Dear Andrew Brown,
I appreciate your
suggestion. Been there, done that. Friend Martin, in fact, was most encouraging
with regard to my stillborn novel.
I agree with much of what you say
about him. He, like other original and gifted artists, has in some instances
made himself vulnerable. His reactions to the paternal challenge were
perhaps facilitated because it is sometimes easier to question
and, on occasion, disagree than it is to admire greatly and, without
copying, emulate.
DN
----- Original Message -----
From:
Andrew Brown <mailto:as-brown@comcast.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 4:17
PM
Subject: Re: Dmitir Nabokov
responds to Dane Gill's
Mr.
Nabokov,
I would respectfully suggest you discuss your literary inclinations with Mr.
Martin Amis, who, I believe, you are friendly
with.
Personally, I have a high regard for Mr. Amis's work (while reserving the
qualification, with which I think both you and Martin would agree, that it is
not in the same league as your father's work), and he has examined with rare
insight the challenge of paternal literary influences in his own biographical
writings.
While elbowing my way into your attention, let me at least take the opportunity
to say that I am among that minority who believe, as I think you do, that
Martin's second biographical book Koba was a success (though flawed in places, I
think, since few writers hit home runs every time they step up to the plate),
and not the failure that so many modern critics have claimed it to
be.
Martin Amis is quite beleagured at the moment, at least in England, but I have
immense respect for him and believe that, in the long view of critical
apprehension, his work will stand up long after the current crop of magazine
scribblers have passed on into silent
obscurity.
Andrew Brown
----- Original Message
-----
From: D. Barton Johnson <mailto:chtodel@cox.net>
To:
NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 1:27
PM
Subject: Dmitir Nabokov responds to
Dane Gill's
----- Original Message
-----
From: Dmitri
Nabokov
Sent: Saturday, October 11,
2003 8:49 AM
Subject: reply to Dane
Gill
I would like to answer Dane Gill's
thoughtful questions.
I am sporadically assembling an
autobiography, which will include, if I ever get it finished, echoes of items
that have already been published here and there, and a good deal more. As
Dane Gill supposes, some personal thoughts and recollections will touch on my
father. As for a proper biography of VN, that task has been brilliantly
accomplished by Brian Boyd. Like many people, I have come face to face
with the prospect of creative writing. Here I cannot avoid a sense of enormous
challenge and responsibility. My father and I had a superb relationship, full of
modesty and humor on his part. While he never made it seem a daunting burden or
a filial obligation, he was pleased at the thought that I might write something
of my own, and even, on occasion, would suggest a plot or theme or offer
benevolent criticism. I had other wonderful teachers -- John Ciardi, for
example. But while my father was alive I had trouble writing on a mature level.
After his death, through some recondite process of inheritance, I succeeded in
composing a few short pieces -- essays, memoirs -- that more or less satisfied
me. As for creative writing, I completed an odd kind of novel that appealed to
some of my indulgent friends and that may have shown some promise, but that will
never be published. I have started something else, but stopped work on it after
a couple of chapters. I could put the blame on my busy and complex daily life,
but that is not a valid excuse (most people are busy). To be quite honest, while
I have faced many dangers, this is the one domain that truly intimidates
me.
Sincerely,
DN