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Old postings, old feuds, new translations
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A new translation of Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift is now for sale and it was arranged close to VN's new edition of his collected short-stories in one of our bookstores. It made me wonder about the relationship between those two writers [wiki reminder: Saul Bellow was born Solomon Bellows in Lachine, Quebec, two years after his parents, Lescha (née Gordin) and Abraham Bellows, emigrated from Saint Petersburg, Russia. (He changed his name in 1936.).Bellow celebrated his birthday in June, although he may have been born in July (in the Jewish community, it was customary to record the Hebrew date of birth, which does not always coincide with the Gregorian calendar) ].for I couldn't remember VN's "strong opinions" about Bellows. Internet resources gave me access to what's to be found in the VN-List and other online material, haphazardly selected.
Why not bring the subject up again?
VN-List, 2002:
"I wonder if one of Nabokov's objections to Bellow besides differing stylistic temperaments would not also include Bellow's penchant for the "philosophical" novel. Given Nabokov's distaste for other practitioners of the "philosophical" novel such as Camus, Sartre and Dostoevskii. In his STRONG OPINIONS, Nabokov was asked directly by an interviewer for his opinion of Saul Bellow's art, and the Maestro replied, "A puff of smoke."It's not that ideas don't matter to Nabokov. For instance, he greatly admired Bely's PETERSBURG which shows the influence of Bely's interest in theosophical and occult matters. However, Nabokov always asserted his preference for the supremacy of the author's style over any predeliction for moralising, pontificating or philosophying. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of taste. Note Nabokov's love of H.G.Wells' fantastic tales like THE TIME MACHINE (which he shared with another polymath, Jorge Luis Borges). On the other hand, a great writer and stylist like William Faulkner, whom I revere, Nabokov had no use for" - Alphonse Vinh." Bellow, to give him some voice in this discussion, disliked Nabokov's work because, he told me, "Nabokov makes a religion out of art." When I objected that this was simply a definition of romanticism, of which he himself was a practioner, Bellow replied with a twinkle, 'Yes, but I am more democratic'." - Priscilla https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;4657bb62.0202
Letters: Saul Bellow, edited by Benjamin Taylor
"... There is also a generous helping of contempt, the sine qua non of literary letters. To Cynthia Ozick, one of the few younger writers he admired, he wrote: "It gives me something less than pleasure to be listed with the Styrons, Vonneguts, Mailers." He acquiesces in a friend's description of John Updike as "an anti-Semitic pornographer" and doesn't much like Updike's chief outlet, the New Yorker [ ] There is not much love, either, for Gore Vidal ("a specialist in safe scandal"), George Steiner ("of all pains in the ass, the most unbearable"), or another of Steiner's eminent dissers, Vladimir Nabokov ("At his gruesome worst he pins feminine roses to simian bosoms")... "
NABOKOV'S DISMISSALS - Naben Ruthnum (2006)
"Vladimir Nabokov's talent for dismissing fellow writers led Saul Bellow to call him a "wicked wizard," a subtle alliterative pun on Nabokov's own description of Bellow as a "miserable mediocrity." Bellow's Nobel Prize did little to alter Nabokov's opinion. From Nabokov, a master of detail and prose, we'd expect long and elegant vivisections of the respected authors he tosses away, some of them longstanding canonical authors." http://www.doppelgangermagazine.com/june/naben_ruthnum.html
"Nabokov finds it easier to write critically than to praise, though he would love to write a glowing piece about J. D. Salinger. Not about Saul Bellow, perhaps. Nabokov did not like Bellow's most recent book.He rather likes Updike, though it was a mistake (he says) to make Bech Jewish; the result is that the clichés come out (explains Nabokov)." .http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-v-magician.html Israel Shenker,1971
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Why not bring the subject up again?
VN-List, 2002:
"I wonder if one of Nabokov's objections to Bellow besides differing stylistic temperaments would not also include Bellow's penchant for the "philosophical" novel. Given Nabokov's distaste for other practitioners of the "philosophical" novel such as Camus, Sartre and Dostoevskii. In his STRONG OPINIONS, Nabokov was asked directly by an interviewer for his opinion of Saul Bellow's art, and the Maestro replied, "A puff of smoke."It's not that ideas don't matter to Nabokov. For instance, he greatly admired Bely's PETERSBURG which shows the influence of Bely's interest in theosophical and occult matters. However, Nabokov always asserted his preference for the supremacy of the author's style over any predeliction for moralising, pontificating or philosophying. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of taste. Note Nabokov's love of H.G.Wells' fantastic tales like THE TIME MACHINE (which he shared with another polymath, Jorge Luis Borges). On the other hand, a great writer and stylist like William Faulkner, whom I revere, Nabokov had no use for" - Alphonse Vinh." Bellow, to give him some voice in this discussion, disliked Nabokov's work because, he told me, "Nabokov makes a religion out of art." When I objected that this was simply a definition of romanticism, of which he himself was a practioner, Bellow replied with a twinkle, 'Yes, but I am more democratic'." - Priscilla https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;4657bb62.0202
Letters: Saul Bellow, edited by Benjamin Taylor
"... There is also a generous helping of contempt, the sine qua non of literary letters. To Cynthia Ozick, one of the few younger writers he admired, he wrote: "It gives me something less than pleasure to be listed with the Styrons, Vonneguts, Mailers." He acquiesces in a friend's description of John Updike as "an anti-Semitic pornographer" and doesn't much like Updike's chief outlet, the New Yorker [ ] There is not much love, either, for Gore Vidal ("a specialist in safe scandal"), George Steiner ("of all pains in the ass, the most unbearable"), or another of Steiner's eminent dissers, Vladimir Nabokov ("At his gruesome worst he pins feminine roses to simian bosoms")... "
NABOKOV'S DISMISSALS - Naben Ruthnum (2006)
"Vladimir Nabokov's talent for dismissing fellow writers led Saul Bellow to call him a "wicked wizard," a subtle alliterative pun on Nabokov's own description of Bellow as a "miserable mediocrity." Bellow's Nobel Prize did little to alter Nabokov's opinion. From Nabokov, a master of detail and prose, we'd expect long and elegant vivisections of the respected authors he tosses away, some of them longstanding canonical authors." http://www.doppelgangermagazine.com/june/naben_ruthnum.html
"Nabokov finds it easier to write critically than to praise, though he would love to write a glowing piece about J. D. Salinger. Not about Saul Bellow, perhaps. Nabokov did not like Bellow's most recent book.He rather likes Updike, though it was a mistake (he says) to make Bech Jewish; the result is that the clichés come out (explains Nabokov)." .http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-v-magician.html Israel Shenker,1971
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/