Tarantula (poetry collection)

This article is about the book by Bob Dylan. For the novel by Thierry Jonquet, see Tarantula (novel).
Tarantula
Recent paperback cover
AuthorBob Dylan
LanguageEnglish
GenreExperimental novel, prose poetry
PublisherMacmillan & Scribner
Publication date
1971 (unofficially available from 1966)
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages137 pp (hardback edition) & 149 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN0-261-63337-6 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-7432-3041-8 (paperback edition)
OCLC185660501
Followed byWritings and Drawings 

Tarantula is an experimental prose poetry[1] collection by Bob Dylan, written in 1964 and 1965.[2] It was published in 1971.[3][4] It employs stream of consciousness writing, somewhat in the style of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg.

Its style is also reminiscent of Arthur Rimbaud's in A Season in Hell. One section of the book parodies the Lead Belly song "Black Betty."[citation needed] Reviews of the book liken it to his self-penned liner notes to two of his albums recorded around the same time, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. The book follows a structure similar to that of a few of Dylan's songs; the vague story, references to various historical or made up characters and unusual punctuation. It also uses literary techniques such as allusion, ambiguity, symbolism and fantasy.[5]

Dylan would later cite Tarantula as a book he had never fully signed up to write: "Things were running wild at that point. It never was my intention to write a book."[6] He went on to equate the book to John Lennon's nonsensical work In His Own Write, and implied that his former manager Albert Grossman signed up Dylan to write the novel without the singer's full consent.[6]

Although it was to be edited by Dylan and published in 1966, his motorcycle accident in July of that year prevented this. The first 50 copies were printed on A4 paper by the Albion underground press of San Francisco in mid-1965. The type-written pages were bound in yellow paper with a large red tick-like arachnid pictured on the front.[citation needed] Numerous bootleg versions of the book were available on the black market through 1971, when it was officially published, to critical scorn. In 2003 Spin magazine did an article called the "Top Five Unintelligible Sentences from Books Written by Rock Stars." Dylan came in first place with this line from Tarantula: "now's not the time to act silly, so wear your big boots & jump on the garbage clowns." In the early 21st century, Tarantula was re-released in English and translated into French,[7] Spanish,[8] Portuguese, Romanian, Croatian, Czech and Polish.[9][citation needed]

  1. ^ Vernezze, Peter & Porter, Carl, Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Thinking) (2005) ISBN 0812695925
  2. ^ Heylin, Clinton, 2011, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition, pp. 195–198.
  3. ^ "Tarantula (Paperback)". Foyles. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  4. ^ Kornhaber, Spencer (13 October 2016). "Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Isn't About Music". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert (27 June 1971). "The answer, my friends, is still blowin' in the wind". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b ExpectingRain.com article: "Bob Dylan's 2001 Rome Interview transcription".
  7. ^ Olson, John, "Dylan Goes Magenta" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Dylan, Bob & Manzano, Alberto, Tarántula (2007) ISBN 9788496879010
  9. ^ "Bob DYLAN: Tarantula :: Biuro Literackie".