Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0007327, Tue, 31 Dec 2002 20:30:40 -0800

Subject
Fw: Susan Sontag, camp, and Nabokov
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Brown" <as-brown@comcast.net>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: Susan Sontag, camp, and Nabokov



>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (67
lines) ------------------
> Is that really having "something in common?" It' more like just being in
> the same train wreck.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 7:22 PM
> Subject: Fw: Susan Sontag, camp, and Nabokov
>
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
> > (42 lines) ------------------
> >
> > > Something else these writers have in common: Andrew Field alludes to
> both in his novel Fractions.
> > >
> > > SES
> > > -------------------------------------------------------
> > > >>> chtodel@cox.net 12/31/02 15:52 PM >>>
> > > EDNOTE. Susan Sontag has introduced VN at least once and spoken well
of
> > his
> > > writing elsewhere. If VN has spoken of SS, I do not recall it. I would
> > guess
> > > that any linkage of their names is that SS's "camp" essay and book
> > _Against
> > > Interpretation_ made a splash in the sixties when VN was among the
most
> > > heard names on the American literary scene.
> > >
> > > From: <VainerVi@aol.com>
> > >
> > >
> > > I am trying to find the most accurate Russian
> translation/equivalent
> > > for the
> > > word "sensibility" as it's been used in Susan Sontag's essay Notes on
> > > "Camp."
> > > I know all the options our dictionaries provide, and I hope I
> > > understand, albeit somewhat vaguely, what Susan Sontag had in mind.
The
> > word
> > > is a key term for the essay, so it would be great to hear the
experts'
> > > opinion(s).
> > >
> > > I am sure that many of my fellow Nabokovians know Susan Sontag and
> this
> > > particular essay (Notes on "Camp"). To refresh their memory, I include
> the
> > > first 1.5 paragraph of it here:
> > >
> > > "Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even
if
> > > they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the
> > > sensibility -- unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but
> > hardly
> > > identical with it -- that goes by the cult name of "Camp."
> > > A sensibility (as distinct from an idea) is one of the hardest things
to
> > > talk about..."
> > >
> > > Actually, when you come to think about it, these two subjects
> > > (Nabokov and "Camp") do not look completely unrelated. I may be
wrong,
> > but
> > > to my taste it could ignite a fruitful discussion.
> > >
> > > Victoria
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
>