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Re: QUERY: Did Nabokov actually say this?
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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?
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*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.
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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.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/