Peder
Well-Known Member
Poshlost'
Finally, the thought of a paragraph that I noticed especially in reading Glory has come back to the surface of my memory. Martin has been touring Molignac and speaking with various people there (p.162).
Poshlost - NYT review "Waiting for Gogol"
And the meaning of which would be further elaborated in considerable detail by Nabokov in an interview in 1967,
Poshlost - Paris Review interview by Gold
In the meantime, the word came to prominence in connection with Lolita, when Nabokov referred to "philistine vulgarity" in his afterword, "On a Book Entitled Lolita," in 1956, and Appel then made the reference clearly explicit in his Introduction (p.xlviii), 1991, as "an amalgam of pretentiousness and philistine vulgarity."
All of this is by way of background for mentioning a web page (which I can't now find in my favorites) which stated that poshlost' was the second term brought into the English language by Nabokov, to be forever associated with his name -- the first of course being nymphet.
Therefore, it is all the more surprisiing to find it mentioned, as if casually, in Glory, in 1932, twelve years before its appearance in connection with VN's discussion of Gogol, and twenty some odd years before the fame of Lolita. One has to conclude, apparently, that poshlost' was a concept that provided a continual background for his writing, even if it might have the appearance of a clue buried deeply and mischievously in Glory that was waiting for decades to be discovered by some reader.
Neverthelss, I found it indeed startling to see the word mentioned in Glory, after having become so familiar with it in connection with Lolita and in various forums in which Lolita has been discussed.
One man's reaction,
Peder
Finally, the thought of a paragraph that I noticed especially in reading Glory has come back to the surface of my memory. Martin has been touring Molignac and speaking with various people there (p.162).
Yes, "...the various meanings of some special term, say poshlost'." Not just any random term does Nabokov choose here in Glory, but poshlost', a word that would appear prominently in his discussion of Gogol in 1944, according to what we can read here,
Poshlost - NYT review "Waiting for Gogol"
And the meaning of which would be further elaborated in considerable detail by Nabokov in an interview in 1967,
Poshlost - Paris Review interview by Gold
In the meantime, the word came to prominence in connection with Lolita, when Nabokov referred to "philistine vulgarity" in his afterword, "On a Book Entitled Lolita," in 1956, and Appel then made the reference clearly explicit in his Introduction (p.xlviii), 1991, as "an amalgam of pretentiousness and philistine vulgarity."
All of this is by way of background for mentioning a web page (which I can't now find in my favorites) which stated that poshlost' was the second term brought into the English language by Nabokov, to be forever associated with his name -- the first of course being nymphet.
Therefore, it is all the more surprisiing to find it mentioned, as if casually, in Glory, in 1932, twelve years before its appearance in connection with VN's discussion of Gogol, and twenty some odd years before the fame of Lolita. One has to conclude, apparently, that poshlost' was a concept that provided a continual background for his writing, even if it might have the appearance of a clue buried deeply and mischievously in Glory that was waiting for decades to be discovered by some reader.
Neverthelss, I found it indeed startling to see the word mentioned in Glory, after having become so familiar with it in connection with Lolita and in various forums in which Lolita has been discussed.
One man's reaction,
Peder
