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Re: Cruelty
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It seems to me that "cruelty" in writing can mean two things: Writing that
is designed to hurt real people, and writing that appeals to the same
feelings as cruelty does. For the first, Nabokov did plenty of it, but as
far as I know his victims (to the extent they were hurt) were people who he
felt deserved it, perpetrators of howlers or baseless psychological theories
or dictatorships. One could say a good deal more about whether they did
deserve it and whether it's a good idea even then.
For the second, of course no one is hurt when a fictional boy is turned over
to fictional psychopaths, or when the government that does so is mocked
because they blundered in choosing that particular boy, but I take people
who call this "cruel" to be saying that it appeals that side of (many of) us
that likes to watch real or televised fights, or real comedians get pies in
the face, or likes to read compendia of famous insults. (I know some by
heart--"You will turn it over again in what you are pleased to call your
mind.")
A few notes on details in recent posts:
Eric Hyman wrote:
*”Jacobethan”: a term coined by the linguist David Crystal (at least that
> is where I first encountered it) to cover the reigns of both Elizabeth I and
> James I, the period of Shakespeare’s productivity.
The earliest hits on "Jacobethan" I can find at Google Books are from 1931
and refer to architecture. <
http://books.google.com/books?ei=ZPvDS73WG4GizQTN7-moAg&cd=4&q=Jacobethan+date%3A1921-1931&btnG=Search+Books
>
Jansy Mello wrote:
Why would women in Genesis have to look beautiful? (feminists should
> complain about that to H.Bloom!) I always thought people in Genesis would
> appear like any other native, although healthily vegetarian of course.
Eve (like Adam) is traditionally seen as physically perfect, a challenge
some artists have enjoyed meeting. Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel are
explicitly described as beautiful. Shechem saw some quality in Dinah that
led him to fall in love with her (in some sense of "love" that's compatible
with rape, and thus almost on topic here). After a quick glance, I don't
see any judgements of other women's looks in Genesis, except that Leah had
"weak eyes".
By the way, in "Pale Fire" there are references to peacock-herls (alders)
>
I think the overt meaning of "herl" in PF is "a barb or fibre of a feather"
(NSOED s.v. "harl"). Here's a picture of [a] peacock herl for fishing: <
http://www.tackle-craft.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=538>.
Yes, I should have mentioned this before. I won't dispute that there could
be a secondary reference to *"Erlkönig"*.
Jerry Friedman
Search archive with Google:
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is designed to hurt real people, and writing that appeals to the same
feelings as cruelty does. For the first, Nabokov did plenty of it, but as
far as I know his victims (to the extent they were hurt) were people who he
felt deserved it, perpetrators of howlers or baseless psychological theories
or dictatorships. One could say a good deal more about whether they did
deserve it and whether it's a good idea even then.
For the second, of course no one is hurt when a fictional boy is turned over
to fictional psychopaths, or when the government that does so is mocked
because they blundered in choosing that particular boy, but I take people
who call this "cruel" to be saying that it appeals that side of (many of) us
that likes to watch real or televised fights, or real comedians get pies in
the face, or likes to read compendia of famous insults. (I know some by
heart--"You will turn it over again in what you are pleased to call your
mind.")
A few notes on details in recent posts:
Eric Hyman wrote:
*”Jacobethan”: a term coined by the linguist David Crystal (at least that
> is where I first encountered it) to cover the reigns of both Elizabeth I and
> James I, the period of Shakespeare’s productivity.
The earliest hits on "Jacobethan" I can find at Google Books are from 1931
and refer to architecture. <
http://books.google.com/books?ei=ZPvDS73WG4GizQTN7-moAg&cd=4&q=Jacobethan+date%3A1921-1931&btnG=Search+Books
>
Jansy Mello wrote:
Why would women in Genesis have to look beautiful? (feminists should
> complain about that to H.Bloom!) I always thought people in Genesis would
> appear like any other native, although healthily vegetarian of course.
Eve (like Adam) is traditionally seen as physically perfect, a challenge
some artists have enjoyed meeting. Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel are
explicitly described as beautiful. Shechem saw some quality in Dinah that
led him to fall in love with her (in some sense of "love" that's compatible
with rape, and thus almost on topic here). After a quick glance, I don't
see any judgements of other women's looks in Genesis, except that Leah had
"weak eyes".
By the way, in "Pale Fire" there are references to peacock-herls (alders)
>
I think the overt meaning of "herl" in PF is "a barb or fibre of a feather"
(NSOED s.v. "harl"). Here's a picture of [a] peacock herl for fishing: <
http://www.tackle-craft.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=538>.
Yes, I should have mentioned this before. I won't dispute that there could
be a secondary reference to *"Erlkönig"*.
Jerry Friedman
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/