Subject
Fw: Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Borges
From
Date
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (98
lines) ------------------
> Apparently, VN's opinion of Borges continued to wane after 1969. In a
> letter to Henri Hell dated July 17, 1974 VN concludes: "I appreciated your
> kindly sending me your elegant piece on PALE FIRE - I confess, however, to
> be puzzled by the connection you find between my work and Borges' flimsy
> little fables." ("Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940 - 1977, pp.
532 -
> 533.) Borges is something of a one-trick pony in his "ficciones" - but
it's
> a really neat trick.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 1:57 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Borges
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Corinne Scheiner" <cscheiner@ColoradoCollege.edu>
> your approval (80 lines) ------------------
> > Another Borges comment to add to the mix:
> >
> > In a series of written questions sent on June 26, 1969, Allene
> > Talmney, Associate Editor of Vogue, remarked to Nabokov that he was
> > "often superficially linked to a handful of international writers like
> > Beckett and Borges," and asked if he felt "any affinity with them or
> > with [his] other contemporaries," Nabokov responded, "Oh, I am well
> > aware of those
> > commentators: slow minds, hasty typewriters! They would do better to
link
> > Beckett with Maeterlinck and Borges with Anatole France. It might prove
> > more instructive than gossiping about a stranger." The "interview"
> > appeared in the 1969 Christmas issue of Vogue and is reproduced in SO
> > (153-158).
> >
> > Corinne
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]On
> > Behalf Of D. Barton Johnson
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 10:47 AM
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Borges
> >
> >
> > EDNOTE. The redoubtable Mary Belliino provides the documented answers
> > re VN & BB
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> > >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
> > lines) ------------------
> > > Nabokov had this to say on Borges in 1969:
> > >
> > > "At first, Vera and I were delighted by reading him. We felt we were
> > > on a portico, but we have learned that there was no house."
> > >
> > > Source is the TIME magazine article of May 23, 1969, p. 83. The
> > > "interview" that appears in SO (pp. 120-30 of the Vintage edition)
> > > was never published in full in TIME (that I can make out) but rather
> > > consists of Nabokov's written responses to questions that were
> > > telexed to him before the interview by two TIME reporters. Perhaps
> > > not surprisingly, there is no mention of Borges in this SO
> > > "interview," and VN pointedly avoids answering a direct question
> > > about Norman Mailer--whereas in the TIME article he cheerfully
> > > admits that he "detests everything in Amreican life that [Mailer]
> > > stands for" and as a bonus throws in a devastating appraisal
> > > of Philip Roth.
> > >
> > > As Sweeney suggests, the SO mentions of Borges are by no means as
> > > damning as the TIME statement, but I would argue that if read
> > > sequentially they do indicate a "waning" of admiration. In
> > > particular the statement on 184 seems very ambiguous, and that on
> > > 289-90 can only be described as dismissive.
> > >
> > > Can anyone with a closer knowledge of VN's biography shed any light
> > > on the relationship between the SO "interview" and the quotes in the
> > > TIME article, and on VN's decision to let the TIME quotes stand?
> > > Surely he must have approved the TIME galleys.
> > >
> > > Mary
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
> > > > To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 7:58 AM
> > > > Subject: Nabokov and Borges
> > > >
> > > > > Hello to Brian and others,
> > > > >
> > > > > I am not so sure that Nabokov's admiration of Borges waned in
> > > > > any
> > way.
> > While Nabokov vociferously resisted any intimations that he had been
> > influenced by anyone, including Borges (one of those people whose
> > names "always begin with a B" to whom he was compared), his comments
> > on Borges's "miniature labyrinths" in SO are consistently approving.
> > The "good-natured
> > > anagram" in ADA is, at heart, a considerable compliment, since
> > > Osberg becomes the Antiterran author of LOLITA.
From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (98
lines) ------------------
> Apparently, VN's opinion of Borges continued to wane after 1969. In a
> letter to Henri Hell dated July 17, 1974 VN concludes: "I appreciated your
> kindly sending me your elegant piece on PALE FIRE - I confess, however, to
> be puzzled by the connection you find between my work and Borges' flimsy
> little fables." ("Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940 - 1977, pp.
532 -
> 533.) Borges is something of a one-trick pony in his "ficciones" - but
it's
> a really neat trick.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 1:57 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Borges
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Corinne Scheiner" <cscheiner@ColoradoCollege.edu>
> your approval (80 lines) ------------------
> > Another Borges comment to add to the mix:
> >
> > In a series of written questions sent on June 26, 1969, Allene
> > Talmney, Associate Editor of Vogue, remarked to Nabokov that he was
> > "often superficially linked to a handful of international writers like
> > Beckett and Borges," and asked if he felt "any affinity with them or
> > with [his] other contemporaries," Nabokov responded, "Oh, I am well
> > aware of those
> > commentators: slow minds, hasty typewriters! They would do better to
link
> > Beckett with Maeterlinck and Borges with Anatole France. It might prove
> > more instructive than gossiping about a stranger." The "interview"
> > appeared in the 1969 Christmas issue of Vogue and is reproduced in SO
> > (153-158).
> >
> > Corinne
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]On
> > Behalf Of D. Barton Johnson
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 10:47 AM
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Borges
> >
> >
> > EDNOTE. The redoubtable Mary Belliino provides the documented answers
> > re VN & BB
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> > >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (42
> > lines) ------------------
> > > Nabokov had this to say on Borges in 1969:
> > >
> > > "At first, Vera and I were delighted by reading him. We felt we were
> > > on a portico, but we have learned that there was no house."
> > >
> > > Source is the TIME magazine article of May 23, 1969, p. 83. The
> > > "interview" that appears in SO (pp. 120-30 of the Vintage edition)
> > > was never published in full in TIME (that I can make out) but rather
> > > consists of Nabokov's written responses to questions that were
> > > telexed to him before the interview by two TIME reporters. Perhaps
> > > not surprisingly, there is no mention of Borges in this SO
> > > "interview," and VN pointedly avoids answering a direct question
> > > about Norman Mailer--whereas in the TIME article he cheerfully
> > > admits that he "detests everything in Amreican life that [Mailer]
> > > stands for" and as a bonus throws in a devastating appraisal
> > > of Philip Roth.
> > >
> > > As Sweeney suggests, the SO mentions of Borges are by no means as
> > > damning as the TIME statement, but I would argue that if read
> > > sequentially they do indicate a "waning" of admiration. In
> > > particular the statement on 184 seems very ambiguous, and that on
> > > 289-90 can only be described as dismissive.
> > >
> > > Can anyone with a closer knowledge of VN's biography shed any light
> > > on the relationship between the SO "interview" and the quotes in the
> > > TIME article, and on VN's decision to let the TIME quotes stand?
> > > Surely he must have approved the TIME galleys.
> > >
> > > Mary
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
> > > > To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 7:58 AM
> > > > Subject: Nabokov and Borges
> > > >
> > > > > Hello to Brian and others,
> > > > >
> > > > > I am not so sure that Nabokov's admiration of Borges waned in
> > > > > any
> > way.
> > While Nabokov vociferously resisted any intimations that he had been
> > influenced by anyone, including Borges (one of those people whose
> > names "always begin with a B" to whom he was compared), his comments
> > on Borges's "miniature labyrinths" in SO are consistently approving.
> > The "good-natured
> > > anagram" in ADA is, at heart, a considerable compliment, since
> > > Osberg becomes the Antiterran author of LOLITA.