All Along the Watchtower

A few weeks ago I assigned my AP students to read and then analyze All Along the Watchtower, by Bob Dylan. This is all in an attempt to get them to push to deeper analysis and man did some of these students deliver. Some wonderfully deep and insightful comments about this classic song. Be sure to check some of the best ones out. I have also linked the song for you to listen to as you read.

Jacob

Brandon

Micala

Quincy

Chanel

Haley

Wonderful video essay on Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower.

A Different Direction: Defining Literature

Quite a bit of my media consumption of late has been about Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Initially, I had missed this announcement. I usually am uninterested in things like this, but here we are several months later and I am blogging about this unusual choice.

When I think of literature I think of Shakespeare, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Joyce. I don't normally think of Bob Dylan. Up until recently, I didn't even listen to Bob Dylan. I knew several of his songs through other artists, but I found his voice to be grating. Literature is poetry and plays and novels. Things that a reader can really dig into. I do not consider The Hunger Games literature. Nor do I consider The Martian by Andy Weir, although I absolutely loved that book. There is a lot that is not literature and up until recently, I would have had song lyrics on that list as well. But now everything is up in the air. 

So, I want to explore this topic in further detail. I have several things that I am going to be reading, watching, studying and I will post them here so you can follow along with my journey.

Here is the video that started me on this quest, check it out if you would like.