Bargainin' for Salvation: Bob Dylan, a Zen Master? [Paperback]

Steven Heine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

A thoughtful examination of Dylan's oeuvre through the lens of Buddhism

One of the mysteries of Bob Dylan's incredible corpus is why he seems to veer and zigzag so drastically and dramatically from one extreme standpoint to another. Throughout his career, rapid, radical transitions in musical style and public persona have either inspired or shocked different sectors of his fans. Is Dylan's work complex and contradictory, or is there an underlying consistency and continuity to its seemingly chaotic ebb and flow?

Steven Heine argues that Dylan actually embraces two radically distinct worldviews at alternating periods. One is prevalent in his Protest (early '60s), Country (late '60s), and Gospel (late '70s) phases; it finds Dylan expressing moral outrage by endorsing a single higher truth based on a right-versus-wrong philosophy. The second view appears during periods of Dylan's disillusionment in the mid '60s ("Desolation Row"), mid '70s ("Tangled Up in Blue"), and mid '80s ("Jokerman"), finding him disenchanted with one-sided proclamations of truth, and wandering, seemingly aimless, amid a relativistic world of masks and disguises where nothing is ever what it claims to be.

Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen worldview, where enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Much has been made of Dylan's Christian periods, but never before has a book engaged Dylan's deep and rich oeuvre through a Buddhist lens. Forgoing Christianity and Western views for Zen and Buddhism, Bargainin' for Salvation will capture your attention and direct it toward the East.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bob Dylan has assumed many identities in his long career: folk singer, protest singer, rock poet, filmmaker, born-again Christian, bluesman, and radio show host. Now Heine (Florida International Univ.) makes the case for Dylan as Zen Master. Who knew? In a thorough survey and critical analysis of Dylan's lyrics and other writings, Heine examines the shifting worldviews of the man who once wrote "he not busy being born is busy dying." He contrasts the dogmatic Judeo-Christian premise (good vs. evil) in Dylan's songs with a nondualistic view (represented by an awareness of "multiple relativistic truths") that creeps into other songs-and often within the same song ("Nettie Moore," from Modern Times, is a recent example). The book's bulk expands on this thesis and is rich with lyrical exposition, arguing that Dylan's embrace of both worldviews explains his own ever-changing styles and persona. Heine offers a fresh look at Dylan's spiritual side and clearly demonstrates his mastery of Zen Buddhism as well as Dylanology. His book deserves to stand next to other studies of Dylan and religion, such as Stephen Webb's Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved and Scott Marshall's Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan. Recommended for academic libraries. --Library Journal

In Bargainin', Heine...interprets the oeuvre of Dylan's career through a Zen Buddhist perspective and includes but digs much, much deeper than Dylan's obvious Buddhist influences -- the references in songs and interviews, his travels to Japan, his kinship with Allen Ginsberg and other Beat writers who were involved in Zen practice -- by presenting Dylan's entire career trajectory as a demonstration of attainment of the "Middle Way" in Buddhist teaching, or the avoidance of all extremes and the refraining from opposing positions." --The Examiner


In Bargainin', Heine...interprets the oeuvre of Dylan's career through a Zen Buddhist perspective and includes but digs much, much deeper than Dylan's obvious Buddhist influences -- the references in songs and interviews, his travels to Japan, his kinship with Allen Ginsberg and other Beat writers who were involved in Zen practice --  by presenting Dylan's entire career trajectory as a demonstration of attainment of the "Middle Way" in Buddhist teaching, or the avoidance of all extremes and the refraining from opposing positions." --The Examiner

About the Author

Steven Heine is professor of religious studies and history and director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University. Heine's research specializes in the life and thought of Zen master Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto sect in Japan, and he has published twenty books and dozens of articles on Japanese culture. His publications include Did Dogen Go to China? (Oxford, 2006), The Zen Poetry of Dogen (Tuttle, 1997), Dogen and the Koan Tradition (SUNY, 1993), Shifting Shape, Shaping Text (Hawaii, 2000), and White Collar Zen (Oxford, 2005), which has been reviewed in USA Today, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Working Knowledge, and elsewhere.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826429505
• ISBN-13: 978-0826429506
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,368,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, but falls short, August 20, 2009

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Kathryn - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bargainin' for Salvation: Bob Dylan, a Zen Master? (Paperback)

I actually heard Steven Heine speak about this book, which is why I decided to buy it. He made some very interesting points and I thought it would be a new approach to Dylan's work.

However, I am at once satisfied with the concept and disappointed with the execution. First of all, the book is filled with mistakes. I really do not believe the book was edited for either grammar and spelling or verity of information. For example, in the last paragraph of page 124, the author quotes a line from "Gates of Eden," and attributes it to "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."

Second, Heine has a way of stringing together bits of lyric or song titles in an attempt to make a point which only comes off as confusing and nonsensical.

That being said, the concept of the book is very interesting and he does make insightful analyses of many songs, although in regard to some works, it seems he is way off the mark. I don't like to criticize anyone's conception of what any work of art means to them because the meaning of any decent work is in the perception of the observer. But in some cases, it seems he hasn't even read the entire work.

The most interesting part of the book is the breakdown of "Dylan Discology in Relation to Career Periods," which makes sense and provides a believable explanation for many questions about the wide-ranging positions reflected in Dylan's work. The identification of the last several years as Dylan having found the Middle Path is an intriguing concept of his latest work. But, if we know anything, it's that Dylan's music will eventually take another direction. So, where to from the Middle Path?

All in all, it is a good way to pass time, but I don't think I'll be picking it up a second time.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous study of the meaning in Bob Dylan's works., May 27, 2009

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Richard L. Pangburn (Bardstown, KY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bargainin' for Salvation: Bob Dylan, a Zen Master? (Paperback)

I liked most everything about this one except for the title. Bob Dylan is certainly no Zen master. A lot of his music yields to a Zen interpretaion, but it just as easily yields to a Christian interpretation, or a Marxist interpretation, or to any other school of thought based upon human universals.

A better title would be: BOB DYLAN: A BUDDHIST INTERPRETATION.

That said, this is a marvelous rendering of Bob Dylan's music and meaning in a scholarly and well-written book. It includes abundant annotations, a complete bibliography, and a useful glossary of Buddhist mystical terms.

Highly recommended.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will always hear Dylan in a new light after reading this book!, May 28, 2009

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zhuang zhou (miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bargainin' for Salvation: Bob Dylan, a Zen Master? (Paperback)

I agree with a number of others I have talked to that once you read this book explaining the full history of Dylan's songwriting, you will always hear the music in a new light. This book explains how and why Dylan has moved in so many different directions over the years based on his spiritual quest, and how he has found a middle way perspecive in recent times. Now it is clear why Dylan has been so successful with his records since Time Out of Mind in 1997, because he has found a creative way to balance the various attitudes he has held based on either making ethical judgments (which the author calls Duality) or acknowledging relativism (or Non-Duality) into a harmonious, yin/yang pattern.

In response to another reviewer who loved the book but commented on the subtitle, it should be noted that this ends with a question mark. The author is not dogmatically asserting that Dylan is related to Zen, but in an inventive Zen-like way he uses the Buddhist approach to comprehensively examine Dylan's life work. It is also great that the author does not dismiss but instead fully engages other religious influences on Dylan, as well as the role of the Blues and the Beats which he ingeniously compares with Eastern culture. Another intriguing thing about the book is the way it shows how Dylan has woven Asian imagery about karma, nothingness, and illusion into his songs, especially in the 1970s before his fundamentalist phase.