Subject
Burrs of data and scholarly inquiry
From
Date
Body
> Dear Charles (that should be safe),
>
> I apologize for getting your name wrong. I don't know how I
> did that.
>
> My real first name is Gerald, incidentally. And that's as
> far as I go in resemblances to Kinbote's Gerald.
>
> I can't agree with you that proceeding along the lines of
> scholarly inquiry is doomed. The novel was not written the
> way Frost says poets pick up knowledge like burs--it was
> certainly carefully planned.
>
> (I also think that some of the poem is good poetry, though
> none of it is as good as Frost's best.)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
JF: I don't see any contradiction, and I'm sure you didn't intend one.
We
all randomly acquire bits (burrs) of data; some THEN use/massage them
into
carefully planned poems &/or novels, or even emails. I'm tempted to
extend
Frost's rather twee, rustic metaphor to include getting our boots dirty
while "tripping through the cowshite, tra-la-la!"
I recall reading with mixed feelings that among Dylan Thomas's
belongings
was found a heavily-thumbed ('foxed' as the booksellers say), marked-up
copy
of Roget's Thesaurus. That's one way of collecting all those poetic
'burrs?'
Yet we can still enjoy the wild Welsh flow of apparently spontaneous
drunken
imagery. Our poet-laureate, Andrew Motion, admits to using a Rhyming
Dictionary on occasions. Does this diminish the final 'product?' Discuss
in
no less than 5,000 words with special reference to VN's sources.
I'm with you (and with most listers) on the sheer endless, exegetical
pleasure of 'scholarly inquiry' into VN's works -- although we may often
differ on how much we need to know in order to 'read/enjoy the master's
mind/intentions.'
Stan Kelly-Bootle
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
>
> I apologize for getting your name wrong. I don't know how I
> did that.
>
> My real first name is Gerald, incidentally. And that's as
> far as I go in resemblances to Kinbote's Gerald.
>
> I can't agree with you that proceeding along the lines of
> scholarly inquiry is doomed. The novel was not written the
> way Frost says poets pick up knowledge like burs--it was
> certainly carefully planned.
>
> (I also think that some of the poem is good poetry, though
> none of it is as good as Frost's best.)
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
JF: I don't see any contradiction, and I'm sure you didn't intend one.
We
all randomly acquire bits (burrs) of data; some THEN use/massage them
into
carefully planned poems &/or novels, or even emails. I'm tempted to
extend
Frost's rather twee, rustic metaphor to include getting our boots dirty
while "tripping through the cowshite, tra-la-la!"
I recall reading with mixed feelings that among Dylan Thomas's
belongings
was found a heavily-thumbed ('foxed' as the booksellers say), marked-up
copy
of Roget's Thesaurus. That's one way of collecting all those poetic
'burrs?'
Yet we can still enjoy the wild Welsh flow of apparently spontaneous
drunken
imagery. Our poet-laureate, Andrew Motion, admits to using a Rhyming
Dictionary on occasions. Does this diminish the final 'product?' Discuss
in
no less than 5,000 words with special reference to VN's sources.
I'm with you (and with most listers) on the sheer endless, exegetical
pleasure of 'scholarly inquiry' into VN's works -- although we may often
differ on how much we need to know in order to 'read/enjoy the master's
mind/intentions.'
Stan Kelly-Bootle
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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