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Fw: Nabokov & Vladimir Sorokin
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EDNOTE. Galya Diment is the author of "PNINIAD: Vladimir Nabokov and Marc
Szeftel" and many articles on VN and other writers.
------------------------------------------------
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> From: a "kindly soul" (or not) Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
>
> I bought a copy of _Goluboe salo_ (_Blue Lard_) last summer when I was at
> the Nabokov Symposium in St. Petersburg (in the middle of the giant-
> toilet-bowl controversy; thus becoming one of the people who apparently
> increased the weekly sales sevenfold, according to the _New Yorker_) but
> have to admit that at my first sitting (on the long flight back) I had
> hard time going much beyond the first 20 pages or so because the prose, to
> me, was so utterly unenticing.
>
> I have been meaning to go back to it when I have more time (which is never
> these days :-) and find the Nabokov bits but my natural curiosity has
> really been dampened by this initial and visceral lack of enthusiasm for
> the work itself (as in, "Do I really care?"). I know Sorokin's book has
> its fans and I hope some of them will respond to the editor's request in a
> much more "kindly," informative, and enlightening way which would also
> seduce me into going back and finishing it.
>
> As it stands, my feeling for Sorokin as a writer/thinker was not helped
> much by a statement attributed to him in the _New Yorker_ article.
> Rightfully indignant that his book received such a barbaric treatment, he
> goes on to suggest that "Even in the Stalin era and during the revolution
> they did not do this [destroy books]. They killed people, but treated
> books well" -- which, to put it mildly, is a mindboggling revision of
> Soviet history.
>
> Galya Diment
>
>
> On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > EDNOTE.
> >
> > Gary Shteygart, author of the hilarious _The Russian Debutante's
Handbook_, offers his thoughts on
> > "t.A.T. u" aka "Tatu". the Russian teen-age lesbian rock duo in his
New Yorker article "Teen Spirit" of March 10 2003 (pp. 42-49). Along the
way, he mentions the avant-gard writer Vladimir Sorokin whose comic
scandalous novel _Gay Lard_ (Goluboe salo) is under legal threat. In
passing, he notes that "the novel's most ingenious passages are paradies od
Tolstoy and Nabokov."
> >
> > Perhaps some kindly soul who has read the book can provide NABOKV-L with
a sample paragraph or two of one of the VN parodies.
>
Szeftel" and many articles on VN and other writers.
------------------------------------------------
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> From: a "kindly soul" (or not) Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
>
> I bought a copy of _Goluboe salo_ (_Blue Lard_) last summer when I was at
> the Nabokov Symposium in St. Petersburg (in the middle of the giant-
> toilet-bowl controversy; thus becoming one of the people who apparently
> increased the weekly sales sevenfold, according to the _New Yorker_) but
> have to admit that at my first sitting (on the long flight back) I had
> hard time going much beyond the first 20 pages or so because the prose, to
> me, was so utterly unenticing.
>
> I have been meaning to go back to it when I have more time (which is never
> these days :-) and find the Nabokov bits but my natural curiosity has
> really been dampened by this initial and visceral lack of enthusiasm for
> the work itself (as in, "Do I really care?"). I know Sorokin's book has
> its fans and I hope some of them will respond to the editor's request in a
> much more "kindly," informative, and enlightening way which would also
> seduce me into going back and finishing it.
>
> As it stands, my feeling for Sorokin as a writer/thinker was not helped
> much by a statement attributed to him in the _New Yorker_ article.
> Rightfully indignant that his book received such a barbaric treatment, he
> goes on to suggest that "Even in the Stalin era and during the revolution
> they did not do this [destroy books]. They killed people, but treated
> books well" -- which, to put it mildly, is a mindboggling revision of
> Soviet history.
>
> Galya Diment
>
>
> On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > EDNOTE.
> >
> > Gary Shteygart, author of the hilarious _The Russian Debutante's
Handbook_, offers his thoughts on
> > "t.A.T. u" aka "Tatu". the Russian teen-age lesbian rock duo in his
New Yorker article "Teen Spirit" of March 10 2003 (pp. 42-49). Along the
way, he mentions the avant-gard writer Vladimir Sorokin whose comic
scandalous novel _Gay Lard_ (Goluboe salo) is under legal threat. In
passing, he notes that "the novel's most ingenious passages are paradies od
Tolstoy and Nabokov."
> >
> > Perhaps some kindly soul who has read the book can provide NABOKV-L with
a sample paragraph or two of one of the VN parodies.
>