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Re: What does VN rail against? (fwd)
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From: Stephen Schiff <schiff@echonyc.com>
In my screenplay for the new film version of Lolita, directed by Adrian
Lyne, Charlotte is showing her prospective lodger, Humbert, around the house
when she says to him, "Oh, and we've got Great Books on alternate Thursdays.
But I guess you probably know them all by heart."
I had forgotten the Great Books reference in the Kubrick film. In fact, I
was drawing from my own experience growing up in a small town in Colorado,
where my parents were avid members of the Great Books Society (pioneered, if
memory serves, by Mortimer J. Adler). And there was even a Junior Great
Books that I was dragooned into, however briefly. (I think it was there that
I first read Plato's Republic.)
In any case, I have been interested to see the effect on the publishing
industry of rampant book-clubbing in the American heartland. I rather think
that it has probably created a demand for books based on two extra-literary
criteria: their shortness and their availability in cheap, mass-market
paperback.
Stephen Schiff
-----Original Message-----
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, March 02, 1999 9:18 PM
Subject: Re: What does VN rail against? (fwd)
>From: Akiko Nakata <akikonakata@email.msn.com>
>
>
>
>>Is there not a passing reference in Lolita to
>>Charlotte's book-of-the-month club reading
>>habits?
>
>Yes, Humbert's first impression of Charlotte is: "She was, obviously, one
>of those women whose polished words may reflect a book club or bridge club,
>or any other deadly conventionality, but never her soul;..." (37)
>Later Humbert describes his wife, "Mrs. Haze, with her blind faith in the
>wisdom of her church and book club,..." (75-6)
>
>In Kubrick's film, Charlotte says to Humbert, "I am the chairman of the
>Great Books Committee. One of the speakers that I had the last season was
>Clare Quilty, the writer--TV plays--he gave us a talk on Dr. Schweitzer and
>Dr. Zhivago." In VN's screanplay, she is "a proud member of the country
>club" which had Professor Amy King talk to them on these two doctors. (36)
>
>Akiko Nakata
In my screenplay for the new film version of Lolita, directed by Adrian
Lyne, Charlotte is showing her prospective lodger, Humbert, around the house
when she says to him, "Oh, and we've got Great Books on alternate Thursdays.
But I guess you probably know them all by heart."
I had forgotten the Great Books reference in the Kubrick film. In fact, I
was drawing from my own experience growing up in a small town in Colorado,
where my parents were avid members of the Great Books Society (pioneered, if
memory serves, by Mortimer J. Adler). And there was even a Junior Great
Books that I was dragooned into, however briefly. (I think it was there that
I first read Plato's Republic.)
In any case, I have been interested to see the effect on the publishing
industry of rampant book-clubbing in the American heartland. I rather think
that it has probably created a demand for books based on two extra-literary
criteria: their shortness and their availability in cheap, mass-market
paperback.
Stephen Schiff
-----Original Message-----
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, March 02, 1999 9:18 PM
Subject: Re: What does VN rail against? (fwd)
>From: Akiko Nakata <akikonakata@email.msn.com>
>
>
>
>>Is there not a passing reference in Lolita to
>>Charlotte's book-of-the-month club reading
>>habits?
>
>Yes, Humbert's first impression of Charlotte is: "She was, obviously, one
>of those women whose polished words may reflect a book club or bridge club,
>or any other deadly conventionality, but never her soul;..." (37)
>Later Humbert describes his wife, "Mrs. Haze, with her blind faith in the
>wisdom of her church and book club,..." (75-6)
>
>In Kubrick's film, Charlotte says to Humbert, "I am the chairman of the
>Great Books Committee. One of the speakers that I had the last season was
>Clare Quilty, the writer--TV plays--he gave us a talk on Dr. Schweitzer and
>Dr. Zhivago." In VN's screanplay, she is "a proud member of the country
>club" which had Professor Amy King talk to them on these two doctors. (36)
>
>Akiko Nakata