Subject
Remnick on Nabokov via Babel (fwd)
Date
Body
In the latest issue of the NEW YORK REVIEW of BOOKS, David Remnick
suggests that when they pose for portraits or pictures, Russian writers
never allow themselves to smile. He calls Dostoevsky a "hilarious" writer
(?) who still never violated "a cultural style to withhold any outward
signs of pleasure." Then he moves to Gogol saying that "even" he
(?!) "withheld all traces of pleasure from the portrait painters."
Then there is Nabokov:
"Nabokov, too, seemed to shift to his signature expression of bemusement
only after crossing the border of emigration to Berlin, Paris, and
Ithaca."
Galya Diment
suggests that when they pose for portraits or pictures, Russian writers
never allow themselves to smile. He calls Dostoevsky a "hilarious" writer
(?) who still never violated "a cultural style to withhold any outward
signs of pleasure." Then he moves to Gogol saying that "even" he
(?!) "withheld all traces of pleasure from the portrait painters."
Then there is Nabokov:
"Nabokov, too, seemed to shift to his signature expression of bemusement
only after crossing the border of emigration to Berlin, Paris, and
Ithaca."
Galya Diment