Subject
Fw: Fw: bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very much in his own
voice ...
voice ...
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rodney Welch" <rodney41@mindspring.com>
.
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (273
lines) ------------------
> The problem isn't the review; the problem is the quote -- one of the
crankiest Nabokov ever wrote. For one thing, it puts Nabokov's own
anti-anti-American views in Kinbote's mouth, the very thing he hated when
other writers did it. Also, much as I appreciate Nabokov's personal and
painful experience with the Soviet Union, I've always found it unsettling
the way he just shrugs off Joe McCarthy. I'm not naive about the reality of
spying and Communist infiltration during the 1950s, but there seems to me
little question that there really was a McCarthy Era, and that the fascistic
fathead at its center did reckless damage.
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC
-----------------------------
EDNOTE. All true but my point was merely the bizarre use that the
Nabokov/Kinbote quote had been put to.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Jan 9, 2004 1:02 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very much in his own
voice ...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenny, Glenn" <gkenny@hfmus.com>
> To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >
> > ---------------- Message requiring your approval (208
> lines) ------------------
> > That's a real "huh?" moment for sure. The fact that such nonsense saw
> print
> > is further evidence that the arts editors over at the Times are all on
> > crack.
> >
> > > ----------
> > > From: D. Barton Johnson
> > > Reply To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2004 10:19 PM
> > > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > > Subject: Fw: bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very much in his
> > > own voice ...
> > >
> > > EDNOTE: AMong the stranger uses VN's work has been put to is the
> following
> > > review intro.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Sandy P. Klein
> > >
> > > The New York Times On The Web
> > >
> > > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/books/review/04WHEATCT.html
> > >
> > > The New York Times
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > January 4, 2004
> > >
> > >
> > > 'Reds': Point of Order
> > >
> > > By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Ted Morgan, the author of "Reds."
> > >
> > > REDS
> > > McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America.
> > > By Ted Morgan.
> > > 685 pp. New York: Random House. $35.
> > >
> > > He was ''a so-called Pink,'' Kinbote says of a campus colleague, 'who
> > > believed in what so-called Pinks believe in (Progressive Education,
the
> > > Integrity of anyone spying for Russia, Fallouts occasioned solely by
> > > U.S.-made bombs, the existence in the near past of a McCarthy Era,
> Soviet
> > > achievements including 'Dr. Zhivago' and so forth).'' Although ''Pale
> > > Fire'' is part satire, that bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very
> much
> > > in his own voice; little did he guess that, 40 years later, the
McCarthy
> > > era would still haunt America.
> > >
> > > From Richard Rovere's admirable 1959 ''Senator Joe McCarthy'' onward,
> very
> > > many books about the era and its protagonist have appeared. In the
> latest,
> > > the long, detailed, interesting but puzzling ''Reds,'' Ted Morgan, a
> > > biographer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Somerset
> > > Maugham, covers the ground with some fresh material and, as he hopes,
> with
> > > a new angle. The result is really more than one book, and they don't
> quite
> > > hang together: McCarthy enters (stage right) only after more than 320
> > > pages, or well over halfway through, and no more than 4 out of 15
> chapters
> > > are devoted to him.
> > >
> > > His story remains fascinating, and hair-raising. Born in Wisconsin,
Joe
> > > McCarthy displayed application and ability at school and college. He
> also
> > > displayed from a young age a tendency to embroider the record. As
Morgan
> > > says, McCarthy learned early that ''he could lie and get away with
it.''
> > > In 1939, partly by means of mendacious attacks on his opponent, he
> became
> > > the youngest circuit judge ever elected in Wisconsin. Soon he was
> > > propelled into national politics, by way of war service in the Pacific
> and
> > > by way of more fabulizing. McCarthy allowed the people of Wisconsin to
> > > believe that he had been wounded in action (or, still more
inventively,
> > > ''while helping to remove a pregnant woman from off a submarine''),
when
> > > actually he had injured himself in a prank during the traditional
> > > festivities crossing the Equator.
> > >
> > > He was an obscure figure when he reached Washington in December 1946,
> and
> > > not much better known in 1950 when he jumped on the anti-Communist
> > > bandwagon with his explosive ''I have in my hand'' speech at Wheeling,
> > > W.Va., claiming that the State Department was a nest of Communists.
Thus
> > > began the McCarthy era, although Morgan rightly stresses that
> > > anti-Communist purges and Communist espionage both predated McCarthy's
> own
> > > demagogic career.
> > >
> > > However often told, the story never palls: the increasingly wild
> charges,
> > > the atmosphere of suspicion and dread, the attack on Gen. George C.
> > > Marshall and then the whole United States Army, the televised
hearings,
> > > the breaking of a malign spell over American political life with
Joseph
> > > Welch's superbly theatrical riposte -- ''Little did I dream you could
be
> > > so reckless and so cruel. . . . Have you no sense of decency, sir, at
> long
> > > last?'' -- and McCarthy's censure by the Senate in 1954. Less than
three
> > > years later he was dead.
> > >
> > > Along with his bullying and braggadocio, there was a huge
> self-destructive
> > > streak in McCarthy's makeup. It showed in the easily demonstrable lies
> he
> > > told, it showed in the drinking that polished him off at only 48, it
> > > showed in his patronage of the odious if preposterous Roy Cohn and his
> > > boyfriend David Schine, whose cavorting around Europe made a
> laughingstock
> > > of America and much aided the Communist cause. But then so did the
whole
> > > McCarthy era.
> > >
> > > Those who come out of this story worst aren't so much McCarthy and his
> > > acolytes as the politicians who recognized him for what he was but
> lacked
> > > the courage to stand up to him. ''Joe's just a loudmouthed drunk,''
> Lyndon
> > > Johnson told Bobby Baker. Other senators knew that, and in his last
> years
> > > they got up and left the dining room when he entered. But that was
only
> > > after his star had fallen. Until then, Democrats as well as
Republicans
> > > had lined up behind him, or at least refused to call his bluff.
> > >
> > > But telling the immediate story of the McCarthy era is only one part
of
> > > this book. Its subtitle is ''McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century
America,''
> > > and it can't quite make up its mind what its theme is supposed to be.
> > > Morgan begins with what he thinks is the provocative claim that ''the
> cold
> > > war began in 1917,'' but this is a truism. A. J. P. Taylor's history
of
> > > European international relations from 1848 to 1918, written 50 years
> ago,
> > > ended with the words that ''Europe was superseded'' after World War I
by
> > > the ''competition between Communism and liberal democracy.''
> > >
> > > In Morgan's account, the conflict had taken shape with American
> > > involvement in the Russian Revolution, and the abortive military
> > > intervention against the Bolsheviks. Following that episode, he
plunges
> > > headfirst into the murky world of espionage. From the arrival of the
> first
> > > Soviet trade mission in 1924, the Russians established a large spy
> network
> > > in America, in some ways connected with the official and open
Communist
> > > Party, but also with the larger sway that Communism held over cultural
> and
> > > intellectual life in the 1930's and 40's.
> > >
> > > The evidence of Venona, the transcripts of the Soviet secret signal
> > > traffic intercepted and decrypted by American intelligence, is
> conclusive
> > > about the extent of that operation: with a strange irony, one could
say
> > > that McCarthy didn't know the half of it. All the same, to write, as
> > > Morgan does, that if only Venona had been released at the time, ''the
> > > swing of the pendulum to hysterical anti-Communism could perhaps have
> been
> > > avoided,'' is idle; of course the transcripts could not have been made
> > > public then.
> > >
> > > Morgan devotes the last part of his book to a feverish gallop through
> > > events since McCarthy: the F.B.I.'s ever more frantic pursuit of an
ever
> > > tinier Communist Party, the sex lives of John F. Kennedy and Martin
> Luther
> > > King Jr., the birth of the New Left, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-contra,
> > > whatever. All this is designed somehow or other to illustrate the
thesis
> > > that ''just as McCarthyism began long before McCarthy, it endured long
> > > after him.''
> > >
> > > Does this mean anything? ''McCarthyism'' could have a truly useful
> > > definition: the calculated and unprincipled use of mendacious
> allegations
> > > for political purposes. But if it comes to be used (as it too often
is)
> to
> > > mean any charge uncomfortably near the bone, or if alternatively it
> covers
> > > any kind of demagoguery, falsehood and trickery, then the very concept
> is
> > > rendered empty and meaningless.
> > >
> > > As to Morgan's peroration -- or concluding rant -- about George W.
Bush,
> > > 9/11, African uranium and the ''pattern of deceit'' behind the White
> > > House's case for war with Iraq, one can (as it happens) share the
> author's
> > > inclination on these subjects while wondering whether ''McCarthyite
> > > methods'' is in any sense a helpful way of describing the debate over
> the
> > > current war. It did not require McCarthy, after all, to teach
> politicians
> > > the uses of misrepresentation.
> > >
> > > All of which leaves ''Reds'' looking curiouser and curiouser. Despite
> > > being quite unillusioned about Communism, Morgan misses the point.
> > > McCarthy did huge damage to American life, but a large part of the
> damage
> > > was done to the honorable anti-Communist cause -- and to honesty on
the
> > > left. Nearly 50 years ago, when the senator was still at large, the
> > > journalist Dwight Macdonald pointed out that ''the liberals have never
> > > honestly confronted their illusions in the 30's and 40's about
Communism
> > > but have instead merely counterposed a disingenuous defense, a blanket
> > > denial to McCarthy's equally sweeping attack.''
> > >
> > > Before the McCarthy era began, and then after it ended, two
politically
> > > very different Englishmen said what needed to be said. George Orwell
> > > almost certainly never heard of Joe McCarthy: the Wheeling speech came
a
> > > matter of weeks after his death. But not long before he died, Orwell
had
> > > specifically warned the Americans about the danger of fighting
Communism
> > > with the kinds of methods Communists themselves used.
> > >
> > > Then in 1960, William F. Buckley Jr. tried to persuade Evelyn Waugh to
> > > contribute to National Review, and sent him ''McCarthy and His
> Enemies,''
> > > the apologia he had written with L. Brent Bozell. But Buckley got an
> > > elegant flea in his ear. Most Englishmen regarded McCarthy as a
> > > regrettable figure, Waugh replied, and the book ''will not go far to
> clear
> > > his reputation.'' Plainly there had been need for an investigation
into
> > > Soviet espionage, but it was just as clear that McCarthy was not a
> > > suitable man to undertake it, Waugh said, and those who sympathized
with
> > > the anti-Communist cause ''must deplore his championship of it.''
> Despite
> > > all the bitterness of the McCarthy era and its residue, that remains
> > > something like the last word.
> > >
> > > Geoffrey Wheatcroft's books include ''The Controversy of Zion'' and,
> most
> > > recently, ''Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France.''
> > >
> > >
> > > The New York Times
> > >
> > > New York Times
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _____
> > >
> > > Take advantage of our limited-time introductory offer for dial-up
> Internet
> > > access.
> > >
>
>
>
From: "Rodney Welch" <rodney41@mindspring.com>
.
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (273
lines) ------------------
> The problem isn't the review; the problem is the quote -- one of the
crankiest Nabokov ever wrote. For one thing, it puts Nabokov's own
anti-anti-American views in Kinbote's mouth, the very thing he hated when
other writers did it. Also, much as I appreciate Nabokov's personal and
painful experience with the Soviet Union, I've always found it unsettling
the way he just shrugs off Joe McCarthy. I'm not naive about the reality of
spying and Communist infiltration during the 1950s, but there seems to me
little question that there really was a McCarthy Era, and that the fascistic
fathead at its center did reckless damage.
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC
-----------------------------
EDNOTE. All true but my point was merely the bizarre use that the
Nabokov/Kinbote quote had been put to.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Jan 9, 2004 1:02 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very much in his own
voice ...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenny, Glenn" <gkenny@hfmus.com>
> To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >
> > ---------------- Message requiring your approval (208
> lines) ------------------
> > That's a real "huh?" moment for sure. The fact that such nonsense saw
> > is further evidence that the arts editors over at the Times are all on
> > crack.
> >
> > > ----------
> > > From: D. Barton Johnson
> > > Reply To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2004 10:19 PM
> > > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > > Subject: Fw: bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very much in his
> > > own voice ...
> > >
> > > EDNOTE: AMong the stranger uses VN's work has been put to is the
> following
> > > review intro.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Sandy P. Klein
> > >
> > > The New York Times On The Web
> > >
> > > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/books/review/04WHEATCT.html
> > >
> > > The New York Times
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > January 4, 2004
> > >
> > >
> > > 'Reds': Point of Order
> > >
> > > By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Ted Morgan, the author of "Reds."
> > >
> > > REDS
> > > McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America.
> > > By Ted Morgan.
> > > 685 pp. New York: Random House. $35.
> > >
> > > He was ''a so-called Pink,'' Kinbote says of a campus colleague, 'who
> > > believed in what so-called Pinks believe in (Progressive Education,
the
> > > Integrity of anyone spying for Russia, Fallouts occasioned solely by
> > > U.S.-made bombs, the existence in the near past of a McCarthy Era,
> Soviet
> > > achievements including 'Dr. Zhivago' and so forth).'' Although ''Pale
> > > Fire'' is part satire, that bravura passage has Nabokov speaking very
> much
> > > in his own voice; little did he guess that, 40 years later, the
McCarthy
> > > era would still haunt America.
> > >
> > > From Richard Rovere's admirable 1959 ''Senator Joe McCarthy'' onward,
> very
> > > many books about the era and its protagonist have appeared. In the
> latest,
> > > the long, detailed, interesting but puzzling ''Reds,'' Ted Morgan, a
> > > biographer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Somerset
> > > Maugham, covers the ground with some fresh material and, as he hopes,
> with
> > > a new angle. The result is really more than one book, and they don't
> quite
> > > hang together: McCarthy enters (stage right) only after more than 320
> > > pages, or well over halfway through, and no more than 4 out of 15
> chapters
> > > are devoted to him.
> > >
> > > His story remains fascinating, and hair-raising. Born in Wisconsin,
Joe
> > > McCarthy displayed application and ability at school and college. He
> also
> > > displayed from a young age a tendency to embroider the record. As
Morgan
> > > says, McCarthy learned early that ''he could lie and get away with
it.''
> > > In 1939, partly by means of mendacious attacks on his opponent, he
> became
> > > the youngest circuit judge ever elected in Wisconsin. Soon he was
> > > propelled into national politics, by way of war service in the Pacific
> and
> > > by way of more fabulizing. McCarthy allowed the people of Wisconsin to
> > > believe that he had been wounded in action (or, still more
inventively,
> > > ''while helping to remove a pregnant woman from off a submarine''),
when
> > > actually he had injured himself in a prank during the traditional
> > > festivities crossing the Equator.
> > >
> > > He was an obscure figure when he reached Washington in December 1946,
> and
> > > not much better known in 1950 when he jumped on the anti-Communist
> > > bandwagon with his explosive ''I have in my hand'' speech at Wheeling,
> > > W.Va., claiming that the State Department was a nest of Communists.
Thus
> > > began the McCarthy era, although Morgan rightly stresses that
> > > anti-Communist purges and Communist espionage both predated McCarthy's
> own
> > > demagogic career.
> > >
> > > However often told, the story never palls: the increasingly wild
> charges,
> > > the atmosphere of suspicion and dread, the attack on Gen. George C.
> > > Marshall and then the whole United States Army, the televised
hearings,
> > > the breaking of a malign spell over American political life with
Joseph
> > > Welch's superbly theatrical riposte -- ''Little did I dream you could
be
> > > so reckless and so cruel. . . . Have you no sense of decency, sir, at
> long
> > > last?'' -- and McCarthy's censure by the Senate in 1954. Less than
three
> > > years later he was dead.
> > >
> > > Along with his bullying and braggadocio, there was a huge
> self-destructive
> > > streak in McCarthy's makeup. It showed in the easily demonstrable lies
> he
> > > told, it showed in the drinking that polished him off at only 48, it
> > > showed in his patronage of the odious if preposterous Roy Cohn and his
> > > boyfriend David Schine, whose cavorting around Europe made a
> laughingstock
> > > of America and much aided the Communist cause. But then so did the
whole
> > > McCarthy era.
> > >
> > > Those who come out of this story worst aren't so much McCarthy and his
> > > acolytes as the politicians who recognized him for what he was but
> lacked
> > > the courage to stand up to him. ''Joe's just a loudmouthed drunk,''
> Lyndon
> > > Johnson told Bobby Baker. Other senators knew that, and in his last
> years
> > > they got up and left the dining room when he entered. But that was
only
> > > after his star had fallen. Until then, Democrats as well as
Republicans
> > > had lined up behind him, or at least refused to call his bluff.
> > >
> > > But telling the immediate story of the McCarthy era is only one part
of
> > > this book. Its subtitle is ''McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century
America,''
> > > and it can't quite make up its mind what its theme is supposed to be.
> > > Morgan begins with what he thinks is the provocative claim that ''the
> cold
> > > war began in 1917,'' but this is a truism. A. J. P. Taylor's history
of
> > > European international relations from 1848 to 1918, written 50 years
> ago,
> > > ended with the words that ''Europe was superseded'' after World War I
by
> > > the ''competition between Communism and liberal democracy.''
> > >
> > > In Morgan's account, the conflict had taken shape with American
> > > involvement in the Russian Revolution, and the abortive military
> > > intervention against the Bolsheviks. Following that episode, he
plunges
> > > headfirst into the murky world of espionage. From the arrival of the
> first
> > > Soviet trade mission in 1924, the Russians established a large spy
> network
> > > in America, in some ways connected with the official and open
Communist
> > > Party, but also with the larger sway that Communism held over cultural
> and
> > > intellectual life in the 1930's and 40's.
> > >
> > > The evidence of Venona, the transcripts of the Soviet secret signal
> > > traffic intercepted and decrypted by American intelligence, is
> conclusive
> > > about the extent of that operation: with a strange irony, one could
say
> > > that McCarthy didn't know the half of it. All the same, to write, as
> > > Morgan does, that if only Venona had been released at the time, ''the
> > > swing of the pendulum to hysterical anti-Communism could perhaps have
> been
> > > avoided,'' is idle; of course the transcripts could not have been made
> > > public then.
> > >
> > > Morgan devotes the last part of his book to a feverish gallop through
> > > events since McCarthy: the F.B.I.'s ever more frantic pursuit of an
ever
> > > tinier Communist Party, the sex lives of John F. Kennedy and Martin
> Luther
> > > King Jr., the birth of the New Left, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-contra,
> > > whatever. All this is designed somehow or other to illustrate the
thesis
> > > that ''just as McCarthyism began long before McCarthy, it endured long
> > > after him.''
> > >
> > > Does this mean anything? ''McCarthyism'' could have a truly useful
> > > definition: the calculated and unprincipled use of mendacious
> allegations
> > > for political purposes. But if it comes to be used (as it too often
is)
> to
> > > mean any charge uncomfortably near the bone, or if alternatively it
> covers
> > > any kind of demagoguery, falsehood and trickery, then the very concept
> is
> > > rendered empty and meaningless.
> > >
> > > As to Morgan's peroration -- or concluding rant -- about George W.
Bush,
> > > 9/11, African uranium and the ''pattern of deceit'' behind the White
> > > House's case for war with Iraq, one can (as it happens) share the
> author's
> > > inclination on these subjects while wondering whether ''McCarthyite
> > > methods'' is in any sense a helpful way of describing the debate over
> the
> > > current war. It did not require McCarthy, after all, to teach
> politicians
> > > the uses of misrepresentation.
> > >
> > > All of which leaves ''Reds'' looking curiouser and curiouser. Despite
> > > being quite unillusioned about Communism, Morgan misses the point.
> > > McCarthy did huge damage to American life, but a large part of the
> damage
> > > was done to the honorable anti-Communist cause -- and to honesty on
the
> > > left. Nearly 50 years ago, when the senator was still at large, the
> > > journalist Dwight Macdonald pointed out that ''the liberals have never
> > > honestly confronted their illusions in the 30's and 40's about
Communism
> > > but have instead merely counterposed a disingenuous defense, a blanket
> > > denial to McCarthy's equally sweeping attack.''
> > >
> > > Before the McCarthy era began, and then after it ended, two
politically
> > > very different Englishmen said what needed to be said. George Orwell
> > > almost certainly never heard of Joe McCarthy: the Wheeling speech came
a
> > > matter of weeks after his death. But not long before he died, Orwell
had
> > > specifically warned the Americans about the danger of fighting
Communism
> > > with the kinds of methods Communists themselves used.
> > >
> > > Then in 1960, William F. Buckley Jr. tried to persuade Evelyn Waugh to
> > > contribute to National Review, and sent him ''McCarthy and His
> Enemies,''
> > > the apologia he had written with L. Brent Bozell. But Buckley got an
> > > elegant flea in his ear. Most Englishmen regarded McCarthy as a
> > > regrettable figure, Waugh replied, and the book ''will not go far to
> clear
> > > his reputation.'' Plainly there had been need for an investigation
into
> > > Soviet espionage, but it was just as clear that McCarthy was not a
> > > suitable man to undertake it, Waugh said, and those who sympathized
with
> > > the anti-Communist cause ''must deplore his championship of it.''
> Despite
> > > all the bitterness of the McCarthy era and its residue, that remains
> > > something like the last word.
> > >
> > > Geoffrey Wheatcroft's books include ''The Controversy of Zion'' and,
> most
> > > recently, ''Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France.''
> > >
> > >
> > > The New York Times
> > >
> > > New York Times
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _____
> > >
> > > Take advantage of our limited-time introductory offer for dial-up
> Internet
> > > access.
> > >
>
>
>