You have eloquently described something I've never read but imagined about Dylan. Few women have dared to let the light shine into this interior space of time, intimacy, and creativity with him in a way that's personal and hard to articulate. You are doing something that seems verboten in the Dylan sphere which is to merge the artist's life and his work. Because this has never been part of the conversation about him you seem literally to be in uncharted waters but with a life jacket, unafraid of silencing your experience. This is not a Bro conversation or an intellectual dissertation on his work. As a woman artist who is fascinated by his creative process my takeaway is his process is NO process. He's a guy walking through life, love and art without a hierachy of judgement about it and let's the river flow. You have added something missing in much of the male conversation about Dylan. I would love to hear a conversation with you and Laura Tenschart of Definitely Dylan. You're adding a missing piece of a broader conversation that's never been had. Thank you!
Hi Julie, wow, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful comment, which for me completes the circuit, of putting a possibly questionable point of view about Dylan out there (and bracing myself for possible critiques for stepping on sacred territory without proofs)...and discovering that it made some kind of intuitive heart-sense to someone besides myself! Very grateful, and yes, I'll reach out to Laura of Definitely Dylan!
I know Laura well and we have talked about our fascination with your Substack because it is personal and revealing about how Dylan responds to female energy. He also seems to embody a masculine/ feminine duality that he’s very much in touch with. Your description of this moment in time is insightful and revealing about his perspective on the side show of life and how the periphery comes into focus from his subconscious for use as creative fodder. The notes in the margins of his notebooks at The Dylan Center are filled with phone numbers, notes to self, lyric changes and life observations. Everything all at once at the same time. It’s an inspired way of making art out of life
Thanks, again, Julie. Yes, there is this sense of him flowing like a river between all things in life, the obstacle course of life being the path itself. And in the unexpected is the tao, you could say. The uncontrolled, undecided. xxx
Hi Julie, I would love to take you up on your suggestion of talking to Laura Tenschart of Definitely Dylan! Could you put us in touch? Thanks...My email is csvane11@gmail.com
I agree with Julie (and all the others who have commented): this is an endearing and enduring testimony, and I think it will stand alongside some of the famous accounts of great writers by those who knew them (Hazlitt on Coleridge and Wordsworth; Walton on Donne and Herbert; John Forster's Dickens, perhaps even Boswell on Johnson). As you acknowledge, there is a question of breach of trust or perhaps simply decorum, and I'm intensely aware that my mentor and friend Christopher Ricks, in his magnificent critical book *Dylan's Visions of Sin*, scrupulously avoids writing about The Life and writes only about what Dylan has written and sung. But his is a different perspective and his involvement with Dylan has been professional and professorial. We have no proper written portrayal of Shakespeare by anyone who knew him, and in one sense perhaps his reputation has benefited from the sheer mystery. But the mystery of Dylan isn't likely ever to be thoroughly understood, and after all, he has chosen to make his vast archive available, which must signal to some extent that he knows he doesn't belong only to himself. Anyhow, this is a fascinating read.
Christina, your writing is appreciated, telling with language that explains beautifully the emotional intimacy, understanding, sensitivity and doubts regarding your time with him.
This post blows my mind!
You have eloquently described something I've never read but imagined about Dylan. Few women have dared to let the light shine into this interior space of time, intimacy, and creativity with him in a way that's personal and hard to articulate. You are doing something that seems verboten in the Dylan sphere which is to merge the artist's life and his work. Because this has never been part of the conversation about him you seem literally to be in uncharted waters but with a life jacket, unafraid of silencing your experience. This is not a Bro conversation or an intellectual dissertation on his work. As a woman artist who is fascinated by his creative process my takeaway is his process is NO process. He's a guy walking through life, love and art without a hierachy of judgement about it and let's the river flow. You have added something missing in much of the male conversation about Dylan. I would love to hear a conversation with you and Laura Tenschart of Definitely Dylan. You're adding a missing piece of a broader conversation that's never been had. Thank you!
Hi Julie, wow, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful comment, which for me completes the circuit, of putting a possibly questionable point of view about Dylan out there (and bracing myself for possible critiques for stepping on sacred territory without proofs)...and discovering that it made some kind of intuitive heart-sense to someone besides myself! Very grateful, and yes, I'll reach out to Laura of Definitely Dylan!
I know Laura well and we have talked about our fascination with your Substack because it is personal and revealing about how Dylan responds to female energy. He also seems to embody a masculine/ feminine duality that he’s very much in touch with. Your description of this moment in time is insightful and revealing about his perspective on the side show of life and how the periphery comes into focus from his subconscious for use as creative fodder. The notes in the margins of his notebooks at The Dylan Center are filled with phone numbers, notes to self, lyric changes and life observations. Everything all at once at the same time. It’s an inspired way of making art out of life
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Thanks, again, Julie. Yes, there is this sense of him flowing like a river between all things in life, the obstacle course of life being the path itself. And in the unexpected is the tao, you could say. The uncontrolled, undecided. xxx
Hi Julie, I would love to take you up on your suggestion of talking to Laura Tenschart of Definitely Dylan! Could you put us in touch? Thanks...My email is csvane11@gmail.com
Remarkable and lovely Story, funny too. ❤️
Thank you!
I agree with Julie (and all the others who have commented): this is an endearing and enduring testimony, and I think it will stand alongside some of the famous accounts of great writers by those who knew them (Hazlitt on Coleridge and Wordsworth; Walton on Donne and Herbert; John Forster's Dickens, perhaps even Boswell on Johnson). As you acknowledge, there is a question of breach of trust or perhaps simply decorum, and I'm intensely aware that my mentor and friend Christopher Ricks, in his magnificent critical book *Dylan's Visions of Sin*, scrupulously avoids writing about The Life and writes only about what Dylan has written and sung. But his is a different perspective and his involvement with Dylan has been professional and professorial. We have no proper written portrayal of Shakespeare by anyone who knew him, and in one sense perhaps his reputation has benefited from the sheer mystery. But the mystery of Dylan isn't likely ever to be thoroughly understood, and after all, he has chosen to make his vast archive available, which must signal to some extent that he knows he doesn't belong only to himself. Anyhow, this is a fascinating read.
Thanks for writing, Jim. It is fuel in my tank to keep going!
Christina, your writing is appreciated, telling with language that explains beautifully the emotional intimacy, understanding, sensitivity and doubts regarding your time with him.