Why
Not Aznavour?
By
Edmond Y. Azadian
October
20, 2016
Bob
Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature last week, winning
accolades and stirring controversy.
“Now,
Mr. Dylan, the poet laureate of the rock era, has been rewarded with
the Nobel Prize in literature, an honor that elevates him to the
company of T. S. Eliot, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and
Samuel Becket,” wrote the New York Times.
But
the questions raised were about the definition of literature. Does
songwriting amount to literature? It seems that the Swedish Academy
has redefined what constitutes literature and has given a strong yes
as an answer. Any means through which a creative mind touches the
human soul deserves to be recognized as literature or art.
Billy
Collins, the former United States Poet Laureate argued that Mr. Dylan
deserved to be recognized not merely as a songwriter, but as a poet.
As well, literary scholars believe that Bob Dylan is a literary
stylist, especially based on the Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, a
compendium published by Cambridge University Press, with 17 essays by
scholars from Yale, Carnegie-Mellon, the University of Virginia, and
so on.
Throughout
his career as a songwriter, Dylan has outgrown his vagabond
troubadour status to elevate his art to a more sophisticated and
unique level. His topics touch all aspects of the human condition and
his moral strength has led him to stand up for some political causes,
no matter how risky they may have proved to be for his career. He is
especially celebrated for his campaign against the Vietnam War,
calling it an immoral act. His erudition is revealed in deceptively
simple songs in which he references French poets Arthur Rimbaud and
Paul Verlaine, as well as the American Ezra Pound. In their daily
lives, Rimbaud and Verlaine were no different from vagabonds.
The
Swedish Academy credits Dylan with “having created new poetic
expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Dwight
Garner further adds in a Times article that “This Nobel
acknowledges what we have long sensed to be true: that Mr. Dylan is
among the most authentic voices America has produced, a maker of
images as audacious and resonant as anything in Walt Whitman or Emily
Dickinson.”
Bob
Dylan was born in 1941 as Robert Allen Zimmerman, in Duluth, Minn.,
to a Midwestern Jewish family, but he climbed to the peak of his
career in New York, through his championing human rights and anti-war
ballads.
Has
politics to do anything for his selection for the prize? The Academy,
which awards the prize, has proven time and again that
political considerations, sometimes, underlie its decisions. For
example, during the Soviet period, political dissidents, more often
than not, were selected for nomination: Boris Pasternak, Joseph
Brodsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Even
the selection of Orhan Pamuk was a rebuke to Turkey’s brutal regime
as Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai’s peace prize was a message
to the Taliban who had tried to assassinate her.
The
closest that any Armenians has come to receiving the Nobel Prize was
Dr. Raymond Damadian, the inventor of the Magnetic Resonance Scanning
Machine, but he was bypassed, triggering controversy.
Indeed,
in 2003, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Paul Lauterbur
and Sir Peter Mansfield for their discoveries related to the MRI.
“If
I had not been born, would the MRI have existed? I don’t think so.
If Lauterbur had not been born? I would have gotten there.
Eventually,” Damadian said.
The
controversy continued in the news media for a long time to no avail,
to be concluded by a statement made by philosopher Michael Ruse, who
wrote that he believes Damadian must have been denied a Nobel Prize
because of his Creationist views: “I cringe at the thought that
Raymond Damadian was refused his just honor because of his religious
beliefs. Having silly ideas in our field is no good reason to deny
merit for great ideas in another field. Apart from the fact that this
time Creation scientists will think that they are the objects of
unfair treatment at the hands of the scientific community.”
If
the chapter is closed on Damadian, the door may still be open for
another Armenian celebrity, Charles Aznavour, who can favorably be
compared to Dylan, who in turn has named Aznavour “among the
greatest live performers.”
In
1988, Aznavour was named Entertainer of the century by CNN and users
of Time online from around the globe. He was recognized as the
century’s outstanding performer with nearly 18 percent of the total
vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan.
During
the De Gaulle era, France boasted of two Charles: Le grand Charles
and le petit Charles.
Aznavour
has inherited his skills in entertainment and singing from his
parents. The breakthrough in his career came when he performed at the
Moulin Rouge, with the legendary Edith Piaf, who encouraged him to
pursue a career in singing. He is called the French Frank Sinatra and
a “French pop deity.” He is a singer, songwriter, actor, public
activist and diplomat. He has written 800 songs and recorded more
than 1,200 in eight languages and sold more than 180 million records.
His
popularity is not only based on his performances, but also his
creative writing. His lyrics have contributed tremendously to the
development of modern French poetry. His songs cover almost all
phases of human condition: the vagabond (La Boheme), and many
dramatic love scenes (Emmenez Moi), desolation of separation and
aging.
As
much as Piaf and Jacques Brel, and as a true chanteur in the French
tradition, he has elevated the ordinary into art through words and
music.
He
has highlighted once taboo issues such as homosexuality, long before
being gay was considered unremarkable, while it was still hidden away
in dark corners. He has also been active politically, rising against
the French right-wing political currents in France.
His
philanthropic activities extend beyond Armenia to take on a global
amplitude. His songs touch the most searing issues of the human soul.
Thus, in 2013, he appeared with Ahinoaru Nini (Noa) in a concert,
dedicated to peace, at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. He has dedicated
doleful songs to the 1988 earthquake in Armenia (Pour Toi,
Armenie) and to the Armenian Genocide (Ils Sont Tombés).
It
may sound ironic but touching the Genocide topic may prove to be
counterproductive, given the Turkish political bullying lurking.
Aznavour,
this diminutive man, stands tall at age 92, one foot in two
centuries, to be seen and rewarded by the Nobel Committee for a
staggering body of work.
That’s
why we can ask: Why not Aznavour?
