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I read a "I'm Not There" movie review in Times.

Vulnerable as Mr. Dylan is to misunderstanding (“I couldn’t believe after all these years/You didn’t know me better than that” in “Idiot Wind”), he also actively solicits it (“Something is happening here/But you don’t know what it is/Do you, Mr. Jones?” in “Ballad of a Thin Man”).

Article as below link https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/movies/21ther.html

For the sentence "Vulnerable as Mr. Dylan is to misunderstanding , he also actively solicits it."

I wonder why this sentence has no conjunction? And does this sentence mean: "Dylan is easily misunderstood, but he still seeks to be misunderstood."

Thanks for your time.

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    The sense of the sentence is "Despite being as vulnerable as Mr. Dylan is to misunderstanding, he also actively solicits it." Often the truncated form of the expressed idea starts at the first "as": "As vulnerable as Mr. Dylan is to misunderstanding, he also actively solicits it." But it is also quite common for English speakers and writers to cut the first "as" along with the "Despite being," leaving the listener or reader with sentences of the form you ask about.
    – Sven Yargs
    May 11, 2019 at 3:29
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    Thanks for your answer and explain. It is really helpful!
    – Shih-Chun Hsiao
    May 12, 2019 at 9:14
  • @SvenYargs So the understood "as" is the conjunction the poster found missing?
    – Zan700
    Oct 8, 2019 at 6:24

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This is one of several English subordinating constructions that lack an overt conjunction. They are sometimes called "ablative absolute" by analogy to an analogous construction in Latin.

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