EDNOTE. Personally I am not a big fan of Ms Sontag's work, but any possible tie she might have had with VN is cerainly "fair game" for NABOKV-L. She was obviously a major in the intellectual clime of the Sixties & Seventies.

----- Original Message -----

From: Will Schultz

To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum

Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 1:40 AM

Subject: Re: Fw: Sontag

didn't Sontag also once write something about the "clear poetry of Mao (tse Tung)" , or something along those lines ? Does she really deserve this forum's attention ?

D. Barton Johnson wrote:

EDNOTE: Mr. Nicol is among the founding fathers of the International
Vladimir Nabokov.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Nicol" <ejnicol@scifac.indstate.edu>

----------------- Message requiring your approval (24

lines) ------------------

When Sontag's essay on Camp came out, I thought it was
somewhat relevant to Kinbote's sensibility in PALE FIRE.
Incidentally, while I was playing at a chess tournament in Kalamazoo,
circa 1965, Sontag gave a talk there which seemed mostly a list of
names of contemporary authors, composers, and painters who somehow
had earned her approval.  In the questions period afterward, I
specifically asked why she had singled out Boulez and not Stockhausen
(she turned out to be right on that one), and why Borges and not
Nabokov.  Her reply was basically along the lines of "Nabokov?  No,
Borges."  So she wasn't too impressed back then.

Chaz
Charles Nicol
Professor of English and Humanities
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
U.S.A.
(812) 237-3152
FAX (812) 237-3156
chaz@indstate.edu

"For me a work of fiction only exists insofar as it affords me
what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss..."
     --Vladimir Nabokov