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Re: Nabokovs brain is shaped like a helter-skelter ...
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This is aninteresting article. Smith's view of fiction seems
antithetical to that of VNN.
But my question is:
Main Entry: 2helter-skelter
Function: noun
1:a disorderly confusion :TURMOIL
2British :a spiral slide around a tower at an amusement park
Which does she mean?
Sandy Drescher
On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 05:08 PM, Sandy P. Klein wrote:
>
<image.tiff>
>
> http://januarymagazine.com/2007/01/fail-better.html
> Tuesday, January 23, 2007
>
>
> Fail Better
>
>
<image.tiff>ì... somewhere between a criticís necessary superficiality
and a writerís natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary
success or failure is lost.î
>
> In a two article series for The Guardian, Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On
> Beauty) doesnít pull any literary punches. Smithís lengthy, two-part
> piece is wonderful, managing as it does to be both accessible (ìThatís
> how young readers are, too, when they start out. They are doubters and
> seekers.î) and urbane (She quotes both Kierkegaard and Nobokov while
> somehow never losing her of-the-reading-masses tone).
>
> I have said that when I open a book I feel the shape of another human
> beingís brain. To me, Nabokovís brain is shaped like a helter-skelter.
> George Eliotís is like one of those pans for sifting gold. Austenís
> resembles one of the glass flowers you find in Harvardís Natural
> History Museum.
>
>
> Thereís so much here that is terrific, the temptation is just to quote
> and quote and quote: most of what Smith shares in the space is worth
> repeating. But Iíll save both of us the effort: part one is here, put
> two is here. Savor it for yourself.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
This is aninteresting article. Smith's view of fiction seems
antithetical to that of VNN.
But my question is:
Main Entry: 2helter-skelter
Function: noun
1:a disorderly confusion :TURMOIL
2British :a spiral slide around a tower at an amusement park
Which does she mean?
Sandy Drescher
On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 05:08 PM, Sandy P. Klein wrote:
>
<image.tiff>
>
> http://januarymagazine.com/2007/01/fail-better.html
> Tuesday, January 23, 2007
>
>
> Fail Better
>
>
<image.tiff>ì... somewhere between a criticís necessary superficiality
and a writerís natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary
success or failure is lost.î
>
> In a two article series for The Guardian, Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On
> Beauty) doesnít pull any literary punches. Smithís lengthy, two-part
> piece is wonderful, managing as it does to be both accessible (ìThatís
> how young readers are, too, when they start out. They are doubters and
> seekers.î) and urbane (She quotes both Kierkegaard and Nobokov while
> somehow never losing her of-the-reading-masses tone).
>
> I have said that when I open a book I feel the shape of another human
> beingís brain. To me, Nabokovís brain is shaped like a helter-skelter.
> George Eliotís is like one of those pans for sifting gold. Austenís
> resembles one of the glass flowers you find in Harvardís Natural
> History Museum.
>
>
> Thereís so much here that is terrific, the temptation is just to quote
> and quote and quote: most of what Smith shares in the space is worth
> repeating. But Iíll save both of us the effort: part one is here, put
> two is here. Savor it for yourself.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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