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Fw: Fw: Nabokov and Salinger
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-----Original Message-----
From: Camille Scaysbrook <verona_beach@hotpop.com>
.
>
>----------------- Message requiring your approval (39
lines) ------------------
>Despite the fact that Salinger preceded Nabokov as a writer of some
>prestige, it must be remembered that ultimately they could be thought of as
>contemporaries. When I think of the work of Salinger's that may have been
>influenced by Nabokov, I'm thinking more of his later work - the Glass
>stories (late 50's to mid 60's). In particular their anticipation of
>postmodernism and the way that, like `Pale Fire', various components (in
>this case a series of different stories) come together to form a larger
>narrative which actually occurs between the lines or in the reader's head.
>There is also the questions of authorship (Salinger's Hitchcock-like entry
>into his own narrative is via Glass family member Buddy Glass, the narrator
>of the stories who teases the reader in revealing the qualities he shares
>with the real-life Salinger).
>
>While Salinger may have opened the way for novels like `Lolita' to be
>published, I think Nabokov set the way for fiction to become as inherently
>metatextual as Salinger later sees it. I see the Salinger-Nabokov influence
>as a possible exchange - a possible mutual discipleship.
>
>Camille Scaysbrook
>
>> >In the early 1950s Salinger was as vehemently anti-Freudian and
>> >anti-shrink-culture (as obvious in his _Catcher in the Rye_) as was
>> >Nabokov. I am sure it did not escape Nabokov's notice. Salinger, who
>> >became famous and established as an American writer before Nabokov (_The
>> >Catcher in the Rye_ came out in 1951) can hardly be considered a
>Nabokov's
>> >"disciple." On the contrary, I actually do wonder whether it was not the
>> >other way around, and whether, in the early 1950s, the success of
>> >Salinger's rather audacious-for-that-time novel, which dealt with an
>> >emotionally complex teenager rebelling against the easy and comfortable
>> >rhythms and assumptions of the post-war American culture, did not
suggest
>> >to Nabokov that the American public might have been getting ready for
the
>> >likes of _Lolita_.
>> >
>> >Galya Diment
>> >
>> >
>>
>
From: Camille Scaysbrook <verona_beach@hotpop.com>
.
>
>----------------- Message requiring your approval (39
lines) ------------------
>Despite the fact that Salinger preceded Nabokov as a writer of some
>prestige, it must be remembered that ultimately they could be thought of as
>contemporaries. When I think of the work of Salinger's that may have been
>influenced by Nabokov, I'm thinking more of his later work - the Glass
>stories (late 50's to mid 60's). In particular their anticipation of
>postmodernism and the way that, like `Pale Fire', various components (in
>this case a series of different stories) come together to form a larger
>narrative which actually occurs between the lines or in the reader's head.
>There is also the questions of authorship (Salinger's Hitchcock-like entry
>into his own narrative is via Glass family member Buddy Glass, the narrator
>of the stories who teases the reader in revealing the qualities he shares
>with the real-life Salinger).
>
>While Salinger may have opened the way for novels like `Lolita' to be
>published, I think Nabokov set the way for fiction to become as inherently
>metatextual as Salinger later sees it. I see the Salinger-Nabokov influence
>as a possible exchange - a possible mutual discipleship.
>
>Camille Scaysbrook
>
>> >In the early 1950s Salinger was as vehemently anti-Freudian and
>> >anti-shrink-culture (as obvious in his _Catcher in the Rye_) as was
>> >Nabokov. I am sure it did not escape Nabokov's notice. Salinger, who
>> >became famous and established as an American writer before Nabokov (_The
>> >Catcher in the Rye_ came out in 1951) can hardly be considered a
>Nabokov's
>> >"disciple." On the contrary, I actually do wonder whether it was not the
>> >other way around, and whether, in the early 1950s, the success of
>> >Salinger's rather audacious-for-that-time novel, which dealt with an
>> >emotionally complex teenager rebelling against the easy and comfortable
>> >rhythms and assumptions of the post-war American culture, did not
suggest
>> >to Nabokov that the American public might have been getting ready for
the
>> >likes of _Lolita_.
>> >
>> >Galya Diment
>> >
>> >
>>
>