Subject
Boyd Proposal for a list of Nabokov's Reading
From
Date
Body
See editor's note at end.
------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: RE: PS
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (16
lines) ------------------
> Could I add as an afterthought, that if even our distinguished editor of
> Nabokv-L, one of the foremost and most erudite Nabokov scholars (no
> tampering, please, editor, this is what you do to helpless contributors),
> does not recall any of Nabokov's several explicit allusions to one of the
> great figures of the Western heritage, it is only glaring confirmation of
> what I have felt for some time: that one of the most urgent tasks of
Nabokov
> scholarship is to compile a list of Nabokov's reading, with terminus a quo
> dates where ascertainable, and indexes of where the authors and works
> mentioned occur in his writing. A sort of "Guide to Nabokov's Books and
> Magazines" to match Dieter E. Zimmer's "Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and
> Moths." Not an easy task, nor something one person can do alone, nor, of
> course, something that could or even should ever be complete. (What would
be
> the point of registering a newspaper page he had never referred to? Yet
the
> newspaper pages on G. Edward Grammar, or the New York Times of July 21,
> 1959, or an article on the businessmen killed in an accident, ARE worth
> identifying). But it would advance Nabokov scholarship enormously.
--------------------------------------------
EDITOR's NOTE. Re St. Augustine: Mea culpa. It cheers me to think that my
lapsus has inspired Brian to provide NABOKV-L with some of its most
informative moments. Brian has broached the idea of "A Nabokov Reading
List" before and perhaps the time has come to inaugurate the project.
NABOKV-L might serve as a central gathering point for the list. Subscribers
could submit bibliographic items along with evidence for VN's familiarity
with the item. Speculative proposals would be acceptable on the rounds that
someone among the 700 subscribers could provide evidence pro or con. All
such items would be run under the heading "VN Reading: [Name of author]."
An entire set or subset could be retrieved by search command from the
NABOKV-L Archives. Where the attribution is solid, the name of the authors
and works could perhaps be gathered in a permament section on ZEMBLA.
Suggestions for initiating the l reading list are welcome.
------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: RE: PS
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (16
lines) ------------------
> Could I add as an afterthought, that if even our distinguished editor of
> Nabokv-L, one of the foremost and most erudite Nabokov scholars (no
> tampering, please, editor, this is what you do to helpless contributors),
> does not recall any of Nabokov's several explicit allusions to one of the
> great figures of the Western heritage, it is only glaring confirmation of
> what I have felt for some time: that one of the most urgent tasks of
Nabokov
> scholarship is to compile a list of Nabokov's reading, with terminus a quo
> dates where ascertainable, and indexes of where the authors and works
> mentioned occur in his writing. A sort of "Guide to Nabokov's Books and
> Magazines" to match Dieter E. Zimmer's "Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and
> Moths." Not an easy task, nor something one person can do alone, nor, of
> course, something that could or even should ever be complete. (What would
be
> the point of registering a newspaper page he had never referred to? Yet
the
> newspaper pages on G. Edward Grammar, or the New York Times of July 21,
> 1959, or an article on the businessmen killed in an accident, ARE worth
> identifying). But it would advance Nabokov scholarship enormously.
--------------------------------------------
EDITOR's NOTE. Re St. Augustine: Mea culpa. It cheers me to think that my
lapsus has inspired Brian to provide NABOKV-L with some of its most
informative moments. Brian has broached the idea of "A Nabokov Reading
List" before and perhaps the time has come to inaugurate the project.
NABOKV-L might serve as a central gathering point for the list. Subscribers
could submit bibliographic items along with evidence for VN's familiarity
with the item. Speculative proposals would be acceptable on the rounds that
someone among the 700 subscribers could provide evidence pro or con. All
such items would be run under the heading "VN Reading: [Name of author]."
An entire set or subset could be retrieved by search command from the
NABOKV-L Archives. Where the attribution is solid, the name of the authors
and works could perhaps be gathered in a permament section on ZEMBLA.
Suggestions for initiating the l reading list are welcome.