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Re: I Helped Save Nabokov’s “Laura” ...
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Sandy Klein sent us a text by Ron Rosenbaum (april, 28, 2008)
http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/ronrosenbaum
I selected one sentence: "In my view it’s always been easy to see the novel as the portrait of a monster, to separate author and character, but any further, more explicit description of the nature of Humbert’s monstrousness, anything more explicit than can be found in Lolita will diminish the attention to the rest of VN’s work; people will be arguing about his life or trying to read his mind rather than his work."
In my opinion what RR points out is a real threat: if until now it has been fairly "easy to see the novel as the portrait of a monster, to separate author and character", anything "more explicit than can be foun in Lolita" ( as he fears might be the case of The Original of Laura if published in its incomplete and unrevised state) might encourage more wild conjectures about VN's life or lead the reader's attempts to read VN's mind instead of concentrating in reading his work.
At the exact moment when there is an international uproar concerning the Austrian "I am not a monster Fritzl" such a danger seems to be more acute. And yet, it is possible to avoid these dangers by a very careful editing of the Nabokov index-cards ( and by editing I don't mean suppression or censorship, but providing a proper context for what the cards bear). The permanent suggestion of "keeping the manuscript in a bank-vault" seems to elude the issue altogether. The best moment for the decision is now, when VN's son and heir Dmitri chose to take up arms and decide this momentous issue.
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/ronrosenbaum
I selected one sentence: "In my view it’s always been easy to see the novel as the portrait of a monster, to separate author and character, but any further, more explicit description of the nature of Humbert’s monstrousness, anything more explicit than can be found in Lolita will diminish the attention to the rest of VN’s work; people will be arguing about his life or trying to read his mind rather than his work."
In my opinion what RR points out is a real threat: if until now it has been fairly "easy to see the novel as the portrait of a monster, to separate author and character", anything "more explicit than can be foun in Lolita" ( as he fears might be the case of The Original of Laura if published in its incomplete and unrevised state) might encourage more wild conjectures about VN's life or lead the reader's attempts to read VN's mind instead of concentrating in reading his work.
At the exact moment when there is an international uproar concerning the Austrian "I am not a monster Fritzl" such a danger seems to be more acute. And yet, it is possible to avoid these dangers by a very careful editing of the Nabokov index-cards ( and by editing I don't mean suppression or censorship, but providing a proper context for what the cards bear). The permanent suggestion of "keeping the manuscript in a bank-vault" seems to elude the issue altogether. The best moment for the decision is now, when VN's son and heir Dmitri chose to take up arms and decide this momentous issue.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/