Jeremy Jones: I've seen this [
Nabokov's advice to a young writer*] invarious places attributed to VN, but it
doesn't quite sound like him. No source either. Did he actually say
this?
SES: ...It sounds to me
like advice on how to follow VN's example, written by someone who admires
him
JM: At first, I was reminded of a
mischievous appropriation from Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet". No such
luck.
SES mentions that this ennumeration might
have been written by a Nabokov admirer, but I see it differently... There is a
satyrical intent that focuses on Nabokov himself and also we
find signs of a rather superficial knowledge about Nabokov's life,
his whims and megrims. Nabokov would
never be explicitly didactic nor find place for Stravinsky in
such a brief article. He followed what I seem to remember as a "calendric"
(or "solar"?) rythm when he wrote (sitting in a car or desk, lying in
bed, standing in front of a tall-boy). Nabokov was a chess-problematist
more than a chess- player
Any volunteers to add other discrepancies bt. this
item and VN?
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
*1.
If possible, be Russian. And live in another country. Play chess. Be an active
trader between languages. Carry precious metals from one to the other. Remind us
of Stravinsky. Know the names of plants and flying creatures. Hunt gauzy wings
with snares of gauze. Make science pay tribute. Have a butterfly known by your
name.
2. Do not be awed by giant predecessors. Be ill-tempered with their
renown. Point out flaws. Frighten interviewers from Time. Appear in Playboy.
Sell to the movies.
3. Use unlikely materials. Who would choose Pnin as
hero, but how did we live before Pnin?
4. Delight in perversity. Put a
noun into the dictionary. Now we recognize the Lolita at every corner, see her
sucking sweetened milk through straws at every soda fountain, dream her through
all our fantasies.
5. Burn pedants in pale fire. Accept no fashions. Be
your own fashion. Do not rely on earlier triumphs. Be new at each
appearance.
6. Age indomitably, in the European manner. Do not finish
your labours young. Be a planet, not a meteor. Honor the working day. Sit at
your desk.