The Nobel Prize Committee Have Given Up on Trying to Get in Touch with Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is a notoriously reticent man. As our own coverage of Desert Trip can attest, during his entire 90-minute set, he never said a word to the audience. And despite doing multiple shows since it was announced that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Dylan hasn’t responded to it publicly.

As it turns out, he hasn’t responded privately, either.

According to The Guardian, the Swedish Academy, the body responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize, hasn’t heard from Dylan at all, despite multiple emails and calls to the elusive star. The secretary for the Academy, Sara Danius, said they’ve stopped trying to contact Dylan directly: “Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough.”

So what does that mean for the ceremony on Dec. 10? Danius said, “I am not at all worried. I think he will show up.” Typically, recipients come to the ceremony to be given the award by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and to deliver a speech, but Dylan’s not known for being “typical.” The Academy doesn’t seem too hung up about it, if Dylan is in fact ghosting them. Danius said, “If he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him.”

It’s been a while since we’ve had any good Dylan shenanigans, so it’s nice to see that he’s still got it in him after all these years.