EDNOTE. Alexey Sklyarenko, a translator/annotator of ADA  and the author of many proposed links between earlier literature and VN, offers his thoughts on the hypothesis suggested in the Maar article.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 3:33 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Zimmer am Maar

Dear Carolyn,
 
You heard your professor play an old gypsy tune that was used by Beethoven in one of his symphonies, but have you read the v. Lichberg story, I wonder? What is it that makes you think VN knew this story? I suspect were it not for the heroine's name, nobody would even have noticed the resemblance between the two Lolitas (girls, as well as works).
 
What strikes me about the whole plagiarism affair is VN's prophetical powers. In Ada, Nabokov's later novel, Lolita (or whatever was the title of the novel ascribed in Ada to Osberg, a Spanish writer) is plagiarized by the film director Yuzlik (almost an anagram of Russian zhulik, "petty thief," or "cheat") who steals the gitanilla sequence in his Don Juan's Last Fling film from Osberg's novel. Lolita is in it the name of a little Andalusian gypsy. So, I suggest VN has somehow foreseen not only the future accusation of plagiarism, but also your message to the List in which you mention a gypsy tune "stolen" by Beethoven.
 
Alexey     
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 10:29 PM
Subject: Fw: Zimmer am Maar

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 4:12 PM
Subject: Zimmer am Maar

Does one (do I?) dare to say this to the List?  Perhaps from a literary point of view there is no question of plagiarism, but legally? I wonder. Only a trial (and I do think there are grounds) would decide the question legally. I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.

Professor Zimmer writes

In the name of intertextuality [Maar] should have presented his nice find in a manner that would have prevented everybody but the boldest blockheads from getting it the wrong way. That is, he should not have emphasized the vague parallels between v.Lichberg's and Nabokov's "Lolita" without emphasizing the much greater differences, even as far as the basic plot is concerned.


"Nice find"? Surely it is more than that. "Vague parallels"? They really are more than that. Had Professor Zimmer himself made the "nice find" he could have treated it as he liked. But I don't think he is right to chide Mr Maar.

I think Michael Maar has made an important discovery and I think he has handled it very well, and I congratulate him on both counts.

I hope someone will take this seriously. It could lead to very important understanding of Nabokov's  genius.* Too bad that Professor Zimmer is so dismissive. I hope someone else with a good knowledge of German literature and Nabokov's work will do more research.

I hope I am not alone among the List members in congratulating Michael Maar on a really important find, handled very well indeed.

Carolyn

* The great student of gypsy life, Walter Starkie, heard a gypsy in the Balkans play the scrappy tune that he immediately recognized was the base original on which Beethoven created one of the glories of melody (opening of his 6th symphony). I heard Professor Starkie play that forgettable tune at UCLA many years ago, and it only lead me to appreciate Beethoven's genius more.