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[Fwd: Re: Nabokov's admirers: S. Millhauser]
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----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 4:02 PM
Subject: Nabokov's admirers: S. Millhauser
> Of course, any discussion of this kind inevitably leads to the
> interesting question of how literary influence works; which, in turn
> leads to an inquiry into the nature of the creative process itself.
> Can a writer really choose which predecessors "influence" his or her
> work? Is it a matter of consciously selecting other writers as
> models, or is it a matter of finding other writers with whom one
> shares certain innate sensibilities? The thing is rather mysterious.
This calls to mind Borges' hypothesis - that each writer creates his or
her precursors, for it is through the synthesis of their qualities in
his or her work that one can see the affinities between them, that is,
between the model and the influenced, and among models.
Along with _The Prismatic Bezel_, on the shelf of imaginary works I
would have liked to have seen written is a version of _Ada_ as a short
story by Borges.
cms
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 4:02 PM
Subject: Nabokov's admirers: S. Millhauser
> Of course, any discussion of this kind inevitably leads to the
> interesting question of how literary influence works; which, in turn
> leads to an inquiry into the nature of the creative process itself.
> Can a writer really choose which predecessors "influence" his or her
> work? Is it a matter of consciously selecting other writers as
> models, or is it a matter of finding other writers with whom one
> shares certain innate sensibilities? The thing is rather mysterious.
This calls to mind Borges' hypothesis - that each writer creates his or
her precursors, for it is through the synthesis of their qualities in
his or her work that one can see the affinities between them, that is,
between the model and the influenced, and among models.
Along with _The Prismatic Bezel_, on the shelf of imaginary works I
would have liked to have seen written is a version of _Ada_ as a short
story by Borges.
cms