The Answer My Friend...

In Chronicles, Vol. 1, Dylan himself explains that “... songs, to me, were more important than just light entertainment. They were my preceptor and guide into some altered consciousness of reality.” However, he offers little illumination beyond that statement. In countless interviews, Dylan has been asked what his songs were about and what his lyrics actually meant, but he is famously reticent to offer any sort of answer. Instead, he offers his interrogators confusing answers in the moment or a variation in answers over time. I like to think that his refusal to give a simple answer is an attempt to show that there isn't just one way to think about his songs because what the songs mean changes every time he plays it and consequently every time we listen to it. In other words, Dylan once again demonstrates how rhetoric is indeed a driving force that permeates all aspects of our lives. What something means isn't the important concern, but what's important is that there is meaning to be made. That meaning changes from person to person and from context to context. I have tried my best to underscore that sentiment in this project as well. Although my project is driven by the question of Bob Dylan as Raconteur or Rhetorican, its purpose hinges on the idea that  there is no certain answer to be attained. Rather, this project is intended as a way to think about Dylan and rhetoric--not THE way, just a way to think about it. I also hope that this project serves as a way for my students to see how we can use new media to look at "old media" in new and complicated ways.  I hope that my piece also serves as an example of how you can translate an essay into a digital space. Rather than simply transposing the flat, linear genre of the academic essay into a digital space only to remain flat and linear, I have tried to explore the constraints (both limitations and affordances) of the digital essay genre with hyperlinks, videos, and images and maintained the original text of the essay. 



Although this digital installation is intended for scholarly critique and educational purposes only, I did still want to give the viewers a sense of the origin of the images and medias that I used. Since one of my purposes in designing this site was to create a hypertextual space for critique of our everyday lives, I have used images, videos, and links that I have found on the internet (it doesn't get more everyday than the web). For each of the images pictured in the grid below, I have searched in good faith for their original source and have provided a link to the space where I found them. (Please click on the image to find the source.) I recognize that these images are by no means my property nor am I attempting to use them for any financial gain. Furthermore, the videos used in this piece derive from public sources such as YouTube or Vevo, and I recognize that they are also not my property to distribute. As far as the music and lyrics, well those belong to Mr. Dylan and Columbia Records. Please know that I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dylan and his craft. I hope that it does not seem that I have exploited his work in any way and that the viewer sees this installation as a celebration of a great raconteur and a great rhetorician.

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~Kendra Andrews 2013~

 

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