Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000983, Tue, 20 Feb 1996 15:05:29 -0800

Subject
Re: VN Audio and Video (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. J.GOODENOUGH <J.Goodenough@uea.ac.uk> comments on the VN
clips shown as part of the British "Lolita" program featuring C. Paglia.
The mention of Paglia has trriggered a number of pro- and anti-Paglia
postings. Unless your Paglia communication relates to Nabokov in some
substantive way, please address them directly to the party concerned.
Thank you.


> From: joseph piercy <j9250308@wlv.ac.uk> however, the last five
> minutes contained, what appeared to be cine-film footage of Nabokov in
> shorts, hopping around on a hill with a Butterfly net in his hand.
> Unfortunately, my copy of this rather spurious programme has long been
> deleted by a philistine flat-mate and so I am unable to provide full
> citation credits- perhaps someone else on the list may be able to help
> with this - the Nabokov footage is probably the most enduring image of the
> programme although maybe scholars interested in feminist critiques of
> Lolita or in the novel's influence on cultural history may find what
> Paglia has to say of some use.

This footage of VN lepidoptering sounds exactly like the brief snippet of
film which appeared in the BBC documentary on synaesthesia at the end of
1994 (which I have unwiped on video). The same programme also had brief
snippets of a filmed interview with VN discussing his and Dmitri's
synaesthesia. I don't know if this was part of the original film or
came from a separate source. And I don't know if either are related to
the poor-quality VN film mentioned by other correspondents; but this
seems unlikely as both extracts on the BBC, though in black-and-white,
had perfectly satisfactory picture and sound quality. Unfortunately
the programme's credits give no clue as to the provenance of these film-
extracts. Dmitri N., interviewed for the programme, was familiar with the
contents of the interview so it may be that the film belongs to the
Nabokovs.

Jerry Goodenough
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
England
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