Subject
Paglia and Nabokov (fwd)
Date
Body
From: eve jochnowitz <jochnowe@is.nyu.edu>
I do not know if Camille Paglia has ever written about VN, but seeing her
name on our list reminds me that I once read something by Paglia that was
(unintentionally) very evocative of VN.
In the anthology _Vamps and Tramps_ Paglia writes about her putative
meeting with Susan Sontag ("Sontag, Bloody Sontag" pp. 344-360 of Vamps
and Tramps. New York: Vintage Books 1994)
Paglia was a great fan of Sontag's and invited her to speak at Bennington
when she (Paglia) was teaching there. Paglia sees their meeting as a
passing of the torch from Sontag (the preeminent literary critic of her
generation) to Paglia (You get the picture.) She also reports that
Sontag has claimed to have no recollection of the event.
The episode, with Paglia's vivid memory of the weather and what Sontag
wore, reminds me of the Nabokov narrators who imagine they are the
doubles of better and better-known writers. In fact it reads so well
that I suspect it may be sly self parody of Paglia's.
I do not know if Camille Paglia has ever written about VN, but seeing her
name on our list reminds me that I once read something by Paglia that was
(unintentionally) very evocative of VN.
In the anthology _Vamps and Tramps_ Paglia writes about her putative
meeting with Susan Sontag ("Sontag, Bloody Sontag" pp. 344-360 of Vamps
and Tramps. New York: Vintage Books 1994)
Paglia was a great fan of Sontag's and invited her to speak at Bennington
when she (Paglia) was teaching there. Paglia sees their meeting as a
passing of the torch from Sontag (the preeminent literary critic of her
generation) to Paglia (You get the picture.) She also reports that
Sontag has claimed to have no recollection of the event.
The episode, with Paglia's vivid memory of the weather and what Sontag
wore, reminds me of the Nabokov narrators who imagine they are the
doubles of better and better-known writers. In fact it reads so well
that I suspect it may be sly self parody of Paglia's.