

An A from Nabokov - gruseom
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/04/a-from-nabokov/

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simonsarris
Great story. Makes me wonder how Nabokov, a literary critic himself and also
pseudonym user ("Vladimir Sirin") to hide from critics[1], would feel about
Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. Many content creators regard critics with
disdain, until it comes to valuing their own time!

And Nabokov is at least partially right[2] about not needing context if the
literature is good. You can pick up Lolita, open to _any page_ and begin
reading and I guarantee a smile will flash across your face within three
pages.

~~~

[1] Nabokov: "Occasionally I used the little silk mask of an additional pen
name in order to deceive this or that captious critic—with most gratifying
results ("At last a great writer!" cried my favorite Zoilus in 1939)."

[2] There are huge bodies of work that, if you have context, you will get a
LOT more out of, especially older works. Just as TV shows like Family Guy are
a series of culturally-dependent in-jokes, so was a lot of the humor in
Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc. And reading Li Bai and Du Fu's poetry is not the
same unless you know the details of the An Lushan Rebellion they lived
through, which had one of the highest death tolls (5.5%–15.3% of entire world
population) of any event in history.

------
hristov
This is a great story! By the way, I do not think the author of the article
(Epstein) got away with anything. I am pretty sure Nabokov knew very well that
he had not read the book. It is not a coincidence that Nabokov gave him a job
reviewing movies afterwards. I think Nabokov read his essay, knew he was
describing the movie, but nevertheless liked his writing and thought that
Epstein was especially good at describing movies.

So Nabokov either thought that he would use Epstein for his own amusement or
(more likely) he would try to secretly develop Epstein's talent without
telling him that he likes his writing as too much self confidence can be
disastrous for a young writer.

It seems that Epstein was luckier than he imagined. Although, it also seems
that Nabokov gave up on him eventually.

~~~
meshko
Yeah, there is just no way anybody who answers "they are both Russian" to
Nabokov can beat him at this game. Even by accident.

------
lenazegher
Many themes recur in Nabokov's work. One of the most frequent is the use of
fallible narrators and layered levels of implicit plot.

This article is decidedly Nabokov-esque: the author feigns ignorance of the
connection between describing a movie in perfect detail to Nabokov and then
being hired to review movies. It's not a million miles away from the sort of
gaff Charles Kinbote might make [1].

Incidentally, I think _Pale Fire_ might appeal to much of the HN crowd. It's
frequently read as a dense, finely-wrought mechanical puzzle that might appeal
to the coder mindset.

Like Nabokov, I'm also a big fan of writing under pseudonyms. It's a very
freeing experience.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Fire>

Edit: if you like puzzles, it might be better not to spoil the fun by reading
the wikipedia article (or indeed any review, or the dust jacket of the book).
It would be better to buy the book, start with the foreword by C. Kinbote and
read through to the end of the index.

~~~
acabal
Pale Fire is my favorite book of all time. I have a braingasm every time I
read it. I first read it as part of a class back in my university days, and
it's definitely hard to grasp the incredible intricacy, detail, and even humor
in every page without having someone to help guide you in your first reading.
A lot of my friends I recommended it too were put off by Kinbote's (seemingly)
random meanderings.

Having said that though, I highly recommend it to anyone here with even a
passing interest in literature. There's a huge corpus of analysis of Pale Fire
online, and if you plan to read the novel I highly recommend you
simultaneously read one of them. Don't worry too much about spoilers, the
beauty of the book is mostly outside of the plot and I think having a guide to
help is a benefit to sacrifice for.

It's also perfect for e-readers, because you can just use hyperlinks instead
of flipping back and forth between footnotes.

If anyone wants help with it drop me a line :)

~~~
bdr
E-reader? Psh, just buy two copies. ;)

Have you read any of Brian Boyd's work? I think you'd really like this:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691089574/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691089574/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0691089574&linkCode=as2&tag=a01f63-20)

~~~
zem
i kept one copy open on my monitor while i read the other on my kindle. far
nicer than flipping.

------
anton-107
Nice story. Pushkin, the author of "The Queen of Spades" actually gave an
initial idea of "Dead Souls" to Gogol. Without knowing that (which the author
didn't know) it is really very interesting how the first story reminded of
another novel. The only thing they have in common is an author of the ideas
for their plots. So no surprise Nabokov got really curious at first and then
disappointed with the answer.

------
habosa
Wow. Lit with Nabokov is like taking Algorithms with Knuth. I was filled with
jealousy reading that article.

------
telemachos
This reminded me of a favorite story of mine about Nabokov and Thomas Pynchon:
Pynchon was a student of Nabokov's when he was at Cornell. Years later when
Pynchon himself became famous, Nabokov told interviewers that he had no memory
of Pynchon as a student. But Vera remembered Pynchon's handwriting. She really
was the "course assistant" as this article mentions: she must have done the
grading too.

~~~
gruseom
There's also a great story about Pynchon as a student of M.H. Abrams at
Cornell: <http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/abrams.htm>

------
ralphleon
I enjoyed thinking about what Nabokov was assigning to his students:

"Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Franz
Kafka, Gustave Flaubert, and Robert Louis Stevenson"

Looks like I'll be reading Metamorphosis(
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis>) tonight!

~~~
gruseom
Nabokov's lectures on all those writers were published as a book, and it's
very good.

~~~
apetresc
What is it called?

~~~
gruseom
I forgot that they were split into two: _Lectures on Literature_ and _Lectures
on Russian Literature_. They're all terribly entertaining.

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grey-area
If you found this story amusing, but are a little bit daunted by the loquacity
or infamy of his novels, I'd strongly recommend trying Nabokov's _Lectures in
Literature_ , which expands on lectures given at Cornell, and give you a
wonderful introduction to his world, and introduces the writers he considered
canon. I always remember this passage from the end of the book, addressing his
students, because of the outrageous metaphor:

 _Now the course comes to a close. The work with this group has been a
particularly pleasant association between the fountain of my voice and a
garden of ears – some open, others closed, many very receptive, a few merely
ornamental, but all of them human and divine._

I did like the way the story paid a sneaky homage to Nabokov (as lenazegher
mentions below, or soon to be above), in capturing the dry humour and sly wit
which pervade his writing. A lovely little epitaph for a charming writer.

------
gruseom
Here's another gem - Nabokov and Lionel Trilling on an almost comedically
highbrow TV show shortly after _Lolita_ was published:

[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/a_baboon_of_genius_naboko...](http://dangerousminds.net/comments/a_baboon_of_genius_nabokov_talks_lolita_on_fifties_tv)

Nabokov's manner on 1950s American TV is delightful, even if he is reading
from index cards. "I leave the field of ideas to Dr. Schweitzer and, uh, Dr.
Zhivago."

------
gruseom
By coincidence, Epstein posted on HN a few days ago:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5414757>

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Tycho
He gave really good lectures on literature. I recommend the one on Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde - I think you can find it on Google Books.

