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Fw: Rand v. Nabokov
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Friedman" <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (55
lines) ------------------
> I have to wait here for half an hour in case students show up to
> be advised. How should I spend the time? Aha...
>
> --- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <nitrogen14@australia.edu>
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (28
> > lines) ------------------
> > > I saw many superficial similarities between them long ago,
> > > ie before reading any of these postings:
> > > both russians, both fiercely pro-US, both haters of the
> > > USSR as only emigre russians could be
> > > both writers, writing in english
> > >
> > > and both with a similar harshness of tone -- certainly in their
> > interviews:
> > > the phrase "strong opinions" could describe everything Ayn Rand ever
> > wrote
>
> Absolutely. When I was a teenager I admired Rand, and I admired the
> little Nabokov I'd read--the notes to _A Hero of Our Time_, and some
> essays that I'd got hold of somewhere. I probably admired something
> they had in common: laying down the law vividly.
>
> Another similarity is that both attached importance to free,
> individual, and original artistic talent, not schools and styles.
> Any of Nabokov's remarks on this subject could have been an
> epigraph for _The Fountainhead_ (though a time machine might have
> been required).
>
> Yet another: Rand's complacently mediocre bad guys find an echo
> or two in Nabokov's less admirable American characters, say Prof.
> H. and Prof. C., or Pat Pink. I can't imagine Nabokov writing a
> version of Dagny Taggart (the superhuman heroine of _Atlas
> Shrugged_), but I might have enjoyed his version of Dagny's whining
> millionaire brother, Jim.
> ....
>
> > > is it possible to admire both? I doubt that it's possible to admire
> > them
> > > both in the same way; but it's possible to feel a certain amused
> > affection
> > > for ayn rand, while admiring VN.
> ....
>
> Anyway, I certainly admire writers who have less in common with VN
> than Rand did. Lois McMaster Bujold, say.
>
> --
> Jerry Friedman
>
> __________________________________
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From: "Jerry Friedman" <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (55
lines) ------------------
> I have to wait here for half an hour in case students show up to
> be advised. How should I spend the time? Aha...
>
> --- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <nitrogen14@australia.edu>
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (28
> > lines) ------------------
> > > I saw many superficial similarities between them long ago,
> > > ie before reading any of these postings:
> > > both russians, both fiercely pro-US, both haters of the
> > > USSR as only emigre russians could be
> > > both writers, writing in english
> > >
> > > and both with a similar harshness of tone -- certainly in their
> > interviews:
> > > the phrase "strong opinions" could describe everything Ayn Rand ever
> > wrote
>
> Absolutely. When I was a teenager I admired Rand, and I admired the
> little Nabokov I'd read--the notes to _A Hero of Our Time_, and some
> essays that I'd got hold of somewhere. I probably admired something
> they had in common: laying down the law vividly.
>
> Another similarity is that both attached importance to free,
> individual, and original artistic talent, not schools and styles.
> Any of Nabokov's remarks on this subject could have been an
> epigraph for _The Fountainhead_ (though a time machine might have
> been required).
>
> Yet another: Rand's complacently mediocre bad guys find an echo
> or two in Nabokov's less admirable American characters, say Prof.
> H. and Prof. C., or Pat Pink. I can't imagine Nabokov writing a
> version of Dagny Taggart (the superhuman heroine of _Atlas
> Shrugged_), but I might have enjoyed his version of Dagny's whining
> millionaire brother, Jim.
> ....
>
> > > is it possible to admire both? I doubt that it's possible to admire
> > them
> > > both in the same way; but it's possible to feel a certain amused
> > affection
> > > for ayn rand, while admiring VN.
> ....
>
> Anyway, I certainly admire writers who have less in common with VN
> than Rand did. Lois McMaster Bujold, say.
>
> --
> Jerry Friedman
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com