Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014174, Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:12:09 -0200

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Re: JM to SKB on Cunning Stunts
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1. Errata: My edition of "Strong Opinions" is from Vintage International, and not Everyman's, as I informed in a former posting.

2. SKB wrote: "What is STRANGE, though, is that VN, who accused Miller, Joyce, et al. of over-explicit, plumpen 'smut,' would have 'dug the dirt' so blatantly. Of course, be told again, it's all CONtext -- and the hardest idiomatic problem is judging how 'offensive' language shifts nice'n'naughty over space, time, and culture. Sweet old ladies in France use 'con' as readily as G Brassens."

IN a SO, 1965, interview with Robert Hughes, Nabokov plays with Joseph Conrad, stating that he differs "Conradically" (page 57).
Perhaps in the same irreverent verbal mood he soon criticizes pornography as: " And the popular mixture of pornography and idealistic humbuggery makes me positively vomit" (page 58).
Sometimes I wonder how many admirers of Dylan Thomas' poetry will try to find in a map the quaint little village of Llareggub ( Under Milk Wood) ...
Jansy




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