-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [NABOKOV-L] Boris Vian and Nabokovian wordplay
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:59:13 +0100
From: Maurice.Couturier@unice.fr
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
References: <C7C15048.B33E%stan@bootle.biz>


Boris Vian belonged to the celebrated "Oulipo" group with Raymond Queneau who
experimented various writing games in order to compel the French language, not
always as flexible as one might think (or like), to produce unusual word
sequences. I love his surrealistic novels, often full of imagination but also
of tenderness. He was a musician (played the trumpet) and was greatly admired
by Sartre's coterie. I don't think Nabokov would have particularly liked his
works if he had happened to read them, but I may be wrong. I am a great admirer
of Boris Vian; I wrote my first novel, "La polka piquée" (L'âge d'homme, 1982),
a campus novel around the first conference on American Literature behind the
Iron Curtain (Poland) (a surrealistic event which I attended with my good
friend Malcolm Bradbury), under his influence.

Maurice Couturier

Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.