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Re: Nabokov as Literary critic (fwd)
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From: Squeaky Wheel squeakywheel@hotmail.com
That was a great post; there's only one thing I'd like to add.
The majority of his comments on authors took place during interviews.
We have his indepth criticisms of Cervantes and Dostoevsky because he
wrote up lectures on them. Had he taught American Lit, I think that we would
know much more about his thoughts on Emerson, Mellvile and Twain than we do
now.
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: Brad Buchsbaum <bbuchsba@aris.ss.uci.edu>
>
>
>I would just like to point out that Nabokov's critical faculties, located
>as they were in the spine and not the brain, relied a great deal more on
>tingle than effortful analysis. The whole of his critical stance toward an
>author is carried by the presence or absence of that greatest of
>physiological responses, that telltale shiver of approval. Given the
>essentially binary nature of the method, then, it shouldn't be surprising
>that Nabokov's opinions should frequently seem so peremptory, so flip, so
>totally unforgiving (backbones tend not to bend much). On the other hand,
>the Nabokov spine, though an inherently reflexive organ, can hardly be
>said to be an arbitrary one. The point being that Nabokov's critical
>judgments, whether backed up by lengthy written criticism (Cervantes,
>Dostoevsky) or not ("Emerson's poetry is delightful"), depend upon the
>electrical agitations of that selfsame bundle of nerve fibers.
>
>Brad Buchsbaum
>Department of Cognitive Science
>University of California, Irvine
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