Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0009890, Sun, 20 Jun 2004 11:51:14 -0700

Subject
Fw: Fw: Joyce Versus VN
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergey Karpukhin" <shrewd@irk.ru>

> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (64
lines) ------------------

> Joyce, to my mind, is artistically on a par with Nabokov. They both of
them
> created a subtle and elaborate art. That said, Joyce is very different
from
> VN. One of the differences is perhaps that the Irish writer was more of a
> mythologizer than Nabokov. And I think it was Martin Amis who contrasted
> Nabokov's inventive solicitude towards his reader and Joyce's indifference
> towards his (Martin Amis then concluded that Nabokov was the greatest
> novelist of the 20th century). Besides, their writerly temperaments, in my
> opinion, are diametrical opposites, in that Joyce comes from words to
> things, and VN to words from things. Joyce was champion and justifier of
the
> commonplace and the ordinary, while Nabokov glorified the individual and
the
> extraordinary.
>
> From my small academic experience, however, I know that Joyce has a
greater
> reputation than Nabokov, at least at Russian universities in eastern
> Siberia. And at the same time in the same milieu Nabokov is incomparably
> more widely read than Joyce. Partly this can be accounted for by Joyce's
> inaccessibile style and Nabokov's ready Russianness (generally speaking,
it
> is easier to read LOLITA and DAR than ULYSSES). Another curious thing is
> that both Nabokov and Joyce came to be regularly published in Russia in
the
> early 90s.
>
> Sergey

> PS In my edition of Richard Ellmann's JAMES JOYCE (OUP, 1965) there is no
> reference to Nabokov at all (e.g. his letter to Joyce with the proposition
> to translate ULYSSES into Russian, their meeting in Paris). Can anyone
tell
> me whether it's been corrected in the 1985 revised edition? Thanks.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 6:12 AM
> Subject: Fw: Joyce Versus VN
>
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Dane Gill" <pennyparkerpark@hotmail.com>
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (15
> > lines) ------------------
> > > Greetings
> > > keeping with the recent post concerning Joyce I'd like to pose a few
> > > questions...make a few remarks. VN is always being compared to Joyce,
> but
> > > never really considered his equal; in every list ever made Ulysses
> always
> > > "outranks" Lolita. I always get the feeling that critics are saying VN
> is
> > > good...really good...but not the best. I was hoping some could give me
> > your
> > > opinions on whether Joyce actually harnessed the art of writing and
> > language
> > > better than VN. I realize this is a matter of a opinion, but I mean
from
> a
> > > critical p.o.v was VN up to par with Joyce?
> > > Dane
> > >
>
>
>