Did Dylan rip off Pynchon?

[Carvill John]

The question of whether Bob DYlan & THomas Pynchon are friends, acquaintences, or total strangers has long fascinated me (if not this list). As we know, despite all the pop-cultural and 60s musical references, especially in Vineland and now in Inherent Vice, it's something of a notable absence that no explicit mention has ever been made of Dylan.
 
 
Now, any Dylan fan will know that there's a controversy been brewing for several years now about Bob's unattributed use of otehr writers' words, notably on Love & Theft and in his Chronicles Vol 1 'memoir'. Too big a topic to go into. Well, here's a new twist - one of the alleged sources of Bob's, er, inspiration, catalogued in this most recent batch, is Pynchon:
 
 
http://ralphriver.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-dylan-thefts-ii-rollins-pynchon.html
 
 
Here are the relevant passages:
 
 
 
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, p. 529
 

"...cast-iron flowers on spiral vine all painted white..."
 
 
 
Bob Dylan, Chronicles, p. 58:

 
"There were some iron flowers on a spiral vine painted white leaning in the corner"
 
 
 
Let the reader decide...
 
 
 
 
 

 
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