It’s Bob Dylan’s party, and he’ll skip it if he wants to. Though the musician was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, it doesn’t appear he’s all that interested in celebrating the occasion—or even acknowledging it at all. The Swedish Academy has reached out to the freewheelin’ folk star several times since his win last Thursday, but hasn’t heard back from him. Now, they’re giving up. 
 
 “Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent e-mails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough,” the academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said in a radio interview on Monday, according to The Guardian. His silence also makes it unclear whether he will attend the annual Nobel celebration on December 10. At the ceremony, winners typically accept a diploma and medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. 
 
 Dylan also has yet to say anything publicly about his win, despite playing a show in Las Vegas the same day as the announcement. There, he didn’t mention or allude to his new Nobel status at all. 
 
 But don’t think twice about the Academy’s feelings. It’s all right, Danius says. “I am not at all worried,” Danius said. “I think he will show up. 
 
 “If he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in any case and the honor belongs to him,” Danius added. 
 
 Though Dylan has remained silent, the world quickly weighed in on his award. While many have made a strong case for his unorthodox win (he’s the first singer to be given the literature prize), others have argued against the Academy’s choice. 
 
 “He is a musician, and his relationship with words is as a lyricist, someone whose prose exists inexorably with music,” Matthew Schnipper writes in Pitchfork. “To read his lyrics flatly, without the sound delivering them, is to experience his art reduced.” 
 
 “[Popular music] already receives the recognition it deserves. And apart from a few spoken-word awards, no one would expect the highest honors in music to go to a writer,” Anna North writes in The New York Times. 
 
 High-profile stars have also voiced some thoughts on the surprising choice. Leonard Cohen, the poetic singer-songwriter who might also one day claim a Nobel Prize, made a funny comparison when asked about Dylan’s win, saying it’s “like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain.” 
 
 Perhaps one day we’ll also hear what Bob Dylan thinks about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize. But in typical Dylan fashion, he’s keeping things a touch mysterious. The times, they are a-stayin’ the same. ||||| Despite the historic news Thursday, famed singer Bob Dylan chose to let his newly minted Nobel laureate status go unmentioned at his first concert since the announcement. 
 
 Dylan performed at Las Vegas’ Chelsea Theater Thursday night to a packed, enthusiastic crowd. But if the news that he’d become the first musician to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature had any effect on him, Dylan didn’t let it show. 
 
 According to audience accounts, Dylan said very little at all during his performance, ending with an encore consisting of a cover of Frank Sinatra’s “Why Try to Change Me Now.” Dylan’s last two studio albums have been explorations of Sinatra’s work. 
 
 “He was the voice of the ’60s,” concert attendee Richard Iozia told the Guardian, adding that he was “not surprised” by the Nobel honor. 
 
 “He’s one of the great poets of our time,” Iozia said. 
 
 Another concertgoer, novelist Maria Stafford, said that it was “high time” a singer-songwriter earned the literature prize. “These awards can have an elitist quality,” she said.
– On Thursday, the Swedish Academy dropped a culture bomb in the form of a Nobel in Literature for Bob Dylan for his "poetic expressions." It is now Monday, and Dylan has yet to respond, poetically or otherwise, and the Nobel Committee is somewhat publicly throwing up its hands. "Right now we are doing nothing," the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, tells the Guardian. "I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough." It's not like Dylan has disappeared, though, as CBS News reported that he played a show in Las Vegas on the night of his win; he simply didn't bring the matter up, and hasn't contacted the committee or indicated whether he might show up in December to collect his shiny trinket. Says Danius: "I am not at all worried. I think he will show up." But, she says, "If he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in any case and the honor belongs to him." The Guardian notes that Dylan's current tour wraps up in late November, so he'll be free for the Dec. 10 ceremony in Stockholm. "But in typical Dylan fashion, he’s keeping things a touch mysterious," writes Yohana Desta at Vanity Fair. "The times, they are a-stayin’ the same." (Dylan might have inadvertently coined a phrase you use all the time.)