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Fw: anti-communism and Nabokov
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anti-communism and Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Howerton
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: anti-communism and Nabokov
Don:
I agree with you that it may be a question of a generation gap. I was a sophomore in college in 1956 when the Soviets brutally crushed the Hungarian revolt, killing all those young, brave people in the streets, and I have detested them and, indeed, all other totalitarian regimes ever since. VN and his family, you know, were sort of victims; like, say, Vaclav Havel and, oh, about thirty million other folks.
On the other hand, the academic failure to comprehend VN's feelings may be just another instance of the kind of political stuff that we've come to expect from the "herd of independent minds;" an expression that Jean Bethke Elshtain fondly quotes in her book, "Just War Against Terror," as a description of the dominant intellectual class.
On the still other hand, it may simply be a case of mass moral blindness. But don't get me started, not here.
Best.
Phil
Judge Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
2812 Sunset Drive
Charlotte, NC 28209
"To be proud, to be brave, to be free." Vladimir Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 3:14 PM
Subject: Fw: anti-communism and Nabokov
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Carolyn Kunin for this note. Although I am averse to discussion of VN's political views, I would add one thought. I suspect the recent discussion reflects a generation gap. As one who was an adult (more or less) in the fifties and especially one who knew many emigres, I find nothing in any way surprising about VN's outspoken anti-Communism and his wholesale extension of this view to those less ardent than himself. It is now half a hundred years later and his views may seem less than temperate to a new generation. It would perhaps be more charitable to drop the matter and recall that VN's remarks about Chaplin, Roman Jakobson, and Sartre et al. were lapses from his principled distaste for politics in art and scholarship.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 11:04 AM
Subject: anti-communism and Nabokov
It is sometimes difficult for Westerners, even now, to understand anti-communism. The reasons for this are too complicated to go into, but I would like to suggest that anyone interested in this question would do well to look at Martin Amis' Koba the dread; Laughter and the twenty millions (I hope I got that right). Mr Amis tries to understand this phenomenon. No one would think of asking why Nabokov would not have wanted to meet, say, the conductor von Karajan, whose Nazi sympathies are well known, but the question can still arrise as to why he wouldn't want to meet Chaplin, whose communist sympathies are also well known.
Martin Amis, for whom Nabokov serves as a political beacon, tries to come to terms with this problem and the book, though not without faults, is well worth reading for anyone interested in Nabokov's political thought.
Carolyn Kunin
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Howerton
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: anti-communism and Nabokov
Don:
I agree with you that it may be a question of a generation gap. I was a sophomore in college in 1956 when the Soviets brutally crushed the Hungarian revolt, killing all those young, brave people in the streets, and I have detested them and, indeed, all other totalitarian regimes ever since. VN and his family, you know, were sort of victims; like, say, Vaclav Havel and, oh, about thirty million other folks.
On the other hand, the academic failure to comprehend VN's feelings may be just another instance of the kind of political stuff that we've come to expect from the "herd of independent minds;" an expression that Jean Bethke Elshtain fondly quotes in her book, "Just War Against Terror," as a description of the dominant intellectual class.
On the still other hand, it may simply be a case of mass moral blindness. But don't get me started, not here.
Best.
Phil
Judge Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
2812 Sunset Drive
Charlotte, NC 28209
"To be proud, to be brave, to be free." Vladimir Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 3:14 PM
Subject: Fw: anti-communism and Nabokov
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Carolyn Kunin for this note. Although I am averse to discussion of VN's political views, I would add one thought. I suspect the recent discussion reflects a generation gap. As one who was an adult (more or less) in the fifties and especially one who knew many emigres, I find nothing in any way surprising about VN's outspoken anti-Communism and his wholesale extension of this view to those less ardent than himself. It is now half a hundred years later and his views may seem less than temperate to a new generation. It would perhaps be more charitable to drop the matter and recall that VN's remarks about Chaplin, Roman Jakobson, and Sartre et al. were lapses from his principled distaste for politics in art and scholarship.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 11:04 AM
Subject: anti-communism and Nabokov
It is sometimes difficult for Westerners, even now, to understand anti-communism. The reasons for this are too complicated to go into, but I would like to suggest that anyone interested in this question would do well to look at Martin Amis' Koba the dread; Laughter and the twenty millions (I hope I got that right). Mr Amis tries to understand this phenomenon. No one would think of asking why Nabokov would not have wanted to meet, say, the conductor von Karajan, whose Nazi sympathies are well known, but the question can still arrise as to why he wouldn't want to meet Chaplin, whose communist sympathies are also well known.
Martin Amis, for whom Nabokov serves as a political beacon, tries to come to terms with this problem and the book, though not without faults, is well worth reading for anyone interested in Nabokov's political thought.
Carolyn Kunin