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

From: D. Barton Johnson

To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU

Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 6:28 PM

Subject: Fw: reply to Mr Fippinger

 

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

From: Carolyn Kunin

To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum

Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 1:59 PM

Subject: reply to Mr Fippinger

Dear Mr Fippinger,

Marvelous name, by the way. You raise a very interesting subject, and one dear to my heart. Can Nabokov be approached in a scholarly way? Well, yes, obviously he can and he is. Is this the way he should have liked to be approached? I have very serious doubts on the subject.

The reason most of us do turn to the academics for help, is that we have not been raised with Nabokov's cultural background, which he to a certain extent assumes his readers share. Many of us are willing to play catch up, just in order to be able to read his novels. As I read Ada I also read Chateaubriand and Baudelaire, since they are not in my cultural bagage.

My advice to you would be simply to drop Nabokov as an academic subject.  Read as much as you can in Russian and French literature, and get as good an acquaintance as you can with Italian, German, Dutch and Scandanavian languages and literatures. A smattering of Greek and Latin will not be amiss, but do not study Nabokov -- a poisonous idea, if you ask me.

Read Nabokov as he wished to be read, purely for the pleasure.

Carolyn Kunin