I was unaware (or had forgotten it) that it was Vera who disencouraged
her husband to write a novel about Siamese twins so that its first chapter was
turned into a short-story, with no sequel. Paulo Ghiraldelli Jr., who
wrote the Brazilian article, departs from the idea about those two brothers
who are inexorably tied together, to develop in a superficial way a couple
of conjectures about Vladimir's conflictual love-hate relationship
with his homosexual brother..
I tried to confirm his version but, until now, I only found an
interview with Paul Russell, author of "The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov" [
http://www.out.com/entertainment/books/2012/01/10/interview-paul-russell-author-unreal-life-sergey-nabokov.]
in which, answering the interviewer's question about his "
thoughts on
Vladimir Nabokovs homophobia?" he states that "
Vladimir's
homophobia is the elephant in the room of Nabokov scholarship. Its there, and
it runs deep. But it's also more complicated than you might think. Insofar as
Vladimir may have been abused by his uncle Ruka (and Ruka's fondling of Vladmir,
as reported in Speak, Memory,
bears uncanny resemblance to Humbert's fondling of Lolita), there were plenty of
reasons for him to be skittish around homosexuals. But Nabokov's imagination
finds its way to strange, surprising places. In some ways, the most revealing
light Nabokov casts on his relationship with Sergey is in his short story
"Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster," originally the first chapter of an
aborted novel about Siamese twins. The things you fear most are the things that
touch you most closely." He made no reference to any interference in
the novel's progress by Vera, who'd be aware (and concerned)
about any autobiographical elements concerning the
two brothers that might make themselves felt along the progress of the
book about Siamese twins.
Has anyone ever read about Vera's qualms and vetoes in this
matter?.
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