Subject
VNInterim Collation (fwd)
Date
Body
INTERIM VNCOLLATION
by
Suellen Stringer-Hye
Until such time as the "collation," as we have fondly come to call it,
can be reinstated in full form, I shall occasionally post articles of
Nabokoviana to the list. Materials for the current compilation were
drawn from discussions on a variety of internet bulletin boards
most often referred to as "usenet" groups. In a well meaning but
perhaps ineffectual stab at privacy I will not for the present
mention who actually posted the message but I will usually supply the
name of the discussion forum. For further information you can
always query me directly.
-------------------------------
Signature files are often quotations from a favorite author and work
as a kind of literary bumper sticker to encapsulate some essential
wisdom that the writer wishes to communicate. Nabokov quotations
are frequent candidates and selection is surprisingly unconventional.
I list them here in no particular order:
>From rec.arts. movies: "You can always count on a murderer for a fancy
prose style"
>From rec. humor: "My loathings are simple : stupidity , oppression,
crime, cruelty, soft music"--Vladimir Nabokov
(Forgive me but I cannot resist including the QUOTE OF THE WEEK
that was the actual reason for the post and since it has a Slavic
theme...):"The 350-mile detour in the Trans-Siberian Railway was caused by
the Tsar, who drew in the proposed route on a map using
a ruler with a notch missing out of it."
>From rec. sport. golf: "I am a slave of images. We speak of one thing
being like some other thing when what we are really craving to do
is to describe something that is like nothing on earth."
>From bit. listserve.pagemakr: "Genius is an African who dreams of snow."
This signature file on rec.arts.comics.xbooks prompted another member
of the newsgroup to query:
"I just gotta ask. Where did this come from? I know, i(sic) know it
says Vladimir Nabokov Pale Fire but you gotta admit that
ain't very helpful."
"For other needs than sleep Charles Xavier had installed in the
middle of the Persian rug-covered floor a so-called patifolia, that
is, a huge, oval, luxuriously flounced, swansdown pillow the size
of a triple bed"--Vladimir Nabokov _Pale Fire_
And a frequent poster to rec. music.gdead in a two day period changed
his signature file three times:
05/16/95: "Yes, that's real tact for you,' said the director in a
low voice and his inflamed froglike eyes grew damp." Vladimir Nabokov
05/17/95: "I am trying to describe these things not to relive them
in my present boundless misery, but to sort out the
portions of hell and the portion of heaven in that strange, awful,
maddening world"-Vladimir Nabokov
05/17/95: "Involuntarily yielding to the temptation of logical
development, involuntarily (be careful, Cincinnatus!)forging into a
chain all the things that were quite harmless as long as they remaiuned
unlinked, he inspired the meaningless with meaning and the lifeless
with life."
-----------------------------
Naturally Nabokov is mentioned with frequency on the newsgroup,
rec.arts.books. Book lists appear to be
a commonplace. Here are some on which Nabokov appear.
In the 10 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century that was published in
the May 28, 1994 Australian Magazine _Lolita_ ranks at #9 sandwiched
between _The Sun Also Rises_ and _A Hundred Years of Solitude_
Posting her 50-favorites another writer places in the category of books
recommended to "almost everyone": "_Pnin_ This is the simplest, most
humane work by a fiendishly good writer (see Grad Level)._Transparent
Things _ is also fairly simple."
She also recommends_ London Fields_ by Martin Amis calling it
"Nabokov with Rabies". At the "Graduate level fiction" she suggests:
" _Lolita_, _Pale Fire_, etc. These are rough going but exquisite.
Everything he wrote is very fine, subtle witty, deep."
Nabokov's insights are appreciated in these two quotations:
"Perhaps we should sublimate our impulses toward reading the
supposed sublimation of others. As Nabokov pointed out,
there is a wafer-thin space between 'therapist' and 'the rapist'."
"Nabokov famously said that there were three levels of reading (I
paraphrase) 1) for the story, 2) for the ideas, 3) for the style.
It always appalls me to hear that some teachers of literature got
retarded at #2."
-------------------
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide is a negligible work??? asks an irate
respondent on bit. listserv.literary.
Because you haven't read it and are fishing instead. Even the great
V. Nabokov praised its merits because ...[rest deleted for
peremptorary, personal, pedagogical, psychological
reasons].
--------------------
On the related rec.arts.poems, following a haiku written by J.D. Salinger
via Seymour Glass, a woman admiring the zenlike" quality of Salinger's
art states:
"I really admire writers like that...Leonard Cohen I feel is
equally capable of this power ...and a few other writers
but they are VERY few...Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Vladimir Nabokov,
Joyce Carol Oates, Herman Hesse...."
----------------------
My favorite appeared on January 5 when a participant of
rec.arts.books posted that he had heard of some books written in
English which do not use the letter "e". A respondent remarked:
"I believe there are a few other books that fit this particular
category, and for some reason I have ( in my mind)
Nabokov lingering in this area, but I could be totally off."
---------------------------------
Two new books, advertisements for which, appeared on rec. sport.
tennis and rec. arts. books include material of interest to the
Nabokovian.
_Tennis and the Meaning of Life : A Literary Anthology of the Game_
edited by Jay Jennings has just been published by Breakaway books
and claims to include "all of the best fiction and poetry ever penned
on the game." Nabokov is included along with E.B. White,
Wallace Stegner and others. The publishers describe it as "a
336-page beautifully bound hardcover, with silver-stamped case and
red topstained pages". The other is entitled _The Supernatural
World Of Anne Rice_ by George Beahm. It appears to be a combination
of photographs, interviews,and profile pieces. The final section of
the book "Dark Chambers of the Heart: The Erotic World of Anne Rice"
will not be published as part of the paperback edition "because of
the sexual nature of the material--comments from Rice about sex,
pornography, and "Lolita" (the Nabokov novel) ..." and other themes
of erotica. For those interested in perusing this section, a 500 copy
limited edition of the book would need to be purchased.
-----------------------------
Nabokov has also appeared on newsgroups treating music, film and
sports. I save these for another post.
Suellen Stringer-Hye
Special Collections
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu