Subject
Lolitology ...
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Date
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Fagistan
http://fagistan.blogspot.com/2008/01/lolitology.html
January 18, 2008
Lolitology
There's a very interesting piece up on Slate by Ron Rosenbaum about Nabokov's last manuscript. Nabokov wanted the manuscript (which was written on index cards and comes out to about 30 regular pages, according to his son, Dmitri, who is both Nabokov's heir and translator) to be burned. Nabokov's wife never followed through and so far neither has Dmitri, although the contents of the manuscript have been kept secret. All we know is its name, The Original of Laura, and a few cryptic comments Dmitri has made about the book being either (both?) a "distillation" of Nabokov's genius or a "radical" departure from it.Rosenbaum has been in communication with Dmitri Nabokov on the subject, and apparently Dmitri is on the verge of making a final decision. Considering that he is 73 now himself, I figure it's about time to either release the manuscript or destroy it.But what a choice! As Rosenbaum very eloquently puts it:
It was a Hamlet-like dilemma he faced. His stern regal father, like the ghost in Hamlet, demanding posthumous fulfillment of a blood-chilling pledge. Dmitri has been enjoined with carrying out the last act of one of the most demanding purists in literary history, a man who would have, his son must know, felt pain at the release of a maimed or not fully formed version of his last words.Rosenbaum also seems to think Dmitri will destroy, at least in part to fend off a new cycle of psychological interpretations of Nabokov's work, or as Dmitri puts it, "Lolitology."It's not a burden I'd want to bear, but surely Dmitri Nabokov, who has devoted his entire life to his father's legacy as the manager of his estate, the most vociferous defender of Nabokov's own theory of his work and as his best translator, knows what he must do.I think Dmitri should burn the manuscript. Not only to combat Lolitology (about which I am of two minds) but as a final sacrifice to his father's memory. Surely it can be said that an artist ceases to own his work when he dies. I've long been in favor of published works passing into public domain immediately upon a writer's death. And surely it can be also be said that it's awfully cruel for Nabokov to put such a responsibility on either his beloved wife or his son. But that's the nature of death. Had he lived long enough to carry out his own wishes, he'd have finished the book. And Dmitri's entire life has been devoted to his father's legacy. Vladimir gave his son not only physical but also spiritual existence, not just life but a reason to live. And that reason has been Vladimir's work. Doesn't Dmitri owe his father one last act of filial devotion in exchange for all his father gave him?Let The Original of Laura burn. Vladimir Nabokov gave us more than enough to read and puzzle over and cry about and laugh with. Why do we need one more story? And after so many years of longing for the emergence of a work that Dmitri has described with such gnomic strangeness, aren't we certain to be disappointed? Better to let it be the last, and best, of all the Mysteries of Nabokov.
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