The Morgan Library, which is currently hosting the exhibit “Bob Dylan’s American Journey, 1956 - 1966,” also hosted a lecture by Greil Marcus yesterday, called “Off the Iron Range: Bob Dylan In and Out of Hibbing High.” Marcus visited Hibbing High School recently, and so was to share his insights. RWB couldn’t attend, but I’m grateful to reader Betsy who sent this note with her impressions of the event:

Marcus did a great job describing the beauty of Hibbing High School and the influence of his English teacher Rolfson, but couldn’t resist making an anti-Catholic rant describing in detail Rolfson’s sad childhood and his misery experienced at the hands of vicious nuns. He also bookended his talk with a reference to the Ain’t Talkin’ lyric about the gardener not being in the garden… for us listeners to infer that God is dead. Well, I raised my hand and about 20 minutes after the Q and A started he acknowledge me. I wondered aloud about Dylan’s comfort with mystery and that he didn’t seem to me to be so much of an either/or guy but more of a both/and type. I wondered if Rolfson’s experience in a Catholic school may actually have been better one than had he been in a public school, given the extent of anti-Catholic sentiment throughout the U.S. at the time of his elementary education (1930’s), and I wondered if in spite of the nuns’ reported abuse, perhaps stories of the saints heard in catechism classes may have inspired him to transcend his circumstances and ultimately devote his life to teaching. I ended saying maybe I ought to write a book exploring some of those ideas. It just pisses me off that it’s so fashionable to disrespect Catholic culture.

Other than that… it was a good lecture.

So there you go.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Embyronic Issues
• Denomination Blues
• A bitter taste