Re: literary criticism

i agree he was a prolific critic. but i don't think
he had much respect for anyone's criticism except his
own.

the collected interviews with nabokov which he himself
put out are quite revealing .

especially delicious are his responses to critics'
assessments of his own work.

kim

--- James Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> I don't know -- Nabokov was a pretty prolific critic
> himself and his
> message about critics/criticism in _Pale Fire_
> seemed a bit, oh,
> ambivalent at worst. While the Russian critic was
> reinventing the
> American poem in his own image -- to the point where
> the author of the
> poem was literally sacrificed to save the critic --
> the American poem
> was about baseball and everyday life in America,
> while the Russian
> critic's poem was about a monarch in hiding,
> political intrigue,
> assasination attempts...the stuff that very
> interesting stories are made of.
>
> Fact is the critic's personal story was more
> interesting than the poet's.
>
> I wished he'd just found another way to tell it :).
>
> Jim
>
> Kim Johnson wrote:
>
> >i don't know the source, but agree with jim's
> >suggestion.
> >
> >nabokov--now there's a writer with utter disdain
> for
> >critics. (unless it's the case of 'eugene onegin'
> and
> >he himself is the man for the job.)
> >
> >kim
> >
> >--- James Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Heh...if it's not from Nabokov's _Pale Fire_ it
> sure
> >>as heck should be :)
> >>
> >>Jim
> >>
> >>John P Baumgardner wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>I haven't paid close enough attention to all of
> the
> >>>
> >>>
> >>postings here to use
> >>
> >>
> >>>this quote as a response, but it is undoubtedly
> >>>
> >>>
> >>relevant to that lengthy
> >>
> >>
> >>>conversation that transpired several weeks ago.
> I
> >>>
> >>>
> >>will not place the
> >>
> >>
> >>>source yet, but am very interested in how long it
> >>>
> >>>
> >>will take someone to
> >>
> >>
> >>>place it. I mostly desire to know how popular is
> >>>
> >>>
> >>this book which I am
> >>
> >>
> >>>currently enjoying.
> >>>
> >>>"In literary criticism the critic has no choice
> but
> >>>
> >>>
> >>to make over the victim
> >>
> >>
> >>>of his attention into something the size and
> shape
> >>>
> >>>
> >>of himself."
> >>
> >>
> >>>It is entirely more enjoyable in its context than
> >>>
> >>>
> >>by itself.
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>>And while I'm making a far less than frequent
> >>>
> >>>
> >>posting, I have another
> >>
> >>
> >>>thought. Pertaining to the "Franny and Zooey"
> >>>
> >>>
> >>conversation, I recently
> >>
> >>
> >>>read the jacket of the hardback (2nd Ed.) of F&Z.
>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>I was wondering who else
> >>
> >>
> >>>had access to this little letter from J.D.S. and
> >>>
> >>>
> >>how they feel it affects
> >>
> >>
> >>>the whole debate?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>J.P. Baumgardner
> >>>
> >>>-
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Received on Wed Dec 4 14:24:46 2002