Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 14:32:03 -0500

From: Alan Baragona baragonasa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VAX.VMI.EDU

Subject: "Dylanist"



I thought this might be appropriate in light of the recent Kennedy

Center award ceremony. My daughter was surfing the Web and came across

the term "Dylanist," defined as follows by a 12 year old girl:

"Dylanists are musicians who's songs are nonsense when analyzed.

Mainly, Dylanist music sticks in your head and drives you nuts."

Frankly, I'd never seen the word before and would've assumed a

"Dylanist" was someone who studied Bob Dylan. But a quick Web-search

turned up a different definition. Anne McCaffrey's sci-fi novel _The

Ship Who Sang_ says this:



"A Dylanist is a social commentator, a protester, using music as a

weapon, a stimulus. A skilled Dylanist ... can make so compelling an

argument with melody and words that what he wants to say becomes

insinuated into the sub-conscious... You can imagine how effective that

is when you're proselytizing for a cause."



There is also a novel by Brian Morton called _The Dylanist_, but I can't

find anything else about it.



So is anyone familiar with this term and its usage?



Alan B.