Bob Dylan's "The Vandals Took the Handles (An Opera)" and Translating the Political Nightmare of the 1960s

Sigmund Freud has stating in his works upon numerous occasions that it is the "latent" and not the "manifest" dream-thoughts that we use to decipher the meanings of dreams and of nightmares. The "manifest" content is the work itself whereas, the "latent" content is the exact thing we need to acquire meaning. Using one to receive the other is a very common practice and is often done through the translation of symbolism in literary works.

Bob Dylan's "Tarantula" is a book of poetry published in the 1970s, written in 1966 and circulated to this day. Often considered a bunch of nonsensical works, Bob Dylan actually writes in a variation of dream sequences and nightmare narratives. Within this essay we will be exploring the political nightmare that Bob Dylan symbolises in his poem "The Vandals Took the Handles (An Opera)." The title is taken straight from Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and bears resemblances. For instance, both report on the Political Nightmare through symbolism of other things such as in the song, we have a "basement" and in the poem it's an entire house.

What this essay is going to determine is the Political Nightmare of the latent kind (the contextual meaning behind it) by analysing the various characters, quotes, settings and symbolism that hold the nightmare within the realms of language. This is mostly contextual and therefore, this will be an interpretation that concentrates on what the Nightmare could be when looking at the context in which it was written, the 60s, not published, in the 70s.

In order to find out how the Political Nightmare of the 1960s was introduced into Bob Dylan's poetry, we're going to first need to establish exactly what this nightmare involves by looking at various components of the poem.

First of all, the Political Nightmare involves the "masses" or the common people, because for the nightmare to actually be a nightmare then it must be shared by those who are living through it normally. The very first setting in the entire poem is the "National Bank"—leading us to believe that this is the symbol of money. The symbol of money in the 1960s, is also the symbol of struggling with money. Why? the National Bank is also a symbol of elitism - leading us to believe that this is the very first encounter we have with the Political Nightmare.

The next scene/setting for the Political Nightmare has something to do with the way in which the poem has been composed. The next setting is an academy in somewhere called (and rightly so) "Doomstown." How this relates to the Political Nightmare is that both this poem and the song Subterranean Homesick Blues are composed in the style of the beatnik. The beatnik style is also against elite intellectualism and therefore, an academy site is fitting to represent the nightmare.

The big question here is whether this poem is a want for a dream or a statement for how the nightmare is destroying people in terms of the politics of the 60s. The latter seems like the most viable explanation for why there are these settings for the Political Nightmare being used instead of destroyed/demolished. It is purely a symbolic explanation of what Bob Dylan was seeing and living through.

The anti-intellectual image of the beatnik is also one of the very liberal future and so, the various Political Nightmares in the poem will relate back to the regressive ideas of the still, quite conservative United States of America. The image of the house in an interesting concept for this. The line that begins this is a very staunch statement, "integrate the house!" and lasts up to the line "& then it kicks you out there." This is not the end of "the house," but it is the end of the initial setting and description of it.

The house functions as the place of the Political Dreamscape meeting the Political Nightmare. The Political Dreamscape is the integration and the want for a "better house," whereas the responses to the statements are the Political Nightmare seeping in. Finally, the staunch statement asks "what do you suggest then?" The house is then "not happy with itself" since there is forced integration. The house only "breeds disaster" because of this progression - which was quite a common theme in the narrative of the conservatives in the USA during this time. The narrative consisted of ideas that the rise of crime was relative to the idea of integration. This, of course, was not true in the slightest.

The conservative movement was also the Political Nightmare for the artistic and the progressive since these people were expressive and therefore, normally very politically active and therefore, not active in the ideas of the American Dream Theory. The Political Nightmare here is depicted as the house not being able to teach them anything about the outside world "then it kicks you out there"—these young people were forced to learn about the Political Nightmare, having not really lived in it as long as the older, more conservative generation. This was their Political Nightmare, but they are the conservative Political Nightmare. It works both ways.

When the conservative answers that they should "go far away from the house" - the progressive replies with this is "called giving up" and would cause a perpetual Political Nightmare for the speaker. They joke about it in the line "beware the enemy is Santa Claus!" since the enemy's way of thinking is "not a way of thinking", it is fantastical like Santa Claus. The humour around the way of thinking is the resistance of the Political Nightmare by the progressive speaker.

The Political Nightmare is also resisted by violence. Since the character Poncho resorts to violence, it is clear that this is part of the nightmare since afterwards, there is a grievance of "shouldn't done that." Then, there are people who want to justify this violence, like the "girl" character. The only way to subdue this justification of violence is to separate it from the peace-cause. This is the Political Dreamscape coming back and so, the girl "began to cry" after the speaker asked for a "piece of separate..."

The next part of the Political Nightmare deals not only with the griefs of the beatnik culture being displayed but also with the differentiation between the spiritual and the almost over-confidentially anti-spiritual. Something Bob Dylan is known for using especially in his early works and then again, in the Gospel Era and the albums of 1987 and the late 90s. This is that the "medicine men" are "looking elegant". This not only shows us that there is a clear confidence in these men, but there is also a "richness" about them. Something that is both over-confident, overly self-assured and overpaid. Three things that the beatniks do not believe in. We then have the normal people who are referred to as the "radar slaves" who "carry electrograms."

They may not be the intellectual ones, but the people carrying the equipment are just as important as the doctors using them on patients. The voice of the common man, which Bob Dylan is most particularly associated with. The fact that each one wants "to be an apostle" gives us the real differentiation between the "medicine men" and the people in employment. It is the spiritual. It is therefore the Political Nightmare that the richer, more overtly intellectual folk tend to lose the course of spirituality and therefore, cannot be emotionally connected to the movement that is happening at that particular moment in time.

The next section of the Political Nightmare involves the ignorant, who were not tolerate by any political sway, progressive or conservative. The character "Olive", neither black nor white - she is literally "Olive". She represents the ignorant as her colour is not actually the shade of any kind of skin, instead, her name conjures up images of commonality and blissfulness through the fact her name is quite a common name of a teenage girl in the time, even if she would be younger than Bob himself. She "started a streetfight over Carl Perkins' eyes". Therefore, she does something that is considerably stupid and is not part of either the intellectual movement, the artistic movement nor is she politically active. She represents the nothingness, everyone's Political Nightmare. She goes on to "build laugh machines for rich democrats"—which shows that the Political Nightmare in terms of the rich and poor is that though the rich may be progressive, they still aren't helping the movement. Olive does not know rich from poor and concentrates on helping those who are "celebrity" in status to promote their own political message. This relates Olive back to the streetfight over Carl Perkins.

The next section of the poem deals with what happens to the person when they become a part of the Political Nightmare. This is exactly what happens to the character of "Olive" and even the character of "Poncho" in which he becomes a violent vessel violent only because of a political establishment he supports. The speaker states "now you're a plastic vein-you've vanished inside of a perfect message..." The perfect message is the politics the "you" supports and the "plastic vein" is representative of the echo chamber; echoing words without thinking about what the message really says. Whether you are progressive or conservative, this is the individual Political Nightmare of every age.

The simplicity, it reduces itself to gives the inclination that the "you" has lost all sense of self and identity. Noting that the ability to think is part of the identity, no matter the political sway of the individual themselves. The quotation, "you're ideals are gone & all that remains are the cutup photographs of you standing in the supermarket..." The "supermarket" being the location of the Political Nightmare of the 1960s as it so directly is linked to commercialism.

This is followed by linking the ideas of learning the political atmosphere to the ideas about the intellectual. The line that the speaker replies with that states "you've learned nothing - you've just said something" is more like a warning that just a statement. The character of the "Egotist" is the intellectual and is part of the Political Nightmare when he writes something down in his diary, showing the speaker something on it but not acting upon whatever the message says. The "actions are more than words" warning from the speaker though, is quite clear in those troubled times.

The speaker then moves on to discuss what the Political Nightmare has done; this seems to be yet another warning, but also states a reality. The "sickness" in the quotation being the rise of poverty amongst the modern people. These people are described as "the thieves who really are not thieves but rather plain people who don't expect their friends to get sick." These are people who are now trying to cheat the system, or trying to receive more money from either means of friends, family, work etc. These are the "thieves" of the economy who are being slandered by modern media whilst there are people in top businesses with more than enough money - there isn't enough for 80 percent of the population though the top 20 percent have all the wealth. Those who are being depicted as thieves are the bottom class of people and are therefore, most likely to be disliked because of modern media—this is the Political Nightmare of the 1960s and still continues today. This is only exemplified by the line "there's a bunch of us around here but we only pick up dollars..." since there are a lot of people with a "bunch" and yet there are only a few "dollars" around to get shared amongst them.

This Political Nightmare ends up murdering the protagonist and speaker of the poem, Bob Dylan "from behind" - the modern backstabber which was most likely those with the most money who did not support the common man. Bob Dylan really puts himself forward as the common man and the rich man forward as the backstabber. The fact that the Political Nightmare has begat violence has already been a common theme in the poem and so, the violence here is that the backstabber "jumped on him for solitude". And yet, the rich man has won since the commodity of "Bob Dylan" is still being sold though the person himself is not there to sell it. The commodity is the book itself and yet we are told "that was exactly the end of Bob Dylan." The name not capitalised since it is not of much value compared to the commodity.

The "rudeness" of Bob Dylan in these stanzas makes the reader believe that this section is narrated by the opposition and that Bob Dylan may be their own Political Nightmare - the rise of the common man. The "sickness" again represents the idea of money, or the lack of it that the person may or may not have; the "phone numbers" being the other people living through the Political Nightmare.

The fact that people try and profit off death seems to be the point of the next stanza since everyone will now "claim to have invented him" - he is treated as a commodity. The "cool" people (who are the other expressive artists) are now going to write about him. The spiritualness comes through when the tone changes to something more haunting, the reason why the commodity can never represent the person is because a person is never just one person throughout their life, "the ghost too was more than one person". Therefore, the commodity to represent a person is pretty pointless and serves only the commercialist side of the Political Nightmare—nothing new can be learnt or expressed from it.

We turn back to the speaker of Bob Dylan and he states that there is a difference between honest and dishonest work, both of which need to be done in order to not be stuck within the Political Nightmare. This is exactly what the character of "Cousin Butch" does. Representing the idea of an honest man thrown into dishonest work because of making only "three dollars a nite." Other characters like "Roach" seem to run away and are "chasing a train" in order to get away from the Political Nightmare. The South Duchess County however will "exist past the deadly compliments"—which means this characterisation too, will become a commodity when death approaches. This is all dishonest work required in order to hold back the Political Nightmare for various people.

The next part is where the speaker deals with people of his own kind who promote his own message. The Political Nightmare is the people who say things, but do nothing. Again, the idea that actions are stronger than words and yet, words are all people speak since they do nothing. Someone gets stabbed and the "you" just sits by and does nothing, another thing happens that is questionable and they turn around. The "you" is quite clearly the promoter of the message who pays no attention when society is seen to be going wrong. The Political Nightmare being that the "say" and "do" are entirely different things to this unknown person. In speech, they are presumed as not scared to say anything, but when it comes to action, they are not very apt at all.

The last part of the poem deals with the symbolism of water. Water not just being the natural image of tranquility of mind, but also the transparent substance in which there is nothing to hold. The statement of "your hands are made of water" seems to be an insult against the promoter for doing nothing. They let the action run away since they cannot hold it. The fact the speaker says he'll get a bucket means that he is likely to collect these messages to make them into a poem, something that refers all the way back to the beginning of the poem.

Conclusion

The Political Nightmare in its manifest content is seen through various characters and symbolism throughout the poem, different ways the speaker speaks and different stylistics and structures the poet uses when switching between the spoken characters. Whereas, the latent content shows us the great detail and extremities and even violence of what would happen if the Political Nightmare were to get underway completely. I am well aware that not every Bobcat enjoys Tarantula but I thoroughly enjoy looking at the poetry, I feel like it does not have enough attention paid to it and though the songs are analysed over and over again, I hope you take into consideration that this book is just as important.