Re: Lolita's Story To Be Printed in US

Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 14:51:01 -0400 (EDT) 

It must be my vicarious excitement about Rick and Mirjam.  There's no other
possible explanation for the uncharacteristic behaviour that I'm about to
exhibit.  Who ever thought that me, myself and I would be contributing to a
Nabokov thread?  But here goes:





>Is anyone interested in reading this rip-off, er, I mean, book?
>
>--- Jim Rovira <jrovira@juno.com> wrote:






Frankly, I find it hard to believe that anybody in the world is interested
in reading the original.  It stinks!  (My sincere apologies for the use of
such elevated language to describe such a piece of dog pooh.... Why don't I
just come out and say what I really think?)

Give me Anna Karenina any day!  (....or, given the bowl within which we all
swim, "Si vous avez reellement envie d'entendre cette histoire, la premiere
chose que vous voudrez sans doute savoir c'est ou je suis ne, ce que fut mon
enfance pourrie et ce que faisaient mes parents et tout avant de m'avoir,
enfin toute cette salade a la David Copperfield, mais a vous parler
franchement je ne me sens guere dispose a entrer dans tout ca....")

Now, I know I'm probably stepping on a few tender dorsal fins, here in the
bananafish bowl.  And I hope it doesn't instantly brand me as some sort of
Yahoo.  But I found Lolita to be an offensive bore when I first read it
many, many years ago--around about the same time that Lindy Fast and I read
Terry Southern's Candy on the floor of Lindy's parents' house, while a wild
teenage party raged on around us.... But that's another story....

I hated the old movie.  You won't find me darkening the door of any cinema
that's screening the new one--despite Jeremy Irons' protestations that it's
'art'.... ('though I will defend to the death--well, not quite, but
almost--every cinema's right to show it!)

Read the Russians, for sure.  But forget these modern guys.  Nabokov is
almost embarassingly weak.  He couldn't pick up Dostoyevsky's quill pen if
he tried.  And Solzhenitzen is a joke in contemporary Russia.  Try Tolstoy!
Check out Chekov!!  Leave the literary creations of the Cold War out in the
cold, where they belong.

Cheers,

Paul


>> 
>> 
>> Lolita's Story To Be Printed in US
>> 
>> .c The Associated Press
>> 
>>  NEW YORK (AP) - A retelling of ``Lolita'' from the
>> nymphet's point of
>> view 
>> will be published in the United States under an
>> agreement with author 
>> Vladimir Nabokov's son, who had called the new book
>> a rip-off.
>> 
>> Under the deal with new publisher Foxrock Inc.,
>> Dmitri Nabokov will write
>> a 
>> preface, and author Pia Pera will write an afterword
>> to the
>> English-language 
>> U.S. edition. Both will receive 5 percent of
>> royalties from the edition,
>> The 
>> New York Times reported today.
>> 
>> In November, publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux had
>> settled a copyright 
>> infringement lawsuit filed by Dmitri Nabokov by
>> canceling plans to
>> publish 
>> ``Lo's Diary'' this summer.
>> 
>> The book, published in Italy and several other
>> countries, can now be 
>> published in Britain and is set for an October U.S.
>> publishing date.
>> 
>> The agreement also protects the copyright interests
>> of Dmitri Nabokov in
>> his 
>> late father's book, which has sold 50 million copies
>> in 20 languages.
>> 
>> But because there was no legal ruling, the question
>> of how far authors
>> can go 
>> in using characters and scenes created by others
>> remains unresolved.
>> 
>> In her book, Ms. Pera, 42, parodies Nabokov's story
>> of a middle-age
>> professor 
>> sexually obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, writing
>> the tale from the
>> child's 
>> point of view.
>> 
>> The lawsuit to block U.S. and British publication of
>> ``Lo's Diary'' was
>> filed 
>> in Manhattan federal court in October.
>> 
>> The suit claimed the book is ``inferior and
>> amateurish merchandise'' that
>> 
>> tarnishes the reputation of Nabokov's original work.
>> ``Lolita,''
>> published in 
>> the United States in 1955 by Random House, is
>> protected under copyright
>> until 
>> 2050.
>> 
>> AP-NY-06-17-99 0954EDT
>> 
>>  Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.  The
>> information  contained in the
>> AP 
>> news report may not be published,  broadcast,
>> rewritten or otherwise 
>> distributed without  prior written authority of The
>> Associated Press. 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> To edit your profile, go to keyword <A 
>> HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsProfiles
>> </A>.
>> For all of today's news, go to keyword <A
>> HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>.
>> 
>> --part1_495759bf.249a77b1_boundary--
>> --------- End forwarded message ----------
>> 
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>
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