Dear List,
I fear the disparaging words Nabokov employed
towards Joyce's toilet scenes are not in "Strong Opinions." I don't think
they'll be found in his Joyce lecture, either. Any suggestions?
Once again, while perusing SO I came across
several interesting sentences, which I'd like to set in parallel with others. In
this case, to wonder if Hazel's nickname to John Shade reveals an appraisal of
his poem ( Gogol's "didacticism" and "didactic katydid")
Nabokov employs these words quite often, but for the first time did I feel the
need to put them side by side.
Strong Opinions p 64/65
"The mystical didacticism
of Gogol or the utilitarian moralism of Tolstoy, or the reactionary journalism
of Doestoevski, are of their own poor making and in the long run nobody really
takes them seriously."
Pale Fire (poem): "She
twisted words: pot, top/.../ She called you a didactic
katydid."