Subject
Pale Fire & homophobia; American Beauty (fwd)
Date
Body
6
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Pale Fire & homophobia; American Beauty
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I do think we need to move on and put this discussion on the
backburner for now -- but I also wanted to voice my discomfort with the
notion that bigotry -- in whatever form it manifests itself in -- is
something people should simply agree to disagree about. To his credit,
Nabokov himself would have been the first one to reject this notion if
prejudices against homosexuals had fallen into his definition of "bigotry."
Unfortunately, I don't believe they did, for reasons that may be both
societal and personal. If they had, I have no doubt that people making
anti-gay jokes and statements would have been treated by him in the same
unambiguous way in which he treated people who in his presence tried to
make anti-Semitic remarks or cracks. No agreeing to disagree there.
On a different topic: Now that many more people have probably seen
_American Beauty_ than when we first started discussing it -- I would like
to hear more of the subscribers' opinions about the possible AB-LO
connection or the lack of such.
Galya Diment
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Pale Fire & homophobia; American Beauty
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I do think we need to move on and put this discussion on the
backburner for now -- but I also wanted to voice my discomfort with the
notion that bigotry -- in whatever form it manifests itself in -- is
something people should simply agree to disagree about. To his credit,
Nabokov himself would have been the first one to reject this notion if
prejudices against homosexuals had fallen into his definition of "bigotry."
Unfortunately, I don't believe they did, for reasons that may be both
societal and personal. If they had, I have no doubt that people making
anti-gay jokes and statements would have been treated by him in the same
unambiguous way in which he treated people who in his presence tried to
make anti-Semitic remarks or cracks. No agreeing to disagree there.
On a different topic: Now that many more people have probably seen
_American Beauty_ than when we first started discussing it -- I would like
to hear more of the subscribers' opinions about the possible AB-LO
connection or the lack of such.
Galya Diment