by proldic » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:21 am
Gouda<br><br>Dylan meets Archibald MacLeish for a game of Scratch<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br> Dylan and the CIA. Who knows? I dunno about that. Certainly there’s a precedent what with some cold war artists allegedly serving the agenda of the CIA-backed Congress for Cultural Freedom and its spinoffs. <br><br>But there is this - in Chronicles, Dylan describes a very interesting intersection with Poet Laureate, Archibald MacLeish. You know, Archie MacLeish, Yale Skull and Bones class of 1915 & West Point graduate who purportedly assisted the OSS old boys w/ setting up the CIA in the late 40’s. <br><br>The scene is set at MacLeish’s rustic home in Massachusetts where he had invited Bob over to discuss writing some songs for a play he wanted to stage called Scratch. Dylan describes MacLeish as having “the aura of a governor, a ruler…who carried himself with the peculiar confidence of power bred of blood.” (110). The way he describes it, it seems as if MacLeish is trying to seduce him, or to elicit something. That is how I read into it anyway. They discussed poets, writers, artists, and even JP Morgan. <br><br>Now, the play, Scratch. After Dylan had become familiar with aspects of it, he had a bad feeling. He writes: <br><br>After hearing a few lines from the script, I didn’t see how our destinies could be intermixed. This play was dark, painted a world of paranoia, guilt and fear – it was all blacked out and met the atomic age head on, reeked of foul play…The play spelled death for society with humanity lying facedown in its own blood. MacLeish’s play was delivering something beyond an apocalyptic message. Something like, man’s mission is to destroy the earth…The play was up to something and I didn’t think I wanted to know. (113) <br><br>Then I thought it interesting that Dylan decided he should quote something telling from the main character in the play. As quoted in Chronicles, Scratch says, “I know too—more precisely—I am ready to believe that there may be something in the world—someone, if you prefer—that purposes evil, that intends it…powerful nations suddenly, without occasion, decay.” <br><br>After initial hesitation, Dylan decided to try to write a few songs for the play. So MacLeish calls Dylan back to his house a 2nd time to talk it over. At this time in his life, driving out to MacLeish’s, Bob feels “pretty isolated with just myself and my small but growing family facing a fantastic world of sorcery.” (127) Once there, they discuss the songs, and it seems as if Dylan is painting up a contrast between himself and MacLeish; he being all muddled up and untethered, Macleish clearheaded and wise: “He possessed more knowledge of mankind and its vagaries than most men acquire in a lifetime.” (129) In the end, Dylan didn’t think it would work out. “There was no way I could make its purpose mine…,” he said of the play. <br><br>As he was on his way out the door, Dylan describes an odd memory he had of a “Leopard Girl” he saw in his mind’s eye, whose mother had seen a leopard in the road which marked her unborn daughter for life. Dylan ties this memory to his final departure from wise old MacLeish: <br><br>I wondered, now, whether all of us—MacLeish, me and everyone else—had been inscribed and marked before birth, given a sticker, some secret sign. If that’s true, then none of us could change anything…We play the game the way it’s setup or we don’t play. If the secret sign thing is true, then it wouldn’t be fair to judge anybody…and I hoped MacLeish wouldn’t be judging me. (130)<br><br> <br>ewastud<br>Registered Member<br>Posts: 8<br>(9/29/05 12:50 am)<br>Reply Re: Dylan meets Archibald MacLeish for a game of Scratch<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br> Interesting quotes and commentary. I am eager to read Dylan's Chronicles for myself. I was amused that Dylan in the PBS special said that as a high school student in Hibbing, Minnesota he desired to go to a good military school after graduating, but the only one he was interested in -- West Point -- wouldn't accept him. He envisioned himself dying in some heroic battle at that age, Dylan said. <br> <br>Gouda<br>Reply Re: Dylan meets Archibald MacLeish for a game of Scratch<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br> In the book, Dylan talks about his "morbid fascination" with war as a young fella, and the impression Clausewitz' Vom Kriege had on him. Clausewitz teaches him that there is no moral order, that only the brute force of politics has rule over the land. Taught him that dreaming is dangerous, so better that one's ideals be taken less seriously. He also mentions his West Point desire and how his father explained that the reason for West Point's rejecting him was because he did not have family connections, a fact of life he did not like but did not dwell on either - it was a challenge to get around. The particulars he chooses to highlight in his MacLeish encounters make some sense in this context, but I think there is proabably a lot more to it. <br> <p></p><i></i>
