According to Rolling Stones magazine, Bob Dylan reportedly may have taken portions of his Nobel speech lecture from the online site Sparknotes. Writer Andrea Pitzer identified similarities between the two after Dylan received the award last October.
Dylan, while making the speech to the Swedish Academy in Los Angeles spoke of three books that greatly inspired him including Moby Dick, Homer’s Odyssey and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Previously, Dylan was reported to have brought up new revelations on certain events in the book Moby Dick, referring to ‘Captain Ahab’s “Quaker pacifist priest” moment, however Pitzer went on to find similar descriptions on Sparknotes.
All in all she found 20 different sentences in the lecture that mirrored Dylan’s lecture.
A full breakdown of the similarities can be found on Slate but here is an excerpt to showcase the uncanny resemblance of the two:
Dylan: “Finally, Ahab spots Moby … Boats are lowered … Moby attacks Ahab’s boat and destroys it. Next day, he sights Moby again. Boats are lowered again. Moby attacks Ahab’s boat again.”
SparkNotes: “Ahab finally sights Moby Dick. The harpoon boats are launched, and Moby Dick attacks Ahab’s harpoon boat, destroying it. The next day, Moby Dick is sighted again, and the boats are lowered once more … Moby Dick again attacks Ahab’s boat.”
Dylan unfortunately has had a history of plagiarizing other artists especially in his songs including plagiarism from movies like ‘A streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Cat on a hot tin roof.’
While defending himself in an interview with Rolling Stone, the 76 year old singer/songwriter had this to say: “I’m working within my art form,” he said. “It’s that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it. There are authoritarian figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It’s called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it.”