----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri
Nabokov
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 9:14 AM
Subject: DN's reply to V.Mylnikov re article in DOMOVOY
Dear
Volodya,
Thanks for
noticing and posting those chronological errors. Alas, that is the least
of it. Some months ago the very kind and courteous Yana and Yuri
Zubtsov of Domovoy approached me for
an interview through my cousin
Michael Massalky. We agreed that, before they came to
Montreux, they would submit a small number of questions. Setting
other important matters aside, I promptly and attentively replied.
They said they were very happy with my answers. After a long and very agreeable
chat in Montreux, they sent me the proofs of their piece from Russia. I was
disappointed to find that, amid many valid or well-meant items, the things
I had written and said were often inaccurately reported, and abundantly
laced with extraneous and often incorrect information. Yuri was
terribly sorry, and only then explained that the issue had to go to press
immediately, and their article had largely been prepared in advance before their
departure for Montreux, and on the way there, on the basis of "research"
done beforehand. Apparently the visit to DN was but prestigious icing on
a hasty cake from a grab-bag of ingredients. A few last-minute changes
eliminated some of the worst blunders but left many inaccuracies. I have
maintained friendly relations with Yana and Yuri, because they were truly
nice and truly apologetic. But some axioms persist: As one learns in any
intelligence school, one must verify and weigh his sources. No matter how
nice, journalists cannot be fully trusted, unless one charges them an arm
and a leg for the interview, and demands approval of every word in advance.
"Research," in the journalistic context, is, predominantly a dirty word.
Case in point: the Domovoy article was full of misinformation
based on the indiscriminate consultation of materials that happened to
be about the Nabokovs. I shall give neither examples nor names, since
disagreement and criticism seem invariably to be
interpreted as ad hominem aggression, with homo,
contrary to the directives of correctspeak, encompassing
mulier. I would not mind so much, if all this spurious stuff did not
embed itself ever deeper, every time it is dignified by
printed or online publication, in the canon of Nabokoviana.
With cordial
regards,
DN