Subject
Re: Nabokovs brain is shaped like a helter-skelter ...
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That must be London, Ohio or somewhere. I don't think Ive ever seen
something called a helter-skelter in any playgrounds around here (London).
Slides, swings, ponds with boats. No helter-skelter, though.
Tina Colquhoun
_____
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of Priscilla Meyer
Sent: 24 January 2007 15:49
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokovs brain is shaped like a helter-skelter ...
The second. It's a substantive noun in her context, denoting a common
playground item seen all over, for example, London.
On Jan 24, 2007, at 9:15 AM, Alexander Drescher wrote:
To the List:
This is aninteresting article. Smith's view of fiction seems antithetical to
that of VNN.
But my question is:
Main Entry: 2helter-skelter
Function: noun
1:a disorderly confusion :TURMOIL
2British :a spiral slide around a tower at an amusement park
Which does she mean?
Sandy Drescher
On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 05:08 PM, Sandy P. Klein wrote:
<image.tiff>
http://januarymagazine.com/2007/01/fail-better.html
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Fail Better
<image.tiff>ì... somewhere between a criticís necessary superficiality and a
writerís natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary success or
failure is lost.î
In
a two article series for The Guardian, Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty)
doesnít pull any literary punches. Smithís lengthy, two-part piece is
wonderful, managing as it does to be both accessible (ìThatís how young
readers are, too, when they start out. They are doubters and seekers.î) and
urbane (She quotes both Kierkegaard and Nobokov while somehow never losing
her of-the-reading-masses tone).
I have said that when I open a book I feel the shape of another human
beingís brain. To me, Nabokovís brain is shaped like a helter-skelter.
George Eliotís is like one of those pans for sifting gold. Austenís
resembles one of the glass flowers you find in Harvardís Natural History
Museum.
Thereís so much here that is terrific, the temptation is just to quote and
quote and quote: most of what Smith shares in the space is worth repeating.
But Iíll save both of us the effort: part one is here, put two is here.
Savor it for yourself.
Priscilla Meyer
142 Grafton Road
Kentish Town
London NW5 4BA
44-(0)20 7267 2730
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