Would turnabout be fair play? It is amusing to try to imagine a Nabokovian dismissal of Nabokov himself, and uncritical criticism can have its points, as SB remarks. However, if lacking humour or irony, such dismissals tend to be antithetical to creativity and community.

On the other hand "critical criticism" of the "Titans" can be bracing, as exemplified say by Shaw on Shakespeare or I.F. Stone on Plato and Socrates or Nabokov on Cervantes. And there is such a thing as implied criticism.

The pleasure we take in put-downs is curious. When a reactionary nut like Dostoyevsky (forgive me Fyodor Mikhailovich, I'm just having some fun at your expense) lampoons a saint like Chernyshevsky, the result can still be hilarious. (Though the laughter breaks when you remember what that fearless abolitionist subsequently suffered at the hands of the Tsar.)

Walter Miale