Subject
Re: Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls ...
From
Date
Body
R S Gwynn refers to *67 Mixed Messages**. *Since the Wikipedia "bio" on Ed
Allen appears to be, in some respects, a joke by Ed himself to illustrate
his view of the internet as a "giant bathroom graffiti wall," here's Dr.
Allen's real autobiographical info:
http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/books/allen/allen-bio.htm
On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 9:29 PM, R S Gwynn <Rsgwynn1@cs.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 2/14/2012 8:57:30 PM Central Standard Time,
> nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:
>
>
>
> I sense that I might get agreement from list members that Mac Lean's
> comments (i.e., "[*Lolita *is] a portrait of Nabokov's own passion;"
> Nabokov's "stuffed-shirtism...is a firewall against an unseemly urge")
> place him on an intellectual level with P.J. O'Rourke and Hunter S.
> Thompson. Edward Allen, a novelist, professor and Nabokovian currently at
> the University of South Dakota, during a lecture in response to a question
> about the interview excerpted below, stated, "Hunter S. Thompson is an
> idiot!" Here's a bit from a P.J. O'Rourke interview with Hunter S Thompson
> from Rolling Stone many years ago discussing Nabokov and his artistic
> methodology (O'Rourke first, obviously):
>
> Are there any writers who you think [write about sex] effectively,
> honestly, dirtily? And honestly.
>
> Well, I think that Nabokov could.
>
> A beautiful writer.
>
> Hell of a good writer. A friend of mine, Mike Solheim, was up in Sun
> Valley [Idaho] back in the early '60s. He told me that Nabokov used to come
> to the Sun Valley Lodge with an 11-year-old girl. He said it was weirder
> than Lolita: "It's very nice to meet your niece, Mr. Nabokov." Well, that
> goes back to the new-journalism question, about writing from experience.
>
> When you read it, you knew this was from real experience. This was not
> Thomas Mann writing Death in Venice, which seemed to be a student's idea of
> what a hopeless crush would be, as if he'd observed someone go through it.
>
> And the reason for that is, Nabokov was up at Sun Valley Lodge with an
> 11-year-old girl.
>
> I'm afraid Lolita strictly fits into the gonzo framework.
>
> But, man, that's where the fun is. You know, why write about other
> people's experiences?
>
>
>
>
> This is frankly unlikely, given Thompson's versions of reality and his
> reportorial integrity, but Ed Allen did get into a Lolita-like jam with a
> book of poems. You can Google it to see what happened (which was nothing
> much, actually) but must have been painful. A wonderful book, by the way.
>
> And, according to this time-line, it would mean that VN was writing about
> an experience that he had a full decade after the novel was begun. Dah.
>
> Incidentally, since VN didn't drive and didn't fly until late in life, how
> did he get to Sun Valley? Did Vera drop him off on one of his
> butterfly-hunting expeditions, which is hard to believe as the Nabokovs had
> moved to Switzerland in October, 1961?
>
> Why the young still find anything to admire in the idiotic works of HST is
> beyond me. But they like Burroughs too, they claim.
>
> RSG
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
--
Norky
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
Allen appears to be, in some respects, a joke by Ed himself to illustrate
his view of the internet as a "giant bathroom graffiti wall," here's Dr.
Allen's real autobiographical info:
http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/books/allen/allen-bio.htm
On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 9:29 PM, R S Gwynn <Rsgwynn1@cs.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 2/14/2012 8:57:30 PM Central Standard Time,
> nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:
>
>
>
> I sense that I might get agreement from list members that Mac Lean's
> comments (i.e., "[*Lolita *is] a portrait of Nabokov's own passion;"
> Nabokov's "stuffed-shirtism...is a firewall against an unseemly urge")
> place him on an intellectual level with P.J. O'Rourke and Hunter S.
> Thompson. Edward Allen, a novelist, professor and Nabokovian currently at
> the University of South Dakota, during a lecture in response to a question
> about the interview excerpted below, stated, "Hunter S. Thompson is an
> idiot!" Here's a bit from a P.J. O'Rourke interview with Hunter S Thompson
> from Rolling Stone many years ago discussing Nabokov and his artistic
> methodology (O'Rourke first, obviously):
>
> Are there any writers who you think [write about sex] effectively,
> honestly, dirtily? And honestly.
>
> Well, I think that Nabokov could.
>
> A beautiful writer.
>
> Hell of a good writer. A friend of mine, Mike Solheim, was up in Sun
> Valley [Idaho] back in the early '60s. He told me that Nabokov used to come
> to the Sun Valley Lodge with an 11-year-old girl. He said it was weirder
> than Lolita: "It's very nice to meet your niece, Mr. Nabokov." Well, that
> goes back to the new-journalism question, about writing from experience.
>
> When you read it, you knew this was from real experience. This was not
> Thomas Mann writing Death in Venice, which seemed to be a student's idea of
> what a hopeless crush would be, as if he'd observed someone go through it.
>
> And the reason for that is, Nabokov was up at Sun Valley Lodge with an
> 11-year-old girl.
>
> I'm afraid Lolita strictly fits into the gonzo framework.
>
> But, man, that's where the fun is. You know, why write about other
> people's experiences?
>
>
>
>
> This is frankly unlikely, given Thompson's versions of reality and his
> reportorial integrity, but Ed Allen did get into a Lolita-like jam with a
> book of poems. You can Google it to see what happened (which was nothing
> much, actually) but must have been painful. A wonderful book, by the way.
>
> And, according to this time-line, it would mean that VN was writing about
> an experience that he had a full decade after the novel was begun. Dah.
>
> Incidentally, since VN didn't drive and didn't fly until late in life, how
> did he get to Sun Valley? Did Vera drop him off on one of his
> butterfly-hunting expeditions, which is hard to believe as the Nabokovs had
> moved to Switzerland in October, 1961?
>
> Why the young still find anything to admire in the idiotic works of HST is
> beyond me. But they like Burroughs too, they claim.
>
> RSG
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
--
Norky
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/