Published: September 24, 2007 10:31 pm      

Looking for memoir’s truth in Bob Dylan’s beard - Daniel Silliman

Sometimes, Bob Dylan wears a fake beard.

I saw him perform in Gwinnett over the weekend, and I couldn’t tell, from the cheap seats, if he was wearing his fake, facial hair. He looked a bit like a classic Mexican desperado, in a trim black suit with decorative buttons and a wide-brimmed hat. Either that or he looked like the sort of villain who ties damsels to a railroad track and then, deviously, twists the end of his over-sized mustache.

I couldn’t tell, from where I was watching him sing “Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat,” if he was wearing the hair that could be twisted while laughing villainously, but sometimes he does wear fake hair on his chin.

It’s not much of a disguise.

It’s not the sort of disguise that would make you say, “Who is that man with the funny beard?” The general reaction from people who watch Bob Dylan tends to be, “When did he get so creepy?”

Of course, celebrity disguises are rarely meant to be disguises. The most commonly worn disguise is a pair of sunglasses, which isn’t a disguise at all, unless you’re only known by the color of your eyes.

Sunglasses are a disguise only in the sense that they make the wearer look mysterious, like a distressed woman in a film noir, a fighter pilot who needs to look like he doesn’t blink, or someone trying to look like a movie star. The last reason tends to be the most common one and the strangest one, too: Look at Paris Hilton, who is famous, disguised to look like someone who is famous.

Dylan’s beard doesn’t make him look like a movie star trying to sneak a latte past the paparazzi, of course. But he is also wearing a disguise that isn’t, strictly, a disguise.

He’s never explained the disguise. It’s so obviously fake that I have to assume it’s meant to be recognized as fake. It’s a disguise in that it’s obviously not real, which makes the viewer wonder what else is put on. Dylan’s done this — told a lie while practically waving a sign that says “This is a lie!” — ever since he made up the name Dylan.

It’s a way of giving the public everything they want, everything they beg for, and yet nothing at all.

Since we live in a time when people write memoirs disguised as fiction, such as O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It,” and fiction disguised as memoirs, like James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” you would think that we, the public, would, by now, distrust autobiographical statements. Or, at least, we would just generally assume that statements made in the first person singular are likely to contain hidden motives

Maybe, there’s some self preservation going on. Maybe, the person’s experience of an event doesn’t line up with what actually happened.

Even when there’s no cover-up involved, the memoir is a strange thing. Crime writer, James Ellroy, always gives interviewers his complete history, accompanied by self psycho-analyzation, when promoting his books. He has, and he will say this, made a lot of money talking about the most private and disturbing parts of his life.

We always worry about the person who is lying about his or her past, but Ellroy will show you that the straight truth isn’t exactly square. Even the truth is told for the purpose of constructing a perception.

My father’s always been very autobiographical and very open in telling his life story. Sometimes he tells it without being asked. My mother’s more private, and will often withhold her experiences, even when asked. She’s told me, more than once, “Oh, my story’s not as exciting as your father’s,” even when it is.

I’ve fluctuated between those two styles, sometimes spinning stories freely and sometimes shutting down, saying nothing. I guess I’m too interested in stories, to stop telling my own, and always too aware of the spinning and the perception-building, even in telling the truth, to be much good at memoir.

I’ll tell my autobiography, if asked, but I’ll need to wear a fake beard.



Daniel Silliman covers crime and courts for the Clayton News Daily. He can be reached at (770) 478-5753 ext. 254 or via e-mail at dsilliman@news-daily.com.