Content-Type: message/rfc822 Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 06:15:08 -0400 From: "pndale" To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" Subject: R: [NABOKV-L] greatest novel of all is lost out there ... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=__PartDAFF5FBC.1__=" --=__PartDAFF5FBC.1__= Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=__PartDAFF5FBC.2__=" --=__PartDAFF5FBC.2__= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable 'One Japanese writer, Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), wanted to be a great = novelist. He was said to have destroyed his entire collection of haiku - = thousands of them. He was the most prolific haiku composer of all time - = penning an average of 17 a minute or a staggering 1,600 a day.' This is somewhat sketchy, and confuses several distinct incidents. The = anecdote relates to just one of many occasions where Saikaku demonstrated = his extraordinarily fluent capacity to extemporize haikai. Specifically he = composed the 1,600 verses in a roughly 24 hour compositional gig, called a = 'yakazu haikai' ('arrow-number' i.e. darting and redarting the bull's-eye = haiku') in 1677. However this was nothing compared to his effort in his = prime, aged 43, at the Sumiyoshi shrine in Osaka on the 5th of June 1684, = where he notched up 23,500 verses, so rapidly no one could record them. (a = little over 16 a minute non-stop for a 24 hour period). The scribes = resigned themselves simply to tallying the progressive total.' (Saikaku-shu= , ed.Itasaka Gen et al.Iwanami Koten Bungaku Taikei, Tokyo 1957 vol.1 = pp.10-11)=20 Peter Dale ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Sandy P. Klein=20 To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU=20 Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 6:56 PM Subject: [NABOKV-L] greatest novel of all is lost out there ... =20 http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Saturday/Columns/20060729075102/Ar= ticle/index_html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= --- Point Blank: The greatest novel of all is lost out there By Johan Jaaffar 30 July, 2006 "LOLITA, light of my life, fire of my loins," is the famous first line = of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, considered by many as "sheer pornograph= y" when it first appeared in 1955. Others begged to differ. One critic = hailed it as "the supreme novel of love in the 20th century". Whatever = one's opinion about the novel, "Lolita" has entered the lexicon to mean an = interest in young girls or a sexual attraction that borders on paedophilia.= Daniel S. Burt, the compiler of The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest = Novels of All Time placed it at No. 47. Lolita has never failed to anger, = awe and devastate its readers after these many years. According to legend, Nabokov was so distraught after finishing Lolita, = he almost burned it. Perhaps his guilt is best illustrated by these lines, = written much later in Poems and Problems: "What evil I have committed? = Seducer, criminal - is this the word for me who set the entire world = a-dreaming of my poor little girl?"=20 He was not alone. Many great writers who had laboured many years to put = their best work together, eventually destroyed the scripts or simply lost = them. Would you believe that Elizabeth Hadley, Ernest Hemingway's first wife, = lost a bag carrying his precious manuscripts?=20 All his earlier works were in the bag Hadley carried on the way to = Lausanne, Switzerland in 1922. Only two of his early works survived, one = of which, "My Old Man", he kept with a friend. The other manuscript was = "Up in Michigan", which he left in a drawer after it was rejected by a = publisher. "My Old Man" is not The Old Man and The Sea, the novel that is = very much associated with Hemingway. This short story was published in = 1924 as an anthology, The Book of the American Short Story, edited by = Edward J. O'Brien. "Up in Michigan" was published in 1938, even though it was written in = 1922. The literary value of the lost manuscripts is not quantifiable.=20 Gustave Flaubert, of Madame Bovary fame, buried boxes of papers in his = garden in 1871. What were those manuscripts? Why did he do that? Madame = Bovary was completed in 1856 and published the following year. It was = years later when he decided to bury the papers believed to be complete = literary works. Could it be that he felt no other work could surpass = Madame Bovary? Did he destroy inferior works? The debate on the tragedy of literature lost is interesting. How many of = the great writers lost their works due to negligence, natural catastrophe = or plain carelessness?=20 Shakespeare was said to have written a play called Love's Labours Won = but lost it when many of his better known plays became hits during the = Elizabethan era. One Japanese writer, Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), wanted to be a great = novelist. He was said to have destroyed his entire collection of haiku - = thousands of them. He was the most prolific haiku composer of all time - = penning an average of 17 a minute or a staggering 1,600 a day. He had no = qualms destroying the haiku, but he was never considered Japan's best-known= novelist. Then there was Agathon (457-402 BC), a friend of the great dramatist = Euripides. He was a prolific bloke, churning original plays, while others = were adapting myths and legends. He was mentioned by Aristophanes and Aristotle. Yet, none of his plays = survived. Homer was said to have written a "comic epic" but there are no traces of = it. Homer is better known as the author of The Odyssey and The Iliad; both = epics contain 27,803 lines. The dramatist Aeschylus was said to have = written 80 plays, but the world only has access to seven. There are only = seven Sophocles plays from at least 120. Euripides wrote 90 plays, but = only 18 survived. You can read about these incredible stories in Stuart Kelly's The Book = of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All Great Books You will Never = Read. Kelly is a literary sleuth who combed the literary wilderness for clues = and evidence of great works lost. It is a must-read for those interested = in the drama of lost literature - or more precisely, non-existent = literature. After all, someone claimed, the best works of literature are = never written; or in these cases, never published.=20 So, the excuse is made palatable: It is not that one did not write it, = but somehow did not get published. Or better still, it did not get = published because it was lost. In the time before typewriters and = computers, authors would have had to painstakingly rewrite their work for = another copy. What a waste of time. The early Greek dramatists certainly did not have the luxury of doing = that. So, too the great pujangga, writers and philosophers of the Malay = courts of old. The legend of Flor De La Mar (Flower Of The Seas) illustrate= s how thousands of Malay works of literature got lost in the sea.=20 In December 1511, after successfully invading Malacca, one of the = fighting galleons sailed home to Portugal. Somewhere along the Straits of = Malacca, the ship sank with its priceless cargo - Malay manuscripts and = other spoils of war. What was lost on the ship that day is a riddle that = has yet to be solved, 500 years later.=20 If written scripts of La Galigo had not landed in major libraries in = Europe, the greatest Bugis epic would have been lost forever. It is said = to be the longest poem ever written by man; at 300,000 lines, it makes The = Odyssey, The Iliad, Ramayana and Mahabharata "short" in comparison. What = else did we miss? Perhaps somewhere out there lies a work of literature = that will never resurface - perhaps the greatest novel of all time. What a = tragedy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= --- Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB Contact the Editors All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by = both co-editors.=20 Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel= @cox.net Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm --=__PartDAFF5FBC.2__= Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Description: HTML
'One Japanese writer, Ihara Saikaku = (1642-93),=20 wanted to be a great novelist. He was said to have destroyed his entire=20 collection of haiku — thousands of them. He was the most prolific = haiku composer=20 of all time — penning an average of 17 a minute or a staggering = 1,600 a=20 day.'
 
This is somewhat sketchy, and confuses = several=20 distinct incidents. The anecdote relates to just one of many occasions = where=20 Saikaku demonstrated his extraordinarily fluent capacity to extemporize = haikai.=20 Specifically he composed the 1,600 verses in a roughly 24 hour compositiona= l=20 gig, called a 'yakazu haikai' ('arrow-number' i.e. darting and = redarting=20 the bull's-eye haiku') in 1677. However this was nothing compared to his = effort=20 in his prime, aged 43, at the Sumiyoshi shrine in Osaka on the 5th of = June =20 1684, where he notched up 23,500 verses, so rapidly no one could record = them. (a=20 little over 16 a minute non-stop for a 24 hour period). The scribes = resigned=20 themselves simply to tallying the progressive total.' (Saikaku-shu, = ed.Itasaka=20 Gen et al.Iwanami Koten Bungaku Taikei, Tokyo 1957 vol.1 pp.10-11) =
 
Peter Dale
----- Original Message -----
Fro= m:=20 Sa= ndy P.=20 Klein
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 = 6:56=20 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] greatest = novel of all=20 is lost out there ...

 
 
=20
 
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Saturday/Columns/= 20060729075102/Article/index_html

Point Blank: The greatest novel of all is lost out there

<= A=20 class=3Dcontent>
By Johan Jaaffar

30 July, 2006

"LOLITA, light of my life, fire of my loins," is = the=20 famous first line of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, = considered by=20 many as "sheer pornography" when it first appeared in 1955. Others = begged to=20 differ. One critic hailed it as "the supreme novel of love in the = 20th=20 century". Whatever one’s opinion about the novel, "Lolita" has = entered the=20 lexicon to mean an interest in young girls or a sexual attraction that = borders=20 on paedophilia. Daniel S. Burt, the compiler of The Novel 100: A Ranking = of=20 the Greatest Novels of All Time placed it at No. 47. Lolita has never = failed=20 to anger, awe and devastate its readers after these many=20 years.

According to legend, Nabokov was so distraught after = finishing=20 Lolita, he almost burned it. Perhaps his guilt is best illustrated by = these=20 lines, written much later in Poems and Problems: "What evil I have = committed?=20 Seducer, criminal — is this the word for me who set the entire = world=20 a-dreaming of my poor little girl?"

He was not alone. Many = great=20 writers who had laboured many years to put their best work together,=20 eventually destroyed the scripts or simply lost them.

Would you = believe=20 that Elizabeth Hadley, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, lost a bag = carrying his=20 precious manuscripts?

All his earlier works were in the bag = Hadley=20 carried on the way to Lausanne, Switzerland in 1922. Only two of his = early=20 works survived, one of which, "My Old Man", he kept with a friend. The = other=20 manuscript was "Up in Michigan", which he left in a drawer after it = was=20 rejected by a publisher. "My Old Man" is not The Old Man and The Sea, = the=20 novel that is very much associated with Hemingway. This short story = was=20 published in 1924 as an anthology, The Book of the American Short = Story,=20 edited by Edward J. O’Brien.

"Up in Michigan" was published = in 1938,=20 even though it was written in 1922. The literary value of the lost = manuscripts=20 is not quantifiable.

Gustave Flaubert, of Madame Bovary fame, = buried=20 boxes of papers in his garden in 1871. What were those manuscripts? Why = did he=20 do that? Madame Bovary was completed in 1856 and published the following = year.=20 It was years later when he decided to bury the papers believed to be = complete=20 literary works. Could it be that he felt no other work could surpass = Madame=20 Bovary? Did he destroy inferior works?

The debate on the tragedy = of=20 literature lost is interesting. How many of the great writers lost their = works=20 due to negligence, natural catastrophe or plain carelessness?=20

Shakespeare was said to have written a play called Love’s = Labours Won=20 but lost it when many of his better known plays became hits during = the=20 Elizabethan era.

One Japanese writer, Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), = wanted=20 to be a great novelist. He was said to have destroyed his entire = collection of=20 haiku — thousands of them. He was the most prolific haiku composer = of all time=20 — penning an average of 17 a minute or a staggering 1,600 a day. = He had no=20 qualms destroying the haiku, but he was never considered Japan’s = best-known=20 novelist.

Then there was Agathon (457-402 BC), a friend of the = great=20 dramatist Euripides. He was a prolific bloke, churning original plays, = while=20 others were adapting myths and legends.

He was mentioned by=20 Aristophanes and Aristotle. Yet, none of his plays survived.

Homer= was=20 said to have written a "comic epic" but there are no traces of it. Homer = is=20 better known as the author of The Odyssey and The Iliad; both epics = contain=20 27,803 lines. The dramatist Aeschylus was said to have written 80 plays, = but=20 the world only has access to seven. There are only seven Sophocles plays = from=20 at least 120. Euripides wrote 90 plays, but only 18 survived.

You = can=20 read about these incredible stories in Stuart Kelly’s The Book of = Lost Books:=20 An Incomplete History of All Great Books You will Never Read.

Kell= y is=20 a literary sleuth who combed the literary wilderness for clues and = evidence of=20 great works lost. It is a must-read for those interested in the drama of = lost=20 literature — or more precisely, non-existent literature. After = all, someone=20 claimed, the best works of literature are never written; or in these = cases,=20 never published.

So, the excuse is made palatable: It is not = that one=20 did not write it, but somehow did not get published. Or better still, it = did=20 not get published because it was lost. In the time before typewriters = and=20 computers, authors would have had to painstakingly rewrite their work = for=20 another copy. What a waste of time.

The early Greek dramatists=20 certainly did not have the luxury of doing that. So, too the great = pujangga,=20 writers and philosophers of the Malay courts of old. The legend of Flor = De La=20 Mar (Flower Of The Seas) illustrates how thousands of Malay works of=20 literature got lost in the sea.

In December 1511, after = successfully=20 invading Malacca, one of the fighting galleons sailed home to = Portugal.=20 Somewhere along the Straits of Malacca, the ship sank with its priceless = cargo=20 — Malay manuscripts and other spoils of war. What was lost on the = ship that=20 day is a riddle that has yet to be solved, 500 years later.

If = written=20 scripts of La Galigo had not landed in major libraries in Europe, the = greatest=20 Bugis epic would have been lost forever. It is said to be the longest = poem=20 ever written by man; at 300,000 lines, it makes The Odyssey, The = Iliad,=20 Ramayana and Mahabharata "short" in comparison. What else did we miss? = Perhaps=20 somewhere out there lies a work of literature that will never resurface = —=20 perhaps the greatest novel of all time. What a tragedy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Search the Nabokv-L archive = at=20 UCSB

C= ontact=20 the Editors

All private editorial communications, without = exception,=20 are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

Se= arch the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Co= ntact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Vi= sit Zembla

View = Nabokv-L Policies

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies

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