Although I am a big fan of Pirsig, I don't see how it makes the case for Dylan. Pirsig's thing was “quality” — and at first in Zen he wrote about quality as if it was similar to Potter Stewart's take on pornography: We know it when we see it. Remember Porsig's classroom discussions and voting on which pieces of student writing had quality? Pirsig implied that we had an innate sense of quality. (Granted, this was a limited, unscientific experiment, but Pirsig wasn't approaching it from a hard science perspective. This is a practical explanation, not the full metaphysical Monty.) I don't think quality is just “what we like” it is more than that. I recognize quality in opera although I don't like opera. (And yes, I know this is an interpretation of quality that Pirsig would not agree with, but he does sort of use it in the book. In Pirsig's sequel, Lila, it seems to me that he actually redefined Quality, and there we're talking about something entirely different, so I'm leaving this aside because to me Lila was ultimately a failed attempt. Low quality. haha)

I see quality in Dylan's “Things Have Changed.” A sprawling, but very unique and interesting song, with a good hook. But “I'm in love with the ugliest girl in the world” or “My wife's home town.” I'm afraid those are so bad it's not even funny. Amateur hour. Play those songs for a classroom full of writing students and see what kind of quality marks they get.

Dancing bear circus? Nope, some high quality Cirque du Soleil for me, thanks. It's hard for an attack on Bob's music not to sound like an attack on his fans. I like much of his work, but lately (the last 15 years?) I really am failing to enjoy it, or even understand the apologists for it. Enjoy it, if you can.