Nabokov

[caroljane]

I have a fondness for Vladimir, although I have only read a couple of his books and he is one of those "always mean to reread" authors for me. I like him only because one of his books was on my future husband's bookshelf when I first met him, and that impressed me enough to ...be impressed enough to..be impressed. You get the idea. It turned out that he had never read the book (it was left there by a previous tenant) but so what. Also on his bookshelf was Reginald Hill, whom he had read and who is a lot more entertaining.

My thoughts of Nabokov are prompted by Lolita being on TV just now (she looks so much like Reese Witherspoon!), and I am wondering if Ayn Rand ever commented on him - like her he was a Russian novelist who wrote in English, though I believe he learned his English as a child. I've never read any comments she made on any novelists she was contemporaneous with, come to think of it, except Mickey Spillane of course. Did she just ignore them all?

[9thdoctor]

Which version, Kubrick or Jeremy Irons? I didn’t find either satisfying. It’s a hell of a book.

Rand was dismissive of him in her Playboy interview. She was close friends with Nabokov’s younger sister when she lived in St. Petersburg.

[caroljane]

Which version, Kubrick or Jeremy Irons? I didn’t find either satisfying. It’s a hell of a book.

Rand was dismissive of him in her Playboy interview. She was close friends with Nabokov’s younger sister when she lived in St. Petersburg.

Kubrick. I like James Mason in anything, but I am not really paying attention. I haven't read the book. I read Ada and one other I forget the name of. I remember admiring his depth of language, but I didn't really "get" him.

[caroljane]

Which version, Kubrick or Jeremy Irons? I didn’t find either satisfying. It’s a hell of a book.

Rand was dismissive of him in her Playboy interview. She was close friends with Nabokov’s younger sister when she lived in St. Petersburg.

Dismissive does not surprise me. She was fluent in English, he was a master of it.That is, he wasted his writing in nonessentials, she would think. You do not need to be master of a language to express yourself clearly in it.

[9thdoctor]

The Jeremy Irons version is much more faithful to the book. For some reason I don't remember liking it enough, it's all a bit foggy.

[Reidy]

She actually admired him as a stylist but couldn't stand the content.

[caroljane]

The Jeremy Irons version is much more faithful to the book. For some reason I don't remember liking it enough, it's all a bit foggy.

Just saw the end - it was good, especially how much she looked like her mother in the later scenes. But I thought her acting was rotten. I didn't know there was a Jeremy Irons one, he is so good - is the Lolita better?

[9thdoctor]

I didn't know there was a Jeremy Irons one, he is so good - is the Lolita better?

I suppose, it's just so different, Kubrick had such greater constraints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBW77_n7l68

[caroljane]

I didn't know there was a Jeremy Irons one, he is so good - is the Lolita better?

I suppose, it's just so different, Kubrick had such greater constraints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBW77_n7l68

Sorry, I meant is the actress playing Lolita better than Sue Lyon.

[9thdoctor]

Sorry, I meant is the actress playing Lolita better than Sue Lyon.

Yeah, and that's what I meant by "I suppose". I haven't seen either in quite a while, and I reread the book in the interim. I don't remember having such a low opinion of Sue Lyon. Just doing a quick look on YouTube I find this, and she doesn't seem bad to me here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21NufZfEpuY

One thing I'm remembering though, and it applied to both versions, was that she didn't look right in her final scene. They just plopped some glasses on her nose to signify that she's now a bit older, and it wasn't convincing.

[caroljane]

Sorry, I meant is the actress playing Lolita better than Sue Lyon.

Yeah, and that's what I meant by "I suppose". I haven't seen either in quite a while, and I reread the book in the interim. I don't remember having such a low opinion of Sue Lyon. Just doing a quick look on YouTube I find this, and she doesn't seem bad to me here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21NufZfEpuY

One thing I'm remembering though, and it applied to both versions, was that she didn't look right in her final scene. They just plopped some glasses on her nose to signify that she's now a bit older, and it wasn't convincing.

Maybe it wasn't supposed to be convincing. She was still Lolita and would put on glasses to seem older, maybe even to herself.

[9thdoctor]

Lookee lookee...I've never even heard him speak before. Thomas Pynchon took his course at Cornell, and reportedly (a legend?) couldn't understand him because of his accent. Hearing this old Canadian program, I say compared to Rand his accent is not a problem at all.

[caroljane]

Lookee lookee...I've never even heard him speak before. Thomas Pynchon took his course at Cornell, and reportedly (a legend?) couldn't understand him because of his accent. Hearing this old Canadian program, I say compared to Rand his accent is not a problem at all.

Lookee lookee...I've never even heard him speak before. Thomas Pynchon took his course at Cornell, and reportedly (a legend?) couldn't understand him because of his accent. Hearing this old Canadian program, I say compared to Rand his accent is not a problem at all.

Wow. Where do you find this stuff? I can't evaluate the interview since it only emerges intermittently through the whirly things. I love the ambience of it though. See the literati looking all learned. See the author looking uncomfortable. Two on one. They don't do litcrit like they used to.

[9thdoctor]

Wow. Where do you find this stuff?

YouTube. I had to type in "Lolita" to get the clips earlier, and decided to go hunting for the final scene with Sue Lyon. So I found this, and then forgot about the Sue Lyon thing.

[9thdoctor]

BTW, you'll probably get a kick out of this:

http://thefloatingli.../08/24/granita/

Part of the joke is that the Italian translation of Lolita changed Humbert Humbert's name to Umberto Umberto.

[caroljane]

BTW, you'll probably get a kick out of this:

http://thefloatingli.../08/24/granita/

Part of the joke is that the Italian translation of Lolita changed Humbert Humbert's name to Umberto Umberto.

A kick! I laughed so hard I nearly choked. This is parody so great, so hilarious, that you don't even need to know what is being parodied. Sheer genius.

Adam note - Northern Italian references!

[Dennis Hardin]

The prior references to Rand’s comments about Nabokov in her Playboy interview were generally accurate but do not really convey the full impact of what she said . Here is the quote :

Rand : “I have read only one book of his and a half — the half was Lolita, which I couldn’t finish. He is a brilliant stylist, he writes beautifully, but his subjects, his sense of life, his view of man, are so evil that no amount of artistic skill can justify them.”

I think that’s an excellent example of admiring an artist’s skill but hating his works. Brilliant, beautiful, but irredeemably evil. Now that’s what I call being objective.

Here’s an article which attempts to show that they had much in common:

Nabokov, Ayn Rand, and Russian-American Literature or, the Odd Couple

[Ellen Stuttle]

I've never read any comments [Rand] made on any novelists she was contemporaneous with, come to think of it, except Mickey Spillane of course. Did she just ignore them all?

Some contemporary writers whose work Rand mentioned (partly) favorably in her own articles were Sinclair Lewis, John O'Hara, Ira Levin and Rod Serling.

According to John Hopsers' report in his 1990 Liberty "Memoir: Conversations with Ayn Rand," Rand thought Isak Dinesen was "the greatest prose artist of the twentieth century."

Here's the segment which mentions Dinesen -- and Shakespeare:

I found it incomprehensible that she didn't much like Shakespeare. But I could not disagree with her judgment when I asked her who she thought was the greatest prose artist of the twentieth century. She said "Isak Dinesen." She didn't like Dinesen's sense of life, but thought her a superlative stylist--a judgment in which I concurred. On a subsequent occasion when I brought a copy of Out of Africa and read her a page from it, she was positively glowing. She disliked Dinesen's pessimism, but loved the economy of means and the always-just-right word selection. When Ayn and I both admired the same work, and compared our reactions to it and the reasons for our admiration--that was a high point of our friendship. During these conversations the rest of the world was left far behind; nothing mattered but our experiences of these works of art. We held them up to the light, slowly rotating them to exhibit their various facets, like precious jewels. Ayn was all aglow when our reactions struck common ground; she was no jaded critic, but had the spontaneous enthusiasm of a little girl, unspoiled by the terminology of sophistication. Even today I treasure these moments, and can hardly think of them without inducing the tearducts to flow just a little.

That passage comes from a series of three posts quoting from Hospers' "Memoir" about his discussions with Rand pertaining to aesthetics.

I posted other segments from the "Memoir" on varied other threads. You can find the complete set of excerpts by searching my posts on the words "Hospers memoir Liberty" (without the quote marks, and be sure to click "as posts" at the bottom of the search screen). Here's a link which is currently working to the second page of the search results. (The link to the first page only brings up a search screen.)

I just spent about an hour reading through the 27 posts and some of the context on the original threads. The material pertaining to Rand's and Hospers' conversations is among the most interesting to me of all the discussions of Rand which have transpired on OL. I feel that the way Hospers describes those conversations brings them so vividly alive.

Re Nabokov, have you tried Pale Fire? I think you'd enjoy that, given your own facility with language. It's serious-comedic. The Dictionary take-off starts me laughing even thinking of it.

Ellen

[caroljane]

I've never read any comments [Rand] made on any novelists she was contemporaneous with, come to think of it, except Mickey Spillane of course. Did she just ignore them all?

Some contemporary writers whose work Rand mentioned (partly) favorably in her own articles were Sinclair Lewis, John O'Hara, Ira Levin and Rod Serling.

According to John Hopsers' report in his 1990 Liberty "Memoir: Conversations with Ayn Rand," Rand thought Isak Dinesen was "the greatest prose artist of the twentieth century."

Here's the segment which mentions Dinesen -- and Shakespeare:

I found it incomprehensible that she didn't much like Shakespeare. But I could not disagree with her judgment when I asked her who she thought was the greatest prose artist of the twentieth century. She said "Isak Dinesen." She didn't like Dinesen's sense of life, but thought her a superlative stylist--a judgment in which I concurred. On a subsequent occasion when I brought a copy of Out of Africa and read her a page from it, she was positively glowing. She disliked Dinesen's pessimism, but loved the economy of means and the always-just-right word selection. When Ayn and I both admired the same work, and compared our reactions to it and the reasons for our admiration--that was a high point of our friendship. During these conversations the rest of the world was left far behind; nothing mattered but our experiences of these works of art. We held them up to the light, slowly rotating them to exhibit their various facets, like precious jewels. Ayn was all aglow when our reactions struck common ground; she was no jaded critic, but had the spontaneous enthusiasm of a little girl, unspoiled by the terminology of sophistication. Even today I treasure these moments, and can hardly think of them without inducing the tearducts to flow just a little.

That passage comes from a series of three posts quoting from Hospers' "Memoir" about his discussions with Rand pertaining to aesthetics.

I posted other segments from the "Memoir" on varied other threads. You can find the complete set of excerpts by searching my posts on the words "Hospers memoir Liberty" (without the quote marks, and be sure to click "as posts" at the bottom of the search screen). Here's a link which is currently working to the second page of the search results. (The link to the first page only brings up a search screen.)

I just spent about an hour reading through the 27 posts and some of the context on the original threads. The material pertaining to Rand's and Hospers' conversations is among the most interesting to me of all the discussions of Rand which have transpired on OL. I feel that the way Hospers describes those conversations brings them so vividly alive.

Re Nabokov, have you tried Pale Fire? I think you'd enjoy that, given your own facility with language. It's serious-comedic. The Dictionary take-off starts me laughing even thinking of it.

Ellen

Many thanks Ellen. I too admire Lewis and O'Hara, I think I have read all their books. Amazing how many points of agreement I have found with AR! Well, four so far.

I will get Pale Fire when I finish my Alongside Night assignment - to me reading a novel online is not the same as really reading, somehow, and prejudices me against the work.