Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, once explained that he never won a Nobel Prize because he had offended the Swedes by being a terrible Saab salesmen at an automobile dealership in the '70s. Like his writing, the joke is a subversive take on the state of things—like a "so it goes" for an award he likely didn't care about anyway. But his relative disrespect for the Swedish people who award the Nobel Prize isn't exactly why he would have hated that Bob Dylan was awarded the honor in literature last week.
Vonnegut actually hated Dylan's writing. In a 1991 interview with Hustler, Vonnegut rather succinctly told the magazine about his cut and dry musical tastes:
We'll start from the back and work forward. I hate rap. The Beatles have made a substantial contribution. Bob Dylan, however, is the worst poet alive. He can maybe get one good line in a song, and the rest is gibberish.
You could imagine what Vonnegut would say about the latest Nobel Prize in Literature winner.
Two other things to keep in mind with this bit of information to add to the ongoing debate about Bob Dylan's award: 1. Vonnegut also hated rap, which should discredit some of his musical taste. 2. Dylan also doesn't even give a fuck that he won the award.
So it goes.
