Dylan and DeLillo's "White Noise"

 I would have attended this 2019 academic conference on the reputed genius of Bob Dylan, as a lifetime, albeit cranky of The Bard. My attention to detailswould have been wide-eyed skepticism, if that makes any sense.

The of literary doctorates dedicating a conference to a rock and roller makes brings to mind Don DeLillo's novel 'White Noise", much of which occurs at a small college where we follow the postmodern adventures of the head of the Department of Hitler Studies, where the ultimate aim of the department is never revealed outside collating seemingly random data on the historical monster. A delight is in the middle of the novel, where there is a "dialogue" between the head of the Hitler Studies program and the chair of the Department of Elvis Studies. The two scholars spend their time bouncing scattered bits about Adolph and El, not really connecting any of the data or subjecting it to critical thinking of any sort.

The two are talking past one another. DeLillo comically outlines the problem of specialized departments , particularly literary societies and such, and the issue of how their concentrations have relevance to a larger society. And asking, basically, what is the point of amassing pure research for its own sake. Something similar occurs in his Oswald novel "Libra", where we witness experts of all sorts reexamining the photos, film and various witness accounts of the Kennedy assassination , a ritual that goes on years after the event. With all the research, we find that nothing is revealed. I suspect, though, the Dylan conference was a lot of fun for the pop-cultural obsessives who attended.