Product Description

Bob Dylan wrote Tarantula in 1966. It existed for years only in dog-eared bootleg copies, but was eventually published in 1971. The book captures the tone and spirit of the turbulent times in which it was written.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26995 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743230414
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

Ignore the subtitle ("Poems")
Tarantula is in the stream-of-consciousness style of Dylan's liner notes to Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home. The publisher did our beloved author a great disservice in labeling these writings "Poems." These short pieces - interspersed with pseudo-missives - are literally unbridled prose, brimming with wit, sarcasm and absurdities. Only Dylan can say for sure what they're all about. A poet is not necessarily one who writes rhyming verse, but formlessness is not poetry either. To call Tarantula "poetry" is to turn a blind eye to Dylan's assault on traditional prose narrative forms. That said, I think Tarantula is a great book to have on the shelf, but it's not easy or especially rewarding reading unless one is primarily interested in the author. Because it's Dylan's only book (aside from published lyrics), it's a rather important book. Likewise, Dylan admirers should see D.A. Pennebaker's classic mid-60s Dylan documentary, "Don't Look Back."

Vintage Bob Dylan, a timeless book from a true genius!
I'm 17 and I've listened to Dylan for about 5 years. Over this period of time I've grown more and more impressed with Dylan's poetic genius. His songs are undoubtedely his claim to fame but I feel that "Tarantula" is the key to understanding his writing. "Tarantula" proves that Dylan was and still is a modern blend of Whitman, Rimbaud, Genet, Ginsberg, Guthrie, and Picasso. "Tarantula's" cut up style has been called "a muddled stream of self conciousness" but I beg to differ. If there has been any writer in our time that has captured the language of our times and helped us examine the world we live in I think it is Dylan. I hope he eventually receives the Nobel Prize for literature that he truly deserves. He is living proof that poetry can touch "the masses", he defies the narrow definition of a poet that ivory tower intellectuals have forced on people for years. The language of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, albums that changed the way people perceived songs, reaches new heights in "Tarantula".

Essential for Dylan fans
Dylanophiles have long tired of (..) literary critics saying that Dylan is "not really a poet; this book does something to put the lie to the accusation. It IS poetry, though not in the "conventional" sense. The majority of the book is written in a style of prose poem/poem/prose poem (repeating the cycle for however long the poem is), and then closing the piece with a written letter signed by some character from Dylan's imagination. As you may have surmised, the prose poems are of the type that Dylan wrote for the linear notes to Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. And yes, the poems are in the style of the poems that Dylan wrote for The Times They Are A-Changin' and Another Side. Precious little of it is literal; it is almost wholly written in the rambling, seeming stream-of-consciousness style that Dylan introduced in the aforementioned prose poems. He was highly into writing allegerical fables at that time, and this book abounds in them. Dylan fans will certainly enjoy this book a lot. It gives a peak into his creativity and writing process like nothing else really does. This is Dylan unpolished, not buried beneath the stream of re-writes that produced such masterpieces as "Visions of Johanna." There are references to many of his songs and lyrics within the poetry - whether this came from those, or vice versa, is anyone's guess, but it's a fascinating glimpse into Dylan in any case. You can get something out of these poems. They are fun to read, and have a quick, rolling meter and cadence that all of Dylan's poetic works seem to have, and this makes for interesting and thought-provoking seat-of-the-pants reading. Dylan fans will revel in it. Probably, those who are not already taken with the author will not be converted by this book. This book is actually a less-than-stellar book in the eyes of many (admittedly, by Dylan himself, who held off publishing it for 5 years), and, though interesting and thought-provoking, it is a very ornate and abstract work, without also offering the insights into life that his lyrics have always offered. So the merits of this book for those who are not already Dylan fans is questionable. On the other hand, it is certainly essential for Dylanophiles, and it certainly is a further contribution from Dylan to the field of poetry, and a more legitimate one in the eyes of many. Here's hoping that it helps Bob win the Nobel Prize for Literature that he so geniunely and truly deserves. It is not a cultural opinion, but indeed a fact, that Dylan did more for poetry than anyone else in the 20th century - at least in the sense of bringing it to the masses. And he certainly re-defined popular music as we know it. This book is a further gem in his canon, and helps show a small part of the reason for why Dylan means so much to so many different people.