Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004158, Tue, 8 Jun 1999 19:23:12 -0700

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Re: [A NOVEL'S UNRECOGNIZABLE SPIRIT (fwd)] (fwd)
Date
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> Kubrick consistently used free invention in his translation...

Quite true. This was the essence of Stanley Kubrick's genius: "reinventing" a
great novel as a great film. Kubrick no more filmed "Lolita" faithfully than
he did so for "The Shining," A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lundon" or even
"2001: A Space Odyssey," adapted from the Arthur C. Clarke short story "The
Sentinel" with considerable alteration. I think Kubrick's "Lolita" should be
viewed as an independent work, based on and using Nabokov's great novel as a
springboard in much the same way that "Ben-Hur" is what its subtitles states:
"A Tale of the Christ." Or think of Rachmaninov's marvelous variations on a
theme by Paganini -- truly an independent work on its own. Kubrick was as
talented on the screen as Nabokov was on paper -- we should leave it at that.

Thomas E. Braun
cawriter@hotmail.com


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