Just in case you're getting the impression that I'm a lady of leisure who lounges around just dreaming up frivolous things about which to blog, I'm putting it on the record things are very busy around here. More on that later (or, if you don't hear any more about it, you can just assume I'm too busy to fill you in. For now, I'll just say that it has a lot to do with the fast-approaching Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo on April 26-28).
When I'm drawing comic strips, I have to be able to concentrate. But when the drawing's done and I'm just inking, I don't have to think, so I love to work while watching (or rather, listening to) a movie - preferably something long and slow with a lot of dialogue, so I'm not missing much by never looking at the screen. I know, I should just be downloading podcasts. But anyway, the other day, I watched a 1994 TV adaptation of George Eliot's jaw-droppingly awesome novel "Middlemarch."
Why am I telling you all this? Because watching "Middlemarch" reminded me of a brilliant discovery I made almost twenty years ago. So I looked up my record of this in some ancient archives from the Drawing Book (the discovery's on page 2). This is about Bob Dylan, of course.
When I'm drawing comic strips, I have to be able to concentrate. But when the drawing's done and I'm just inking, I don't have to think, so I love to work while watching (or rather, listening to) a movie - preferably something long and slow with a lot of dialogue, so I'm not missing much by never looking at the screen. I know, I should just be downloading podcasts. But anyway, the other day, I watched a 1994 TV adaptation of George Eliot's jaw-droppingly awesome novel "Middlemarch."
Why am I telling you all this? Because watching "Middlemarch" reminded me of a brilliant discovery I made almost twenty years ago. So I looked up my record of this in some ancient archives from the Drawing Book (the discovery's on page 2). This is about Bob Dylan, of course.
So what do you think, Middlemarch/Dylan fans? Is it not obvious that "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" is referencing this book? What other perfection-seeking bankers' niece, associated with a country doctor, could Bob possibly have been thinking of? (I've heard it suggested that this might be a reference to a banker's niece in Henry James' "The Portrait of a Lady," but what about the doctor?) Google wasn't around back in 1994, but it is now, so I Googled this hypothesis - and came up with nothing. Is nobody onto this except for me? Well, if not, consider this vital information my sole contribution to the jam-packed libraries of Bob Dylan scholarship out there.
There was a third page in this little Drawing Book anecdote, by the way - here it is, for what it's worth.
There was a third page in this little Drawing Book anecdote, by the way - here it is, for what it's worth.
P.S. Most people think the last verse of "Love Minus Zero" is about Edgar Allan Poe... but I think it's about "Wuthering Heights." A debate for another day... if I ever have free time again.
RSS Feed