Over his seven-decade career, Bob Dylan has consistently been in a state of becoming, of evolving, of transmuting disparate elements of music, history, literature, and culture into something extraordinary. Whether that process produced shifts in Dylan’s identity performance, music, art, or writing, the result alchemized the parts into something greater. Often as an extension of this, Dylan fans, critics, and scholars engage in a similar endeavor, transforming Dylan’s work through their interpretations, and analyses through the lens of their experiences, knowledge, and personalities. In this episode, professor and psychologist Jon Lasser shares his work, the courses he teaches, and his thoughts on Dylan as a Rorschach test and alchemist. I learned so much from Jon through this discussion, and hope you have the same experience listening to it.
Biography:
Jon Lasser is a University Distinguished and Regents’ professor in the School Psychology Program at Texas State University. He teaches the Art of Bob Dylan in the Honors College and has presented and published on Dylan’s work, utilizing primary source material at the Bob Dylan Archive. His recent Dylan publications include Rumplezimmerman, Alchemy, and Dylan’s Bidirectional European Influences (The Dylan Review) and Shakin’ on Your Bones: Bob Dylan and Embodied Experience (Aktualitet: Literature, Culture, and Media). He has presented at the World of Bob Dylan conference and is currently working on a project about Sam Shepard and Bob Dylan’s collaborations. He’s also the author of Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in a Hyper-Connected World (Oxford University Press) and several children’s books.
Links:
Instagram: @teachingbobdylan
https://nothingisrevealedpod.podbean.com/e/equality-in-school-with-jon-lasser/
