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Fw: reply to carolyn
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----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: reply to carolyn;
Please post:
What flabbergasts me is that Carolyn, whose comments are sometimes sober and coherent, should emphatically affirm that Mr. Maar's "discovery" is "important," that "he handled it very well", and that the "parallels" are more than "vague." Propelled solely by hearsay, she has lurched onto the Forum with judgements about a work she admits she has not read, written in a language she admits she does not know. Is she being serious when she suggests a legal proceeding? Between ghosts? The most reasonable suggestion was that discussion be withheld until the story has been read, whereupon it will be clear that this is one dark-voiced gypsy song that VN did not copy, and that the improvident Maar's supposed scoop has helped make a dung heap out of a molehill.
Perhaps years of curling up in a chaise longue with a pet chicken have taken their toll. Credulous Carolyn may be in for a surprise. What if it turned out that the whole Lichberg legend, from the photo on the train not from Lakehurst where he did not arrive by Zeppelin, to the third-rate German of the Lolita story, to the Heil Hitler days were all an elaborate mystification, to drum up publicity for the imminent auction? Or maybe it's another variation -- the Zeppelin ride he wrote up was true, and so was the pro-Nazi journalism, but he never wrote such a story (doesn't the fact that, wherever it appears now, it is, purportedly, "substantially abidged" tell us something?) Is it time yet to 'fess up, Jeff?
I thank Carolyn for reminding me that my father was (is?) not God. But can she prove it?
Greetings to everyone, including Carolyn,
DN
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: reply to carolyn;
Please post:
What flabbergasts me is that Carolyn, whose comments are sometimes sober and coherent, should emphatically affirm that Mr. Maar's "discovery" is "important," that "he handled it very well", and that the "parallels" are more than "vague." Propelled solely by hearsay, she has lurched onto the Forum with judgements about a work she admits she has not read, written in a language she admits she does not know. Is she being serious when she suggests a legal proceeding? Between ghosts? The most reasonable suggestion was that discussion be withheld until the story has been read, whereupon it will be clear that this is one dark-voiced gypsy song that VN did not copy, and that the improvident Maar's supposed scoop has helped make a dung heap out of a molehill.
Perhaps years of curling up in a chaise longue with a pet chicken have taken their toll. Credulous Carolyn may be in for a surprise. What if it turned out that the whole Lichberg legend, from the photo on the train not from Lakehurst where he did not arrive by Zeppelin, to the third-rate German of the Lolita story, to the Heil Hitler days were all an elaborate mystification, to drum up publicity for the imminent auction? Or maybe it's another variation -- the Zeppelin ride he wrote up was true, and so was the pro-Nazi journalism, but he never wrote such a story (doesn't the fact that, wherever it appears now, it is, purportedly, "substantially abidged" tell us something?) Is it time yet to 'fess up, Jeff?
I thank Carolyn for reminding me that my father was (is?) not God. But can she prove it?
Greetings to everyone, including Carolyn,
DN