courtesy was eventually rewarded as she had a physical transformation.

Wife of Baths Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they think this? Do you agree?

After reading The Wife of Baths tales, I concur with critics who indicate Chaucer may have been a feminist. This tale is set in the days of King Arthur when men were more dominate then women, where the women had to obey the commands of the men. Equality between male and female was never an option, let alone, a thought on ones mind. In this tale the King ordered for a knight to be put to death, “this knight was condemned to be dead”, but the Queen and ladies prayed for the kings Grace. Usually, once a King has made his decision then it is final but the King granted the Queen and ladies their wish and let the Queen handle the situation, “he gave him to the Queen, all at her will”. I believe this moment reveals Chaucer is a feminist, by allowing the Queen to take control and do a Kings job by punishing this knight. Chaucer has given the Queen power – making her equal with the King. The Queen’s punishment made the knight seem somewhat stressed by having to run around and seek for answers, “he seeks every house and every place” we see here that Chaucer has reversed the roles for male and female – the male is taking orders from the female this time. These are the reasons why I believe Chaucer is a feminist.