Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014458, Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:44:56 +0100

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From LOLITA to PALE FIRE or the Faunification of a Nymphet
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VN & Hogg, doubles & paraheliaA while ago there was a discussion about the
veracity of VN's claim that one reader suggested that his firm might
consider publication if VN turned his Lolita into a 12 year old lad.
Recently I read Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the
Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (NY: Simon & Schuster
1998) and I was struck by the following (the note is mine):

"[Bert]Schneider [a producer] had a book called Obsession, which Godard had
earlier made into Pierrot le Fou*. It was about the relationship between an
older man and a teenage girl, a subject of more than routine interest to
Bert."

At the eleventh hour the movie was cancelled by Barry Diller [executive].

"Schneider sent Blauner, who always did Bert's dirty work. Blauner walked
into Diller's office, remonstrated, said, "How could you do this? Come in
now, after a year's work, say, 'Who cares about an older man with a younger
woman?' So fine, we'll make it an older man with a younger boy! Now do you
understand?" Page 397. The picture was of course never made. Eventually, VN
did turn his nymphet, or rather the concept, into a faunlet in Pale Fire.

*Pierrot le Fou, 1965 writ. and dir. Jean-Luc Godard (based on the novel
Obsession by Lionel White) cine. Raoul Coutard star. Jean-Paul Belmondo
(Pierrot/Ferdinand), Anna Karina (Marianne)

A. Bouazza.


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