Expecting Rain

I got high today and read 50 pages of Tarantula. I must say that Bob laced the work with hidden meaning and while at the surface is just stoned ramblings, inside it is deep meaning. He is not bound to how it will sound coming out of his mouth in this writing and we see his full potential as a metaphorical writer

Well don't keep us in suspense.

What is the "deep meaning"

Unfortunately I am sober now and have no idea what I thought it meant

^

who would have guessed!

This should go in the Dylan museum.

Smoke another joint, read it again, but keep a pen a paper handy to enlighten us with your great insight. We're waiting!

You went to the trouble of starting a whole new thread because of your unique abilities. Don't just build us up and let us down.

In the fine print here somewhere, they mention a $10,000 "let down" fine.

Great American past-time! I remember doing this same thing a time or two in high school but I just got bored with it

Next time, keep a pen and paper handy and write it down.

For God's sake, please, don't do that.

Seconded, don't do that. Just pass me the joint!

There are 7 levels.

Which are........

Levels 4 - 11.

That's what Macca said.

The mystics have always insisted there are seven levels, particularly the gnostics. "All he believes is his eyes..."

I tried to read it once and decided I preferred my nonsense at album liner note length

I've actually started re-reading Tarantula. And I'm finding it more... rewarding at 30 than I did at 20.
I should preface by saying I'm almost as fanatic a Beat poetry fan as I am Dylan fan, so that does colour my views. But reading it now, you can definatly see Ginsbergs huge influence. Perhaps crippingly so. This is Bob trying to be Ginsberg. Lots of Bebop spontaneous reflections and impression, lots of rude words, lots of references, lots of melody.
Even Ginsbergs poems don't work half the time. Ginsberg got - and oh mighty one forgive me - lucky a lot of the times. Stumbling ass backwards into great lines and paragraphs. Dylan didn't get so lucky.
Yes, he was tweaking like a mo' fo' at the time. Yes, prolly strung out to boot.

If you set Tarantula to music, it wouldn't change the quality much. If you go through the book, as some have, with a fine tooth comb, you can find nuggets of greatness. But it's all to, pardon the pun, speedy. It rushes along.
It made me wonder: How could he write those great songs so fast, but not write poetry as the same speed? Or is the shoe on the other foot? Did Bob burn all the bad song lyrics and keep the good ones and had, for contractual reason, no freedom to burn these pages but forced to publish or be damned?

Compare Tarantula to Bobs more recent "poem" Highland. The former speeds along with all the finesse of a bull in china shop, the latter lazily trips along, expelling great one-liners and wisdom. It seems, theoretically, possible to take that well-formed language of Highlands and add some zest of Ginsberg to make Tarantual a working piece of art.

I suppose I'm saying what's been said before: Tarantula sucks eggs if you read it looking for It's Alright Ma' I'm Only Bleeding in book form. But if you read it slowly, reading each line (or sentence) as a work in itself, you can actually find something worthwhile there.

I am looking for a certain afterword to Tarantula titled 'The Art of Reading Tarantula' by Peter Glas, it was published in a 1999 Swedish edition. Has anybody heard of this or even read it? I gathered my information from Gray's Encyclopedia, but couldn't find it online.

Like Anr Bjotk wrote, I too am finding Tarantula more rewarding as time goes by, maybe beacuse I don't expect it to be like some surrealistic Dylan song anymore.

I'd also be grateful for a tip from someone here regarding some other thoughtful analysis about Tarantula or maybe if it was discussed in some other thread?

Nice Sunday evening.