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> Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:14:33 -0400
> From: nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
> Subject: [NABOKV-L] Dismissals
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
>.....Very good, but how can one "hate" a novel or novelist, unless
for a kind of falseness or other moral failing? (for example, Bellow)
And why would Nabokov sling around such judgments uncritically?
Nabokov's dismissiveness seems generally to be an indication of how
"genius" can be a burden. Where a mortal like myself grades a book
according to a spectrum of understanding--at its low end are books that
I don't personally understand, and find boring (but not hateful)--I
imagine that VN read books through an entirely different spectrum, one
of artistry. Being so astoundingly "well-read" (any estimates as to the
number of books Nabokov read in his lifetime?), he couldn't help but to
always see through to an author's intentions and proceed to assess
literature in the way that he did.