Should a Hermit Like Bob Dylan?

by Swanson

“A warm and vivid picture of two very different but unexpectedly related countercultural icons in that extraordinary mid-sixties moment of hope and imaginative enlargement. This book enables us to see some of the deep currents of that era and to reacquaint ourselves with two great, unclassifiable figures.”

– Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Cantebury

Famed contemplative hermit Thomas Merton wrote in his journal in the mid 1960s, ‘Should a hermit like Bob Dylan? He means at least as much to me as some of the new liturgy, perhaps in some ways more. I want to know the guy. I want him to come here, and I want him to see one of my poems.’(p. 107) And after hearing Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde, Merton pronounced, “One does not get ‘curious’ about Dylan. You are either all in it or all out of it. I am in his new stuff.” (p.2)

Robert Hudson has written a book that seems tailor made to my interests, it’s call The Monk’s Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966. This book is for every Merton fanatic, Dylanphile, and those whose ears perk up at the calling of the artist as a contemplative vocation. A master wordsmith, a recognized Bob Dylan scholar and a member of the International Thomas Merton Society —  Robert Hudson is the perfect person to have written this book. In our conversations we’ll unpack Bob Dylan’s meteoric impact on Thomas Merton, wonder about Dylan’s awareness of Merton, share a playlist of songs to go along with this book and so much more. I’ve been waiting for a book like this my whole life, and Hudson breathes poetic life into the retelling of the intersection of Bob Dylan, Thomas Merton and the summer of 1966.

 


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EPISODE SHOW NOTES

Books by Robert Hudson

Resources Mentioned

Playlist for this conversation and the book, The Monk’s Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966

  • Silver Dagger by Joan Baez
  • From a Buick 6 by Bob Dylan
  • Just Like a Woman by Bob Dylan
  • I Want You by Bob Dylan
  • Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan
  • I Shall Be Released by Bob Dylan
  • Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan

People

  • Bob Dylan
  • Thomas Merton
  • Robert Hudson
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti
  • The Band
  • Allen Ginsberg
  • Daniel Berrigan
  • Philip Berrigan
  • Hannah Arendt
  • Boris Pasternak
  • Daniel Mark Epstein
  • Evelyn Waugh
  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
  • Joan Baez
  • Jacques Maritain
  • Charles Baudelaire
  • Li Po

Drink Pairing

Highlights

  • Where do I find you today?
  • This podcast focuses on the contemplative posture by kindling the examined life. When you hear the word “contemplative”, how does that moniker relate to you or work, if you think it does at all?
  • If someone were going to teach a class on the formation of Robert Hudson what 3 works from Dylan and 3 works from Merton that formed you would definitely be on that syllabus?
    • Who turned you onto these guys?
  • What happened on July 29, 1966? And then from a more meta-vision, what was it about the summer of 1966 that altered the directions of Merton and Dylan’s lives?
  • How did Merton first discover Bob Dylan?
  • Can you share the story of Jacques Maritain’s visit to Merton’s hermitage?
  • There is a myth of solitude that surrounds both Merton and Dylan, how honest of depiction do you see their auras of solitary men?
  • What do you imagine Merton’s response to all stages of Bob Dylan’s transformations would have been?
  • What would be the soundtrack for this book?
  • We always pair an episode with a drink, what drink of choice goes best with this conversation?

 

Photo credit: Eerdmans