Subject
VN and conventional wisdom
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I haven't had time to comment on the recent fascinating threads of
discussion, but would like to go on record with these summaries:
-- The conventional "wisdom" that would inform us that no one but
Shakespeare could have written Shakespeare's poems and plays should
not be taken too seriously. Shakespeare might have been anybody. Just
because that was his name--so what? Must we let facts have the last
word? The "Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare" theory tells us nothing,
and binds our imagination to the prosaic. As Borges would have
readily acknowledged, Shakespeare's works written by ANYBODY else
provide a richer as well as stranger literary experience.
-- I challenge anyone to demonstrate that Charles Xavier (Kinbote) is
NOT the King of Zembla and that the poem and the entire Shade family
and his own totally daft personna are not constructs of his lively
imagination.
-- Has no one considered the rather obvious probability that Nabokov's
aversion to Freud is attributable to his own unresolved
Oedipus complex?
Walter Miale
wm@greenworldcenter.org
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
discussion, but would like to go on record with these summaries:
-- The conventional "wisdom" that would inform us that no one but
Shakespeare could have written Shakespeare's poems and plays should
not be taken too seriously. Shakespeare might have been anybody. Just
because that was his name--so what? Must we let facts have the last
word? The "Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare" theory tells us nothing,
and binds our imagination to the prosaic. As Borges would have
readily acknowledged, Shakespeare's works written by ANYBODY else
provide a richer as well as stranger literary experience.
-- I challenge anyone to demonstrate that Charles Xavier (Kinbote) is
NOT the King of Zembla and that the poem and the entire Shade family
and his own totally daft personna are not constructs of his lively
imagination.
-- Has no one considered the rather obvious probability that Nabokov's
aversion to Freud is attributable to his own unresolved
Oedipus complex?
Walter Miale
wm@greenworldcenter.org
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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