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Page 22 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 28, 1986 Arts & Entertainment <We,0>«t2fA* ^S/aatny jfi/ls S^l/ctn/oy METRO WIDE DELIVERY MAJOR CREDIT CARDS BY PHONE r J\~Y AlWAYS MMIO .IP FIOWIRS M.immoml I i-sti\:il CVnti 565-2217 1401 lohnson I cm Kil \1cicli.mt> \ estival C entci ^ M &Hl2 EXECUTIVE PARK CHIROPRACTIC • Occupational Stress • Headaches • Neck & Back Pam • Sports Iniuries • Pediatric Chiropractic • Personal Injury • Workers Comp DR. CRAIG A. SENFT CHIROPRACTOR 35 Executive Park Drive Suite 3505 Atlanta, Georgia 30329 (404) 633-6787 Bob Dylan From Frankenstein to Foster EVER LOOKED FOR A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK AND ACTUALLY FOUND IT? We carry “top of the line chachkes” and gifts for all your carnival and fund-rasier needs. Prices range from IOC *5.00. Specialize in children’s costumes. HOLIDAY COSTUME HOUSE 1754 Tullie Circle, N.E. Atlanta, Ga. 30329/321-0049 by Joseph Cohen Once while Bob Dylan was in high school, his biographer Rob ert Shelton tells us, he “donned a Frankenstein monster mask” in a lover’s lane, “and scared several couples.” There are those among us who. despite Dylan’s triumphs as a pop-culture hero and a folk- rock genius, still regard him as an adolescent masquerading as a monster—and vice-versa. Certainly Shelton, in his flip, hip, show-biz cum serious, over written cotton candy book—it’s a very large puff in the mouth— “No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan” (Beech Tree Books/William Morrow; $17.95) is not among these de tractors. He worships Dylan, and consequently this massive bio graphy, though highly readable, is in trouble from the start. That is to say that while Shelton writes well and has done his homework in ingesting and regurgitating Dylan’s chronology and musical progress—in its reliance on oral histories this book is the epitome of vomitry—and in demonstrat ing his (Shelton's) familiarity with the serious poets, writers and thinkers of the Western World, the author’s need to thrust the pop star into their midst and justify his presence there turns his book into a ludicrous, absurd, and at times, a hypocritically reckless venture. One of Shelton’s techniques is to take Dylan’s comments, many of them inane, and sprinkle them lavishly among a copious collec- Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, from bdl/ it came today. Along with electric menorahs, candles, chocolate gelt, cookie cutters, home and party decorations and gifts for the whole family. bdl>for Hanukah decorations and gifts 3756 Roswell Road, N.E. 237-5186 Stonewood Village 973-5985 Dunwoody Village 394-3362 bdl/ Shamrock Plaza 633-0929 Gwinnett Station 476-8185 tion of epigraphs from ancient and contemporary sources which introduce each of the chapters. Chapter three, for example, is introduced thus: “Know thyself’ —Delphic Oracle. 6th Century, B.C. “Digyuhself”—Dylan, A.D. 1961. This would be funny if you didn’t know that Shelton was deadly serious about it. Far more sinister are Shelton's persistent efforts to elevate Dylan into the company of William Blake, Rimbaud, Robert Graves, T.S. Eliot, Buber, Camus, Sar tre, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Swedenborg, Coleridge and Yeats. Failing to make a distinction between mere versifiers and true poets, Shelton describes Dylan as “the brilliant singing poet-laureate of young American,” declaring on one oc casion that four lines from Dylan’s “ll Outlined Epitaphs” (“if it rhymes,/if it don’t, it don’t/ if it comes, it comes/if it won’t, it won’t”) “can hold its own” next to a “jazz-infused section” of Eli ot’s “Sweeny Agonistes.” Another time, Shelton says that Dylan’s song “Desolation Row” “belongs beside Eliot’s 'The Waste Land’ and Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ as one of the strongest expressions of apo calypse.” Perhaps he’s right about the comparison with “Howl,” but as for “The Waste Land,” well, that’s ridiculous. Still worse is Shelton’s con comitant attempt to foist off on us the view of Dylan as messiah. Surely, no one, besides Shabba- tei Zevi. could he more lacking in messianic requisites. If Dylan doesn’t remotely re semble the mythic image Shelton wants to impose on us, who is he and what is he? He was a nice Jewish boy from Hibbing, Minn., who, while growing up, came to hate his origins. Ashamed of his parents and his middle-class ex istence in Hibbing, the former Bob Zimmerman cut his ties to the past, changed his name and left a vacuum where his identity was supposed to be. Though Shelton doesn’t say so, I am convinced that the iden tity vacuum is the great secret to Dylan’s success. He could fill it temporarily with any pose he chose, and after milking it for its topical value, easily discard it. Though his most frequently as sumed mask has been anonym ity—the vacuum given a faceless persona—his vaunted attractions to the counter-culture, the Peace Movement, existentialism, Israel, the Lubavitchers, and his widely publicized conversion to Chris tianity were just so many other masks, nothing more. For with Consequently, his work has always been derivative. For all his influence, I doubt that he has ever found his own authentic voice, a discovery that is abso lutely necessary to the making of a true poet. Dylan’s capacity for taking everything from others is combined with an uncanny abil ity to synthesize all that he has heard, seen or read. These traits have given him an image that, however famous, is essentially synthetic. It is this “talent” for synthesizing that misleads Shel ton into thinkingthat Dylan ranks with the great poets. The truth is that if you asked the real Bob Dylan to stand up, he couldn’t because there isn’t one. I wonder what would have happend to Dylan if he had ac cepted himself and his Jewish origins from the start. Many famous stars did and some of them have been widely respected for being menschen. If Dylan had chosen to live as a mensch instead of a confused and harried chameleon it’s just possible he could have become both famous and real. Stardom is ephemeral and fame fades away. While some of Dylan’s songs will be around for a long time, and, indeed they should be, he remains for me something of a freak, a Shabba- tei Zevi, a Frankenstein golem who a century hence, I suspect, will have become as dated as Stephen Foster. An Adventure in Shopping / _j u • I VJ ‘ . n 1 • o # 1 • V * °J/ o 0 / I m Mazel Tov Our best wishes to your favorite young man or young woman. Celebrate them with pride. After all, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah only comes once in a lifetime. And, let us make that occasion a memorable one. Our banquet facilities can accommodate groups of almost any size, A professional catering staff handles even the most unique requirements including beverages, cakes, pastries, decorations, and flowers! Arrangements for quality entertainment are also available, as well as special guest room rates for your out-of-town guests A convenient location off 1-85 and Clairmont Road means easy access. And, of course, there is our free parking. Sheraton Century Center Hotel The Hospitality People of ITT" *-85 at Clairmont Road —Exit 32 Atlanta Georgia 30345 / 404-325 0000