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Fw: Fw: Rand v. Nabokov
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----- Original Message -----
From: Rodney Welch
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 6:20 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Rand v. Nabokov
Rand is an amusing freak. I think of her almost the way I do Lillian Hellman, although Hellman was a superior artist, and each would have hated the other politically. Both were fierce, dogmatic old battle-axes who brooked no opinion that was not their own, and they are sometimes more fun to read about than to read.
I have zero use for anything Rand has to say. I can't imagine holding Rand and Nabokov in equal esteem, but I'm sure many have enjoyed both at some level. Rand's two major novels can't compare as literary art, but they're not exactly boring, either -- well, I didn't find them boring anyway. I thought they were page-turners; I mostly just shrugged off her philosophy. I also enjoyed Nathanael Branden's memoir about his affair with her; a masterpiece of unintentional hilarity.
Did Nabokov ever have anything to say about Rand? Rand's own views on Nabokov, -- which can be accessed here: http://ellensplace.net/ar_pboy.html -- are certainly unique: "I have read only one book of his and a half -- the half was Lolita, which I couldn't finish. He is a brilliant stylist, he writes beautifully, but his subjects, his sense of life, his view of man, are so evil that no amount of artistic skill can justify them."
Nabokov? Evil? What's that old comment of Samuel Johnson's -- "no point in wasting criticism on unresisting imbecility"?
Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC