Subject
Re: VN on Melville? (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Brian Walter <bwalter@dobson.ozarks.edu>
There is more evidence to support Peter Kartsev's and Sergey Il'in's
cautious suggestions that Nabokov probably thought well of Melville and
his work. Most notably, Suellen Stringer-Hye of VN Collations notoriety
has an illuminating and persuasive paper tracing parallels between ADA and
Melville's PIERRE which, among other things, leaves an unmistakable
impression of Nabokov's respect for the older writer. From what I recall,
Suellen's paper cites all three of the Melville references that Andrew
Robinson, Kartsev, and Il'in have mentioned.
Another reference that has not been mentioned so far here is the one that
provided the germ of my own paper on anatomy and narrative strategy in
MOBY-DICK and LOLITA, namely Nabokov's dismissal of W. W. Rowe's 1971
book, NABOKOV'S DECEPTIVE WORLD: "One may wonder if it was worth Mr.
Rowe's time to exhibit erotic bits picked out of LOLITA and ADA -- a
process rather like looking for allusions to aquatic mammals in
MOBY-DICK." While hardly intended as a comprehensive critical statement
(as my paper acknowledges), Nabokov's one-liner does, when pushed, unfold
into a number of curious and fascinating structural affinities in at least
the case of MOBY-DICK and LOLITA (or so my paper argues, at any rate). At
some point, I still hope and plan to submit it (it was originally
presented at a faculty colloquium) for publication.
Finally, and most ephemerally, it has lingered in the dimming chambers of
my memory that Brian Boyd has somewhere commented on Nabokov's affinity
for several famous American writers -- Melville very high on the list --
and the shame that Nabokov was never asked to teach their work (so that we
might have more of his delightful lectures to draw upon). Unfortunately,
checking in the indexes of both volumes of Boyd's biography just now, I
can find no such statements. Is it possible that this statement appeared
in one of Boyd's articles that came out about the same time as the
biography, perhaps in his NYTBR article on Nabokov's American period?
(Late summer or early fall 1990, I think.)
BW
Brian Walter, Assistant Professor
HFA-English
University of the Ozarks
415 North College Avenue
Clarksville, Arkansas 72830
(501) 979-1339 or 754-3499
bwalter@dobson.ozarks.edu
On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
> Always wondered...what was Nabokov's impression of
> Melville? So far I've only encountered N's famous
> complaint that a poorly drawn butterfly on the title
> page of N's Collected Poems was as meaningless "as
> would be a picture of a tuna fish on the jacket of
> Moby Dick." (The ferocious Sperm Whale on the cover
> of my Penguin Classic edition will never look the
> same).
>
> -- Andrew Robinson
>
There is more evidence to support Peter Kartsev's and Sergey Il'in's
cautious suggestions that Nabokov probably thought well of Melville and
his work. Most notably, Suellen Stringer-Hye of VN Collations notoriety
has an illuminating and persuasive paper tracing parallels between ADA and
Melville's PIERRE which, among other things, leaves an unmistakable
impression of Nabokov's respect for the older writer. From what I recall,
Suellen's paper cites all three of the Melville references that Andrew
Robinson, Kartsev, and Il'in have mentioned.
Another reference that has not been mentioned so far here is the one that
provided the germ of my own paper on anatomy and narrative strategy in
MOBY-DICK and LOLITA, namely Nabokov's dismissal of W. W. Rowe's 1971
book, NABOKOV'S DECEPTIVE WORLD: "One may wonder if it was worth Mr.
Rowe's time to exhibit erotic bits picked out of LOLITA and ADA -- a
process rather like looking for allusions to aquatic mammals in
MOBY-DICK." While hardly intended as a comprehensive critical statement
(as my paper acknowledges), Nabokov's one-liner does, when pushed, unfold
into a number of curious and fascinating structural affinities in at least
the case of MOBY-DICK and LOLITA (or so my paper argues, at any rate). At
some point, I still hope and plan to submit it (it was originally
presented at a faculty colloquium) for publication.
Finally, and most ephemerally, it has lingered in the dimming chambers of
my memory that Brian Boyd has somewhere commented on Nabokov's affinity
for several famous American writers -- Melville very high on the list --
and the shame that Nabokov was never asked to teach their work (so that we
might have more of his delightful lectures to draw upon). Unfortunately,
checking in the indexes of both volumes of Boyd's biography just now, I
can find no such statements. Is it possible that this statement appeared
in one of Boyd's articles that came out about the same time as the
biography, perhaps in his NYTBR article on Nabokov's American period?
(Late summer or early fall 1990, I think.)
BW
Brian Walter, Assistant Professor
HFA-English
University of the Ozarks
415 North College Avenue
Clarksville, Arkansas 72830
(501) 979-1339 or 754-3499
bwalter@dobson.ozarks.edu
On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
> Always wondered...what was Nabokov's impression of
> Melville? So far I've only encountered N's famous
> complaint that a poorly drawn butterfly on the title
> page of N's Collected Poems was as meaningless "as
> would be a picture of a tuna fish on the jacket of
> Moby Dick." (The ferocious Sperm Whale on the cover
> of my Penguin Classic edition will never look the
> same).
>
> -- Andrew Robinson
>