Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002313, Sun, 31 Aug 1997 20:54:47 -0700

Subject
Re: Lunatic esthetics (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 22:54:30 -0400 (EDT)
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: Re: Lunatic esthetics (fwd)

From: ValSyl@aol.com

>Exley's own confessions of impotence and failure flaunted no redemptive or
>therapeutic aspirations but tilted more toward the _fantastic self-displays_
of
>the lunatic esthetics of his beloved Vladimir Nabokov. (emphasis added)

Maybe Polito was consciously or unconsciously thinking of Humbert's
"fantastic display of old-world endearments" with which he first beds
Charlotte? Hang on, doesn't what HH says in that passage imply impotence,
for which the "display" is compensation?
Exley's readers may know if this refers to a particular passage in that
writer's work. I don't know it, or him, but Fred Exley taught at Iowa when I
was there and
seemed determined to embody all the worst cliches about contemporary
novelists. I think he was actually fired before the semester was over. Not
VN's cup of _chai_ at all, I don't think.

Sylvia
Sylvia Weiser Wendel