Subject
Past remarks on VN and Shade
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Date
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[Frances Assa: But what makes you so sure that Shades thoughts and beliefs are VN's own?] My first answer to F.Assa was that I had no reason to be so sure about VN and Shade. Now I fear I may have confused VN and...Doestoevski?
Cf. SO (Vintage International pocket):
" I am very careful to keep my characters beyond the limites of my own identity. Only the background of the novel can be said to contain some biographical touches" (p.13/14) "It is also true that some of my more responsible characters are given some of my own ideas. There is John Shade, in Pale Fire, the poet. He does borrow some of my own opinions[...] I can endorse... "I loathe such things as jazz... Freud...frauds and sharks" (p.18)
Later on he states that "John Shade in Pale Fire leads an intense inner existence, far removed from what you call a joke. You must be confusing me with Doestoevski" (p.119)
And, on p120-22: "The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind [...] I loathe Van Veen [...] I suspect that Van Veen, having less control over his imagination than I, novelized in his indulgent old age many images of his youth." ( although VN sometimes feels equally indulgent towards Van, unlike the vehemence found in this 1969 interview)
..........................................................................................................................
(In relation to The Gift: "probably my favorite Russian poem is one that I happened to give to my main character in that novel" (p.14))
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Cf. SO (Vintage International pocket):
" I am very careful to keep my characters beyond the limites of my own identity. Only the background of the novel can be said to contain some biographical touches" (p.13/14) "It is also true that some of my more responsible characters are given some of my own ideas. There is John Shade, in Pale Fire, the poet. He does borrow some of my own opinions[...] I can endorse... "I loathe such things as jazz... Freud...frauds and sharks" (p.18)
Later on he states that "John Shade in Pale Fire leads an intense inner existence, far removed from what you call a joke. You must be confusing me with Doestoevski" (p.119)
And, on p120-22: "The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind [...] I loathe Van Veen [...] I suspect that Van Veen, having less control over his imagination than I, novelized in his indulgent old age many images of his youth." ( although VN sometimes feels equally indulgent towards Van, unlike the vehemence found in this 1969 interview)
..........................................................................................................................
(In relation to The Gift: "probably my favorite Russian poem is one that I happened to give to my main character in that novel" (p.14))
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/