Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0012129, Fri, 25 Nov 2005 08:29:52 -0800

Subject
Re: Fwd: Burn 'Laura', Dmitri...
Date
Body
As someone who grew up in the still-communist Russia, I have a strong
distrust of all the book-burning practices and a mystic hope that
manuscripts do not burn (- please, God, let it be true!).
How can we get so smug to say that we don't want to see more of VN's
writings?
Bringing Lolita into discussion is very appropriate - after all, VN would
have burned it if someone didn't stop him.
I hope DN won't let the "journalistic attacks" deprive us all of the unknown
masterpiece.
IK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 2:23 AM
Subject: Fwd: Burn 'Laura', Dmitri...


> Dear Don and List,
>
> I trust VN's judgement. If he wasn't ready to show 'Laura'
> to the world, then too bad for us. If it had been finished and published,
> would the crits have tucked it into the 'Late Nabokov' pigeonhole along
> with
> 'LATH' and 'Transparent Things' rather than enthroning it alongside
> 'Lolita'?
> We'll never know. I feel that burning 'Laura' would leave the academics
> (and the tabloid journos) one less bone to chew over. As for the ordinary
> reader,
> she still has a legacy of incredible richness in the work that VN saw fit
> to release.
> There's more than enough in his oeuvre to satisfy sympathetic seekers of
> aesthetic bliss,
> as well as forensic allusion-hunters working along the fringes of
> literature
> with dustpan, broom and microscope. So let's burn 'Laura', along with the
> Spanish
> pulp story by von Wotsisname. It's far too late to incinerate 'Lolita',
> thank goodness.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom (Rymour)
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----

----- End forwarded message -----