Subject
Re: a BIRTHDAY proposal?
From
Date
Body
Dear Carolyn,
You write: << You say that he is not honest and that his readers are
entitled to expect honesty: I don't think so. Nobody could be "honest" about
such a thing and we, readers are not his judges, are not in any way "entitled"
to expect a full confession from him. >>
I did not say he was not honest; I wrote of my suspicion that he was not.
And I did not say we are entitled to expect a full "confession" from him. I
am not sure what the content of such a confession would be.
What I wrote was:
<<
What I find most questionable, or at least puzzling, is his insistence
that "Lolita" is "pure" and "abstract", so utterly removed from his own
concerns, whereas his most casual references in interviews, and other parts of
his oeuvre, so frequently return quite (to me) unexpectedly and arbitrarily to
the paedophilic theme, like a sore thumb. I am dismayed not so much by the
apparent obsession as by the suspicion that he is simply not honest here,
when one feels that in an interview, especially one prepared to be read
from index cards, his readers are entitled to expect honesty -- the truth,
even if not necessarily the whole truth. It is true that he said art itself
is a form of deception, but surely we are entitled to expect that his
writings and interviews about himself and his art should not be.
>>
He was under no obligation to give any interviews at all. Samuel Beckett,
very soon after he realised he had become famous, refused to give any
interviews, and wrote nothing about his art. All I am saying is that, if VN
chose to give interviews, and especially if these were carefully calculated and
read from index cards, then we are indeed entitled to expect that what he
said should be truthful: not a "full confession" of anything, and, as I
explicitly said, "not necessarily the whole truth" -- as if there could be a
"whole truth" anyway.
Anthony
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Visit:
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
In a message dated 29/04/2010 02:30:08 GMT Daylight Time,
laurence.hochard@HOTMAIL.FR writes:
Dear Anthony,
In his "Speak, Nabokov", Michaël Maar discusses this and is of the opinion
that VN was intimately concerned by this theme and that he progressively
lowered his guard (from "Ada" on) and finally indulged himself in TOOL.
You say that he is not honest and that his readers are entitled to expect
honesty: I don't think so. Nobody could be "honest" about such a thing and
we, readers are not his judges, are not in any way "entitled" to expect a
full confession from him.
He conveyed through his fiction all he had to say on the subject.
Besides, there are other themes than the paedophilic one, such as "the
good woman" (Disa, Clare Bishop, Zina), or "the dangerous woman" (Nina Lecerf,
Margot, The queen (I forget her name) in KQK) and others, to which he
frequently returns, too.
As for VN's kindness, the way I feel is that he was as kind as John Shade
and as insufferable as Kinbote. this is, I think, what PF is about.
"Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a variety of forms
around his own self" (Transparent Things)
Carolyn,
I think it is difficult to find evidence of kindness because true kindness
is often invisible: it is of the kind VN described in Lucette's keeping
company to the Robinsons just before committing suicide, or Disa's being kind
to a servant despite her discovering yet another proof of Kinbote's
infidelity.
Laurence Hochard
____________________________________
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:30:06 -0400
From: STADLEN@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] a BIRTHDAY proposal?
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Dear Carolyn,
It was a serious response (though not intended for his birthday -- that
was an editorial idea). I agree that these are apparently rather pitiful
pieces of evidence for his lovingkindness, and an extermination-camp commandant
could doubtless provide apparently equivalent or better evidence. But I am
somehow convinced of VN's basic true kindness, as opposed to the
sentimental "kindness" of the commandant. I was dismayed that I could think of no
better evidence than these two feeble examples. Perhaps I am too easily
swayed by VN's explicitly stated love of kindness and dislike of cruelty, but
they always struck me as genuine.
What I find most questionable, or at least puzzling, is his insistence
that "Lolita" is "pure" and "abstract", so utterly removed from his own
concerns, whereas his most casual references in interviews, and other parts of
his oeuvre, so frequently return quite (to me) unexpectedly and arbitrarily to
the paedophilic theme, like a sore thumb. I am dismayed not so much by the
apparent obsession as by the suspicion that he is simply not honest here,
when one feels that in an interview, especially one prepared to be read
from index cards, his readers are entitled to expect honesty -- the truth,
even if not necessarily the whole truth. It is true that he said art _itself
is a form of deception, but surely we are entitled to expect that his
writings and interviews about himself and his art should not be.
I am surprised that there appears to have been no discussion of this. What
do others think?
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Visit:
_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) "Existential Psychotherapy & Inner
Circle Seminars" at_ http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
In a message dated 26/04/2010 22:12:49 GMT Daylight Time,
chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
Dear Anthony,
Is this a serious response to my question? Or, as seems more likely, a
joke? I mean I can think of several horrifying dictators who can come up with
better examples of kindness (especially to animals) than these! You know
who was a vegetarian, after all.
So far I have to say the Nabokovian soul isn't doing too well.
_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/)
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You write: << You say that he is not honest and that his readers are
entitled to expect honesty: I don't think so. Nobody could be "honest" about
such a thing and we, readers are not his judges, are not in any way "entitled"
to expect a full confession from him. >>
I did not say he was not honest; I wrote of my suspicion that he was not.
And I did not say we are entitled to expect a full "confession" from him. I
am not sure what the content of such a confession would be.
What I wrote was:
<<
What I find most questionable, or at least puzzling, is his insistence
that "Lolita" is "pure" and "abstract", so utterly removed from his own
concerns, whereas his most casual references in interviews, and other parts of
his oeuvre, so frequently return quite (to me) unexpectedly and arbitrarily to
the paedophilic theme, like a sore thumb. I am dismayed not so much by the
apparent obsession as by the suspicion that he is simply not honest here,
when one feels that in an interview, especially one prepared to be read
from index cards, his readers are entitled to expect honesty -- the truth,
even if not necessarily the whole truth. It is true that he said art itself
is a form of deception, but surely we are entitled to expect that his
writings and interviews about himself and his art should not be.
>>
He was under no obligation to give any interviews at all. Samuel Beckett,
very soon after he realised he had become famous, refused to give any
interviews, and wrote nothing about his art. All I am saying is that, if VN
chose to give interviews, and especially if these were carefully calculated and
read from index cards, then we are indeed entitled to expect that what he
said should be truthful: not a "full confession" of anything, and, as I
explicitly said, "not necessarily the whole truth" -- as if there could be a
"whole truth" anyway.
Anthony
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Visit:
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
In a message dated 29/04/2010 02:30:08 GMT Daylight Time,
laurence.hochard@HOTMAIL.FR writes:
Dear Anthony,
In his "Speak, Nabokov", Michaël Maar discusses this and is of the opinion
that VN was intimately concerned by this theme and that he progressively
lowered his guard (from "Ada" on) and finally indulged himself in TOOL.
You say that he is not honest and that his readers are entitled to expect
honesty: I don't think so. Nobody could be "honest" about such a thing and
we, readers are not his judges, are not in any way "entitled" to expect a
full confession from him.
He conveyed through his fiction all he had to say on the subject.
Besides, there are other themes than the paedophilic one, such as "the
good woman" (Disa, Clare Bishop, Zina), or "the dangerous woman" (Nina Lecerf,
Margot, The queen (I forget her name) in KQK) and others, to which he
frequently returns, too.
As for VN's kindness, the way I feel is that he was as kind as John Shade
and as insufferable as Kinbote. this is, I think, what PF is about.
"Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a variety of forms
around his own self" (Transparent Things)
Carolyn,
I think it is difficult to find evidence of kindness because true kindness
is often invisible: it is of the kind VN described in Lucette's keeping
company to the Robinsons just before committing suicide, or Disa's being kind
to a servant despite her discovering yet another proof of Kinbote's
infidelity.
Laurence Hochard
____________________________________
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:30:06 -0400
From: STADLEN@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] a BIRTHDAY proposal?
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Dear Carolyn,
It was a serious response (though not intended for his birthday -- that
was an editorial idea). I agree that these are apparently rather pitiful
pieces of evidence for his lovingkindness, and an extermination-camp commandant
could doubtless provide apparently equivalent or better evidence. But I am
somehow convinced of VN's basic true kindness, as opposed to the
sentimental "kindness" of the commandant. I was dismayed that I could think of no
better evidence than these two feeble examples. Perhaps I am too easily
swayed by VN's explicitly stated love of kindness and dislike of cruelty, but
they always struck me as genuine.
What I find most questionable, or at least puzzling, is his insistence
that "Lolita" is "pure" and "abstract", so utterly removed from his own
concerns, whereas his most casual references in interviews, and other parts of
his oeuvre, so frequently return quite (to me) unexpectedly and arbitrarily to
the paedophilic theme, like a sore thumb. I am dismayed not so much by the
apparent obsession as by the suspicion that he is simply not honest here,
when one feels that in an interview, especially one prepared to be read
from index cards, his readers are entitled to expect honesty -- the truth,
even if not necessarily the whole truth. It is true that he said art _itself
is a form of deception, but surely we are entitled to expect that his
writings and interviews about himself and his art should not be.
I am surprised that there appears to have been no discussion of this. What
do others think?
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Visit:
_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) "Existential Psychotherapy & Inner
Circle Seminars" at_ http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
In a message dated 26/04/2010 22:12:49 GMT Daylight Time,
chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
Dear Anthony,
Is this a serious response to my question? Or, as seems more likely, a
joke? I mean I can think of several horrifying dictators who can come up with
better examples of kindness (especially to animals) than these! You know
who was a vegetarian, after all.
So far I have to say the Nabokovian soul isn't doing too well.
_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/)
(http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) _Search the archive_
(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 "Nabokov Online Journal"_
(http://www.nabokovonline.com/) _Visit Zembla_ (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm)
_View Nabokv-L Policies_ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm)
_Manage subscription options_ (http://listserv.ucsb.edu/)
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
____________________________________
Envie de naviguer sur Internet sans laisser de trace? _La solution avec
Internet Explorer 8_ (http://clk.atdmt.com/FRM/go/207186970/direct/01/) _
Search the archive_
(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 "Nabokov Online Journal"_
(http://www.nabokovonline.com/) _Visit Zembla_ (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm) _View
Nabokv-L Policies_ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm) _Manage
subscription options_ (http://listserv.ucsb.edu/)
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
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/