Sir Christopher Ricks, a long-time lecturer in the Core Curriculum, will be speaking on the poetic accomplishments of Bob Dylan, in his third of four lectures for the Gottlieb Archives this year. His talk, “Love: Just Like a Woman,” will take place this evening, Monday, January 31, at 6 PM in the Richards-Roosevelt Room, Mugar Memorial Library, 771 Comm Ave, First Floor. Admission is free to all.
Alongside his work as a literary critical and editor of scholarly anthologies and editions, Prof. Ricks is famous for his longstanding interest in the lyrics of Bob Dylan considered as poetry. In 2004, he published a book-length treatment of this topic, titled Dylan’s Visions of Sin. According to blogger Frank Beacham, who attended one of Ricks’ talks on Dylan last fall at New York’s Philoctetes Center,
On Dylan’s songwriting, Ricks said it’s good to have instinct, but one can also think too much. “You must program your brain not to think too much,” he said. “You’ve got to keep your brain under control. Otherwise there will be too much conscious control.” Dylan, he said, has struck the correct balance between the two.
More information about tonight’s lecture can be found at the Archives events webpage.
