Subject
VN anecdotes (fwd)
Date
Body
I found another VN story in my Appel lecture notes...forgive me if this is
a well-known story.
"I remember I had a class with him, one of the smaller ones -- not the
Masterpieces of European Fiction class -- probably 30 or so students. I was
3 or 4 minutes late for class, hurrying along, and up ahead was Nabokov,
also late. He was a big man with great shoulders, and I could easily see
who it was. As I watched him, I saw him turn to the right one door too soon.
"Now he had carefully prepared lectures, written out, which he read from.
And of course he was late, 3 or 4 minutes late, and he just plopped his
notes down on the lectern and started to read notes on Russian literature
-- whatever the topic was that day, I didn't know -- to an astounded class
who were waiting for another and apparently equally tardy professor.
"And I had followed him into the room, and I tugged on his sleeve [tug tug]
and said, 'Professor Nabokov, you're in the wrong room.'
"He pushed his glasses up -- he wore them like this [on the tip of his
nose] and probably should have worn bifocals. Now this is the point where
most of us would have fallen apart. But he just straightened up and said,
'You have just seen a preview of Literature 310. You can register for the
full course in the fall.'"
------------------------
Forgive me if this story has circulated before, but DN's posting about the
fork/spoon bit on MTV had me pulling out my notes from Appel's classes at
Northwestern. Here's the story as Professor Appel told it in November 1991:
"I taught a much larger version of this class in Tech auditorium in 1970,
and this was at the peak of anti-war sentiment, at the time of the
Cambodian intrusion. There was a nun in that class, always in her habit,
and one day she came up to me after class and said that there was a young
couple in the back 'spooning.'
"Now that's what they called necking, hugging, and kissing [pause as Appel
takes a sip of water] - sucking face! [laughter] And to show what an
interest Nabokov had in colloquialisms and idiomatic speech, when I visited
him that year, as I always did, for 5 or 6 days, I told him about this.
"And Nabokov leaned toward me, excited, and he really wanted to know my
response to this nun's concern about spooning. So I said with some dignity,
repeating to him what I had said, 'Well, I told her, "Thank God in these
trying times that's all they were doing."'
"Now I really thought that was the height of wit, and I said it in a very
smug way. But Nabokov slapped his head in mock despair and said, 'Oh,
Alfred, you should have said, "Thank God they weren't forking!"'"
Bo Brock
physical 504 5th St Apt F2
Wilmette IL 60091
analog (847) 256 7411
digital mailto:brock@ripco.com
a well-known story.
"I remember I had a class with him, one of the smaller ones -- not the
Masterpieces of European Fiction class -- probably 30 or so students. I was
3 or 4 minutes late for class, hurrying along, and up ahead was Nabokov,
also late. He was a big man with great shoulders, and I could easily see
who it was. As I watched him, I saw him turn to the right one door too soon.
"Now he had carefully prepared lectures, written out, which he read from.
And of course he was late, 3 or 4 minutes late, and he just plopped his
notes down on the lectern and started to read notes on Russian literature
-- whatever the topic was that day, I didn't know -- to an astounded class
who were waiting for another and apparently equally tardy professor.
"And I had followed him into the room, and I tugged on his sleeve [tug tug]
and said, 'Professor Nabokov, you're in the wrong room.'
"He pushed his glasses up -- he wore them like this [on the tip of his
nose] and probably should have worn bifocals. Now this is the point where
most of us would have fallen apart. But he just straightened up and said,
'You have just seen a preview of Literature 310. You can register for the
full course in the fall.'"
------------------------
Forgive me if this story has circulated before, but DN's posting about the
fork/spoon bit on MTV had me pulling out my notes from Appel's classes at
Northwestern. Here's the story as Professor Appel told it in November 1991:
"I taught a much larger version of this class in Tech auditorium in 1970,
and this was at the peak of anti-war sentiment, at the time of the
Cambodian intrusion. There was a nun in that class, always in her habit,
and one day she came up to me after class and said that there was a young
couple in the back 'spooning.'
"Now that's what they called necking, hugging, and kissing [pause as Appel
takes a sip of water] - sucking face! [laughter] And to show what an
interest Nabokov had in colloquialisms and idiomatic speech, when I visited
him that year, as I always did, for 5 or 6 days, I told him about this.
"And Nabokov leaned toward me, excited, and he really wanted to know my
response to this nun's concern about spooning. So I said with some dignity,
repeating to him what I had said, 'Well, I told her, "Thank God in these
trying times that's all they were doing."'
"Now I really thought that was the height of wit, and I said it in a very
smug way. But Nabokov slapped his head in mock despair and said, 'Oh,
Alfred, you should have said, "Thank God they weren't forking!"'"
Bo Brock
physical 504 5th St Apt F2
Wilmette IL 60091
analog (847) 256 7411
digital mailto:brock@ripco.com