dagblog - Comments for "Laura enters my life"

I'd jump right in with

acanuck — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:54:51 +0000

In reply to Out of curiosity, what would

I'd jump right in with Lolita. If you decide you're not really a Nabokov fan, you'll at least have read a great book. Cleanse your palate with a few short stories if you like, but you're now probably primed to appreciate Pale Fire. If you haven't abandoned the program at that point, read Speak, Memory. Then everything else in whatever order you like, leaving Laura for very last.

Out of curiosity, what would

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:56:14 +0000

In reply to I might as well wrap this

Out of curiosity, what would you suggest as a starting point? I have my own suggestions, but would love to hear yours.

I don't think so. I know

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:54:24 +0000

In reply to Is that a condition related

I don't think so. I know another synaesthete who isn't anywhere near the autism/Asperger's spectrum. (She and Nabokov perceive individual letters of the alphabet as having their own colors.)

FWIW, what Nabokov said to the interview question about what language he thought in was somthing to the effect that he thought in a surf of images, from which words churned up like foam. But he was very disingenuous with interviewers, so that should be taken with a good helping of salt.

Is that a condition related

Orlando — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:47:35 +0000

In reply to For what it's worth, Nabokov

Is that a condition related to autism? Do you think Nabokov had Asberger's?

For what it's worth, Nabokov

acanuck — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:58:00 +0000

In reply to Dunno. That's what he said.

For what it's worth, Nabokov was a synesthete -- he perceived individual letters and numbers as specific colors. (There are a lot more people with this ability or affliction than most of us realize.) I'm not sure how that affected whether Nabokov thought in words or not.

Dunno. That's what he said.

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:26:55 +0000

In reply to How can a writer not think in

Dunno. That's what he said.

How can a writer not think in

Orlando — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:51:35 +0000

In reply to No, he didn't. He was asked

How can a writer not think in words?

No, he didn't. He was asked

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:37:49 +0000

In reply to Sure, but he thought it in

No, he didn't. He was asked about this in interviews.

Nabokov was raised trilingual. His first words were in English. He spoke English and Russian until he was five, when he began speaking French, too. (Most pre-Revolution Russian aristocrats were bilingual in French and Russian; VN's father was a devoted Anglophile who made sure his children were raised speaking English, too.)

In interviews he claimed not to think in words at all, which is a stretch, but he does seem to have thought in a mishmash of the three languages. Ada, on one level, is his attempt to create a trilingual Anglo-Russo-Francophone world which would be his natural paradise.

I might as well wrap this

acanuck — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:26:47 +0000

In reply to Laura enters my life

I might as well wrap this post up with a mini-review. The Original of Laura is a letdown, clearly the work of a great writer in decline. Nabokov's subtitle was Dying Is Fun. The approach of death plays a major role in it, but it's not as much fun as advertised.

I'd also dispute Dmitri's decision to call it "a novel in fragments." It is, at best, a fragment of a novel -- a short, disjointed fragment. I calculate it at about 15,000 words -- the length of a longish short story. But it doesn't work as a short story: it barely has time to introduce its characters, much less tell us a coherent story about them.

I'm content to add the book to my library (even though it's much less than I had hoped). But I do worry about those for whom this will be their entry point to Nabokov: they are not going to feel driven to find out what the fuss is about his incomparable earlier work.

Maybe I've mentioned it

Nebton — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:54:34 +0000

In reply to Which at least one Russian

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but you haven't seen Karate Kid II until you've seen it in the original German.