Love Medicine

Love Medicine
Detail of beadwork from an Ojibwe medicine pouch

Monday, December 7, 2009

Bob Dylan Connection

I found some informations on why critics think "Where are you Going, Where have you Been?" is dedicated to Bob Dylan. I thought what they came up with made sense with the story and was pretty interesting. Here it is:
They see Arnold as a savior or messiah figure and base their case on identifying Arnold with Bob Dylan, the popular singer to whom Oates dedicated the story.In the mid-sixties Bob Dylan's followers perceived him to be a messiah. According to his biographer [Anthony Scaduto], Dylan was a "rock-and-roll king." It is no wonder then that Arnold speaks with "the voice of the man on the radio," the disc jockey whose name, Bobby King, is a reference to "Bobby" Dylan, the "king" of rock-and-roll. Dylan was more than a "friend" to his listeners; he was "Christ revisited," "the prophet leading [his followers] into [a new] Consciousness." In fact, "people were making him an idol; . . . thousands of men and women, young and old, felt their lives entwined with his because they saw him as a mystic, a messiah who would lead them to salvation."

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