Subject
Ada as a Difficult Book
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The writer refers to _Ada_ as Nabokov's last, which seems incorrect but
a second reading suggests that he's calling _Ada_ Nabokov's last "major
edifices... erected in English."
Sent to you by Fulmerford via Google Reader: Ada as a Difficult Book
via nabolog by fulmerford on 1/28/10
Lawrence Weschler has observed, astutely, that writers tend to move
from Romanesque to Gothic. The early work will be thick, solid, even
heavy; only with decades of experience does the writer learn to chisel
away excess, as the builders of Notre Dame did: to let in the light. In
the case ofVladimir Nabokov, however, the converse seems to obtain. Of
the major edifices he erected in English, his last, Ada, or Ardor: A
Family Chronicle(1969), is his most excessive, both in its difficulty
and in the pleasures it affords the (re)reader.The rest at The
Millions. (Reminds me of the line in Wonder Boys: "It's that kind of a
book. Like Ada, you know, or Gravity's Rainbow. It teaches you how to
read it as you go along")
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a second reading suggests that he's calling _Ada_ Nabokov's last "major
edifices... erected in English."
Sent to you by Fulmerford via Google Reader: Ada as a Difficult Book
via nabolog by fulmerford on 1/28/10
Lawrence Weschler has observed, astutely, that writers tend to move
from Romanesque to Gothic. The early work will be thick, solid, even
heavy; only with decades of experience does the writer learn to chisel
away excess, as the builders of Notre Dame did: to let in the light. In
the case ofVladimir Nabokov, however, the converse seems to obtain. Of
the major edifices he erected in English, his last, Ada, or Ardor: A
Family Chronicle(1969), is his most excessive, both in its difficulty
and in the pleasures it affords the (re)reader.The rest at The
Millions. (Reminds me of the line in Wonder Boys: "It's that kind of a
book. Like Ada, you know, or Gravity's Rainbow. It teaches you how to
read it as you go along")
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to nabolog using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/