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Re: Nabokov and McCarthyism (and cousin Nicolas Nabokov)
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Date
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A few comments for Jansy, Michael, and others who have touched, with
remarks that are often valid and perceptive, on the issues in question:
1. My father and I were always loyal Americans, and tried to maintain an
objective attitude and an awareness of the larger picture even when
certain policies elicited vociferous protests in some quarters.
2. Some actions of our government during the "McCarthy Era" were
doubtless inappropriate, and we disapproved the unfairness of such
tendencies as guilt by association when it was a factor.
3. Nevertheless, there was undeniably a long-standing and widespread
infiltration of media, entertainment and academe by leftist elements,
part of a concerted campaign to undermine our democratic society.
4. The ugly truth was often obscured by the bathwater of terms such as
"protest" and "outrage", terms applied today with similar facility to
the jihads of rampaging Muslims and the destructive manifs of Paris
students et al. And there are still those today who would do what is
laughable as it is lamentable, such as glorifying the Rosenbergs with an
opera or worshipping at the altar of Che Guevara.
5. My father had had occasion to observe at close hand the excesses of
the criminal right, the criminal left, and the ingenuous middle. Rather
than chant slogans in chorus, he thought for himself, drew his own
conclusions, and expressed them in his own ways. It is enough to read
Invitation to a Beheading, Bend Sinister, or
"Cloud, Castle, Lake" to understand them.
6. Those who cite my father, often at a double or triple remove from the
original context and circumstances, often tend to regard his humor with
a meat headed myopia. Example: VN had his reasons for disliking
Cervantes, whom he had diligently studied and taught at Harvard, and
once dismissed Don Quixote with a harmless quip. Having made the rounds
of the quotation mill, his quip turned into a report heard round the
world that he had burned the book in front of his class.
7. With regard to my father's presumed exchange with "the FBI agent
assigned to Cornell," VN had enough respect for my judgement to let me
select for myself the companies I chose to join.
8. Just for the record, one might add to the list of Nabokoviana that
appeared in Encounter a small portion of my memoir-in-progress titled
"On Revisiting Father's Room."
9. Among the unfortunate circumstances that led to the resignation of
our much-admired founder and editor Don Barton Johnson was an incipient
slanging match that arose when I was questioned about my father's
dislike of Charlie Chaplin's politics. Just as a liberal-left California
provocateur -- whose name I had not previously encountered on NAB-L --
was weighing in to harass me, other boils came to a head, such as one
mad lady from the antipodes with her delusions about VN's supposed
romance with his uncle and a McCarthy who theorized that the incestuous
situation in Ada had a real-life analogue in Nabokov's relations with
his sister. Between all that and the politics, things suddenly became so
tense and so unappetizing that Don first tried to regulate the
intercourse, then chose to withdraw, and the entire Forum teetered
perilously until it was saved by the arrival of a superb new editorial
team. It is not for me to regulate; I mention these events only in the
hope that NAB-L will not be derailed again by politics from Don's
original vision. As for personal and familial matters to which I have
referred, permit me to paraphrase my father: if I did not know more, I
would not have been able to say what I have said.
With warm greetings to all,
DN
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
remarks that are often valid and perceptive, on the issues in question:
1. My father and I were always loyal Americans, and tried to maintain an
objective attitude and an awareness of the larger picture even when
certain policies elicited vociferous protests in some quarters.
2. Some actions of our government during the "McCarthy Era" were
doubtless inappropriate, and we disapproved the unfairness of such
tendencies as guilt by association when it was a factor.
3. Nevertheless, there was undeniably a long-standing and widespread
infiltration of media, entertainment and academe by leftist elements,
part of a concerted campaign to undermine our democratic society.
4. The ugly truth was often obscured by the bathwater of terms such as
"protest" and "outrage", terms applied today with similar facility to
the jihads of rampaging Muslims and the destructive manifs of Paris
students et al. And there are still those today who would do what is
laughable as it is lamentable, such as glorifying the Rosenbergs with an
opera or worshipping at the altar of Che Guevara.
5. My father had had occasion to observe at close hand the excesses of
the criminal right, the criminal left, and the ingenuous middle. Rather
than chant slogans in chorus, he thought for himself, drew his own
conclusions, and expressed them in his own ways. It is enough to read
Invitation to a Beheading, Bend Sinister, or
"Cloud, Castle, Lake" to understand them.
6. Those who cite my father, often at a double or triple remove from the
original context and circumstances, often tend to regard his humor with
a meat headed myopia. Example: VN had his reasons for disliking
Cervantes, whom he had diligently studied and taught at Harvard, and
once dismissed Don Quixote with a harmless quip. Having made the rounds
of the quotation mill, his quip turned into a report heard round the
world that he had burned the book in front of his class.
7. With regard to my father's presumed exchange with "the FBI agent
assigned to Cornell," VN had enough respect for my judgement to let me
select for myself the companies I chose to join.
8. Just for the record, one might add to the list of Nabokoviana that
appeared in Encounter a small portion of my memoir-in-progress titled
"On Revisiting Father's Room."
9. Among the unfortunate circumstances that led to the resignation of
our much-admired founder and editor Don Barton Johnson was an incipient
slanging match that arose when I was questioned about my father's
dislike of Charlie Chaplin's politics. Just as a liberal-left California
provocateur -- whose name I had not previously encountered on NAB-L --
was weighing in to harass me, other boils came to a head, such as one
mad lady from the antipodes with her delusions about VN's supposed
romance with his uncle and a McCarthy who theorized that the incestuous
situation in Ada had a real-life analogue in Nabokov's relations with
his sister. Between all that and the politics, things suddenly became so
tense and so unappetizing that Don first tried to regulate the
intercourse, then chose to withdraw, and the entire Forum teetered
perilously until it was saved by the arrival of a superb new editorial
team. It is not for me to regulate; I mention these events only in the
hope that NAB-L will not be derailed again by politics from Don's
original vision. As for personal and familial matters to which I have
referred, permit me to paraphrase my father: if I did not know more, I
would not have been able to say what I have said.
With warm greetings to all,
DN
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm