Subject
Fw: Martin Amis on Bellow , VN, et al
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From: "Michael Donohue" <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (265
lines) ------------------
> There's something interesting about the seemingly uniform reaction of list
> people to the Bellow post. It would appear that many Nabokovians have an
> aversion for the Bellovian. (Of course, this could be a complete
illusion;
> perhaps the Bellow people are just quiet.) I wonder if, Amis
> notwithstanding, there's something inherently different about VN and SB
that
> makes so many of us VN types react to SB with such puzzlement and
> indifference. Something along the lines of the old "Tolstoy vs.
Dostoevsky"
> debate.
----------------------------------------
EDNOTE. I suspect you are right, although Ellen Pifer has done admiring
books on both writers--so there are exceptions to the dichotomy. As for
myself---- I remember reading Augie in the late 50s. I am a compulsive
reader who can't bear not to finish a book I start. However I found the book
so annoying that I started tearing out and throwing away each page as I
finished it. The only Bellow book I look back at with any affection is
Humbolt's Gift. which I vaguely recall is based on Delmore Schwartz whom VN
did admire. VN expressed his opinion of Bellow in ADA.
Letters from Terra, by Voltemand, came out in 1891 on Van's twenty-first
birthday, under the imprint of two bogus houses, 'Abencerage' in Manhattan,
and 'Zegris' in London........ [Van] had little experience in the
intricacies of book-publishing matters, and ... was an absolute ignoramus
there, not knowing, for example, that 'review copies' were supposed to go to
the editors of various periodicals or that advertisements should be
purchased and not be expected to appear by spontaneous generation in
full-page adulthood between similar blurbs boosting The Possessed by Miss
Love and The Puffer by Mr Dukes.
-----------------------------------------
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (265
lines) ------------------
> There's something interesting about the seemingly uniform reaction of list
> people to the Bellow post. It would appear that many Nabokovians have an
> aversion for the Bellovian. (Of course, this could be a complete
illusion;
> perhaps the Bellow people are just quiet.) I wonder if, Amis
> notwithstanding, there's something inherently different about VN and SB
that
> makes so many of us VN types react to SB with such puzzlement and
> indifference. Something along the lines of the old "Tolstoy vs.
Dostoevsky"
> debate.
----------------------------------------
EDNOTE. I suspect you are right, although Ellen Pifer has done admiring
books on both writers--so there are exceptions to the dichotomy. As for
myself---- I remember reading Augie in the late 50s. I am a compulsive
reader who can't bear not to finish a book I start. However I found the book
so annoying that I started tearing out and throwing away each page as I
finished it. The only Bellow book I look back at with any affection is
Humbolt's Gift. which I vaguely recall is based on Delmore Schwartz whom VN
did admire. VN expressed his opinion of Bellow in ADA.
Letters from Terra, by Voltemand, came out in 1891 on Van's twenty-first
birthday, under the imprint of two bogus houses, 'Abencerage' in Manhattan,
and 'Zegris' in London........ [Van] had little experience in the
intricacies of book-publishing matters, and ... was an absolute ignoramus
there, not knowing, for example, that 'review copies' were supposed to go to
the editors of various periodicals or that advertisements should be
purchased and not be expected to appear by spontaneous generation in
full-page adulthood between similar blurbs boosting The Possessed by Miss
Love and The Puffer by Mr Dukes.
-----------------------------------------
>