Vladimir Nabokov

[StillILearn]

To everyone interested, including Kenny,
Hmm! It looks like there was a lot of discussion while I was sleeping!

It also looks like I got 'way too far out in front with my agreeableness to an overalll collected forum, when I now see that there is not a consensus on the matter. Please allow me to apologize if I offended anyone by suggesting we proceed without taking everyone's thoughts into account. As they say "It seemed like a good idea at the time," but I am now sorry.

However I have said enough, more like too much, and I think it more important to hear from anyone and everyone who is interested in how we proceed with Nabokov.

Unless I miss my count we need to at least hear from StillILearn. Still are you out there? Your thoughts would be appreciated by all of us I am sure.

Lurkers and mods with thoughts are welcome also I would think.
Peder

Edit: OOPS, I see she is right above me. Still, any thoughts?

What was the question?

I am reading Mary!

(Excuse me while I go put on some coffee -- and turn on some lights!)

 

[steffee]

No Peder, don't be sorry.

We all thought it was a good idea! We just (or I, actually, I can't speak for anyone else ) don't wanna tempt fate, or to quote Pontalba, "fix something that ain't broke".

It's still very much something to think about though... and anyway, we would need to get the mods to agree too

 

[StillILearn]

Ah. There we go. Good morning, Peder! Good morning steffee!

 

[StillILearn]

Oops, Peder got away. Probably went to Borders for coffee, I mean books!

Okie dokie then:

For me, I really like this thread the way it is, but that's because I know not what I want. Whatever is decided, I will be happy with, I'm just here to learn.

What Madeline said!

 

[steffee]

Morning Still, and everyone else

I'm actually starting to believe it's morning

I came home early to do housework... it's 2pm already, where's the day gone?

 

[Kenny Shovel]

So to quote from my original post:

Obv there is a downside, i.e. it might feel a bit cliquey and put some off...

...this appears to be the general feeling. Which seems a reasonable view to take. I shall follow how your Nabakov musings pan out, and post about 'Glory' as and when....

Please allow me to apologize if I offended anyone by suggesting we proceed without taking everyone's thoughts into account.

I blame the mustache, many great dictators had them, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Walt Disney...

Keep Nabbin'

K-S

 

[StillILearn]

So to quote from my original post:
...this appears to be the general feeling. Which seems a reasonable view to take. I shall follow how your Nabakov musings pan out, and post about 'Glory' as and when....


I blame the mustache, many great dictators had them, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Walt Disney...

Keep Nabbin'

K-S

Good morning, Kenny! I hope you'll be sticking around for the babble, I mean Nabble!

 

[Peder]

I blame the mustache, many great dictators had them, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Walt Disney...

Oh Kenny,
Laughing myself silly!
However, everyone should know that I no longer have that mustache (I can't even type that word without laughing again!) and, without any hair to speak of on top of my head either, I am completely weakened and have lost all my strength.

Re the collected forum. It sounds like the world is not ready for it yet and that, since there is not really a hurry, it can rest on the back burner for a while. The half-way solution of just an overall Nabokov category, with these and the other older fora all collected under that title, might be easier to think about and to mull over for a while.(Like the Harry Potter setup, and I never thought I would hear Nabokov and Harry Potter in the same sentence ) So I think at least that much good came out of this exercise, and we owe you our thanks for suggesting the idea. None of us can think of everything.

And the willingness to discuss Glory with you still stands, 1-on-1, or however many others would like to join in.

And, in case you are interested, he has a couple of 'political' novels which might well contain his rather sharp views about freedom and repression during the WWII/Cold War era he lived in. One of them I know does.

So don't be a stranger,
We're always glad to see you,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

It also looks like I got 'way too far out in front with my agreeableness to an overalll collected forum, when I now see that there is not a consensus on the matter. Please allow me to apologize if I offended anyone by suggesting we proceed without taking everyone's thoughts into account. As they say "It seemed like a good idea at the time," but I am now sorry.

No you did not. I tentatively agreed at the time as well, but the more I thought about it the more I disagreed, until I just had to say so.

Ping.

 

[pontalba]

Morning Still, and everyone else

I'm actually starting to believe it's morning

I came home early to do housework... it's 2pm already, where's the day gone?

So you are six hours ahead of me....and came home early to do housework? So I see..... Sounds like my kind of housework! But I must say, I was up until about 3 a.m. clearing this office out, and I am still not done.

 

[StillILearn]

Hullo, Peder. Glad I didn't permanently drive you away with my surly early behavior. I promise to begin to behave myself again sometime soon, and to return to being a worthy contributor to the Nobbie collective.

At present the pins are falling out of my hair into my soup.

 

[steffee]

So you are six hours ahead of me....and came home early to do housework? So I see..... Sounds like my kind of housework! But I must say, I was up until about 3 a.m. clearing this office out, and I am still not done.

I know, I need to get up from this chair really, but honestly, I have done the occasional five minutes of housework since I got home.

You're clearing space to hide your new and ever-increasing Nabokov stash?

 

[pontalba]

I know, I need to get up from this chair really, but honestly, I have done the occasional five minutes of housework since I got home.

You're clearing space to hide your new and ever-increasing Nabokov stash?

Amazing how papers can multiply in the night (somewhat like coat hangers) and gosh, in just 10 years, one is buried!

The computer room/office has a counter all along one wall with pull outs for a computer keyboard. It was like that when we moved in here. But I've only had the computer for about 5 years now. So it accumulated um, junk. Its taken me this long to really start clearing. Yes I started because of the shelving for not only Nabokov, but all my other TBR stacks.

You might say I tend to procrastinate a bit.

 

[Peder]

Hullo, Peder. Glad I didn't permanently drive you away with my surly early behavior. I promise to begin to behave myself again sometime soon, and to return to being a worthy contributor to the Nobbie collective.

At present the pins are falling out of my hair into my soup.

Still,
Sheesh, a guy gets tired and decides to get some sleep for once and guilty thoughts and rumors immediately start flying! I truly have to say I don't recall anything that you can possibly be talking about that would have come close to driving me away. After all, I now have all these books to read, and then have Pontalba and Breaca explain to me. BUt I'm hoping to do better on Pnin. Ya' can't lose 'em all -- I don't think. .
Peder

 

[steffee]

Pontalba, it's us...

Sorry everyone, but when you all come online, do go over to the crossword clues thread, and help me out. Please. Pretty please

 

[pontalba]

Pontalba, it's us...

Sorry everyone, but when you all come online, do go over to the crossword clues thread, and help me out. Please. Pretty please

Morning Y'all! No, I know its not really morning, I just feel like it should be. Great cartoon Steffee.

Sorry, I'm terrible at crosswords otherwise I'd be there.

 

[steffee]

Awww, no but it's really really good. I guarantee you'll love it.

Ok, I'll bring it here then....

It's a crossword on TBF members and such. My clue is...

She's oft inside a Nab plot (8)

 

[pontalba]

Thats probably the ONLY one I could guess!

Sorry, I've just been a bit under the weather today.

 

[steffee]

Thats probably the ONLY one I could guess!

Sorry, I've just been a bit under the weather today.

Awww, stop the tidying out the computer room and get yourself some rest.

Hope you feel better soon

 

[pontalba]

Strong Opinions

Since this was something we were discussing yesterday, I thought I'd post this short exerpt from SO Its on page 131

You have called yourself "an American writer, born in Russia and educated in England." How does this make you an American writer?
An American writer means, in the present case, a writer who has been an American citizen for a quarter of a century. It means, moreover, that all my works appear first in America. It also means that America is the only country where I feel mentally and emotionally at home. Rightly or wrongly, I am not one of those perfectionists who by dint of hypercriticizing America find themselves wallowing in the same muddy camp with indigenous rascals and envious foreign observers. My admiration for this adopted country of mine can easily survive the jolts and flaws that, indeed, are nothing in comparison to the abyss of evil in the history of Russia, not to speak of other, more exotic, countries.

Appeared in The New York Times, April 19, 1969. Interview by Alden Whitman.