Somewhere during the last week, I heard somebody claim that Dylan's Nobel Prize lecture was most certainly plagiarism. And of course, the person followed by saying that so much of his music was plagiarism.
It's alleged that Dylan used descriptions of the novel Moby Dick from the SparkNotes commentary of the novel. I can't say that bothers me.

There's no doubt that Dylan built on earlier sources for his music. Jean Ritchie told us she won a lawsuit against Dylan for his use of the melody for "Nottamun Town" for his "Masters of War." Many people frown on that, but I think that's the nature of art - to build on what others have done before.
What do you think?

Two articles on the Nobel lecture:

• The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/bob-dylan-nobel-spark-notes-plagarism/530283/
• The National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/bob-dylans-nobel-speech-plagiarism/