Subject
Nabokov and Pedophilia (fwd)
From
Date
Body
** Just to be fair, I do not think anyone on the list said anything about
VN's "possible sexual disorder." As to the episode with the uncle, it was
obviously more than mere boredom. It was well known in the family that
uncle Ruka was gay and liked pretty young boys. When VN was 11-12 and
went to pick his uncle up from a railway station, the uncle's first
(disappointed) comment, as found in SM, was "How sallow and plain you have
become, my poor boy." All that has nothing to do with Freud and it
also does not negate the fact that VN loved and admired his uncle in
many ways. He actually appears to have "forgiven" him his homosexuality
much easier somehow than that of his brother Sergey. GD***
From: ILYITCHEV EUGENE <eugen@dialup.ptt.ru>
I'm really very embarrassed by the foregoing discussion on Nabokov's
possible sexual disorder. Up to my mind, allegations in paedophilia
aren't properly backed up, because it's really useless, in case of
Nabokov, to identify him with one of his heroes. Lolita had been written
long after Mashenka, Nabokov's first, autobiographic, novel. Up to that
time Nabokov presented himself not as just a narrator in his writings,
but rather as a Creator of his heroes, who guides them, shelters and
challenges. Sometimes he benevolently loans them this or that episode of
his former life, but never opens his "divinity" in full. Krug's son
sadistic murder in "Bend Sinister" may rather be tackled in political,
rather than sexual, terms. It reflects Nazi's dreadful experiments on
people in concentration camps as well as relentlessness of Soviet GULAG
system. Identifying Nabokov with Humbert Humbert has the same amount of
common sense in itself as drawing parallel between VN and Luzhin, a
driven to madness chess-master, or paranoid Kinbote in "Pale Fire".
As far as the quoted episode concerning Nabokov's uncle Vasilii
Rukavishnikov is concerned, up to my mind, it contains nothing relevant
to paedophilia. Really, uncle Vasya caused romantic feelings in young VV
-- he travelled a lot and brought many exotic things from his trips. The
particular abstract cited from "Speak, Memory" when the boy gets bored
of sitting in his uncle's lap can quite be understood, if we note that
one can scarcely find a boy who is ready to sit quiet for a long time.
I have been long asking myself, why Nabokov felt such a deep disgust for
Freud and psychoanalysis. Now I can quite understand him, seeing to what
a monstrous insinuation can Freud's method bring us.
VN's "possible sexual disorder." As to the episode with the uncle, it was
obviously more than mere boredom. It was well known in the family that
uncle Ruka was gay and liked pretty young boys. When VN was 11-12 and
went to pick his uncle up from a railway station, the uncle's first
(disappointed) comment, as found in SM, was "How sallow and plain you have
become, my poor boy." All that has nothing to do with Freud and it
also does not negate the fact that VN loved and admired his uncle in
many ways. He actually appears to have "forgiven" him his homosexuality
much easier somehow than that of his brother Sergey. GD***
From: ILYITCHEV EUGENE <eugen@dialup.ptt.ru>
I'm really very embarrassed by the foregoing discussion on Nabokov's
possible sexual disorder. Up to my mind, allegations in paedophilia
aren't properly backed up, because it's really useless, in case of
Nabokov, to identify him with one of his heroes. Lolita had been written
long after Mashenka, Nabokov's first, autobiographic, novel. Up to that
time Nabokov presented himself not as just a narrator in his writings,
but rather as a Creator of his heroes, who guides them, shelters and
challenges. Sometimes he benevolently loans them this or that episode of
his former life, but never opens his "divinity" in full. Krug's son
sadistic murder in "Bend Sinister" may rather be tackled in political,
rather than sexual, terms. It reflects Nazi's dreadful experiments on
people in concentration camps as well as relentlessness of Soviet GULAG
system. Identifying Nabokov with Humbert Humbert has the same amount of
common sense in itself as drawing parallel between VN and Luzhin, a
driven to madness chess-master, or paranoid Kinbote in "Pale Fire".
As far as the quoted episode concerning Nabokov's uncle Vasilii
Rukavishnikov is concerned, up to my mind, it contains nothing relevant
to paedophilia. Really, uncle Vasya caused romantic feelings in young VV
-- he travelled a lot and brought many exotic things from his trips. The
particular abstract cited from "Speak, Memory" when the boy gets bored
of sitting in his uncle's lap can quite be understood, if we note that
one can scarcely find a boy who is ready to sit quiet for a long time.
I have been long asking myself, why Nabokov felt such a deep disgust for
Freud and psychoanalysis. Now I can quite understand him, seeing to what
a monstrous insinuation can Freud's method bring us.