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Fw: Linguistic showoffs
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----- Original Message -----
From: George Shimanovich
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: Linguistic showoffs
And what exactly Jancy Berdt de Souza Mello (that's a very long name!) and David Morris have said of substance to illustrate the subject of this thread? It does not make the difference who asks for specific illustrations - DN or anybody else. If Jancy and David did not hesitate to demagogue the topic they should not blame anybody else for not playing along.
For me reading Nabokov is always an educational experience. His later works, especially 'Ada', are so full of cultural references, language nuances that require a good dictionary, an effort and time. I like being brought up to the new level with each new reading and I am thankful for the hurdles left for me to surmount - in end result they make me a better runner, reader. Consider it reading with hurdles.
- George Shimanovich
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:51 PM
Subject: Fw: Linguistic showoffs
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
Although I quite often enjoy reading what DN has to say and his help is invaluable when we are looking for certain factual or historical clarifications, also when we read wonderful personal tidbits, I still think it gauche when he comes in as a white knight in defense of his father while apparently taking himself as the highest authority on Vladimir Nabokov. The Nabokv-L is a "forum", is it not?
Those that intensely dislike VN should keep away, of course, but there must exist lots of people who admire VN without having to describe his entire oeuvre as so wonderful "that it is impossible to point out his worst book, only the one that seems to be less good" ( as has already happened in one of the discussions of Nabokv-L ). In my opinion, participants that are less than a hundred percent pro VN are a source of new discoveries and enrichment.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:10 PM
Subject: Linguistic showoffs
----- Original Message -----
From Dmitri Nabokov
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 9:33 AM
I know we shall all be grateful to David Morris for finally unmasking VN as a liguistic [sic] showoff. I, personally, would be grateful if he would illustrate his vision with a few specific instances. That would help me read my father with a new perspective, and finally give me insight into locutions whose meaning, it seems, has escaped me ever since, when I was fourteen, he first gave me a novel of his to read. It was Bend Sinister and, naïvely, I thought I understood most of it, partly because I was then studying Shakespeare. When I was stumped, he was always ready to expain, but, since Mr. Morris has at last established that Father was little more than a nacissistic nobody, I see now why he never once owned up to having said something for the sake of showing off. Live and learn. While he's at it, Mr. Morris might clarify his assessment of "so many quotes" from VN.
With utmost respect for such perspicacity,
Dmitri Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: George Shimanovich
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: Linguistic showoffs
And what exactly Jancy Berdt de Souza Mello (that's a very long name!) and David Morris have said of substance to illustrate the subject of this thread? It does not make the difference who asks for specific illustrations - DN or anybody else. If Jancy and David did not hesitate to demagogue the topic they should not blame anybody else for not playing along.
For me reading Nabokov is always an educational experience. His later works, especially 'Ada', are so full of cultural references, language nuances that require a good dictionary, an effort and time. I like being brought up to the new level with each new reading and I am thankful for the hurdles left for me to surmount - in end result they make me a better runner, reader. Consider it reading with hurdles.
- George Shimanovich
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:51 PM
Subject: Fw: Linguistic showoffs
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
Although I quite often enjoy reading what DN has to say and his help is invaluable when we are looking for certain factual or historical clarifications, also when we read wonderful personal tidbits, I still think it gauche when he comes in as a white knight in defense of his father while apparently taking himself as the highest authority on Vladimir Nabokov. The Nabokv-L is a "forum", is it not?
Those that intensely dislike VN should keep away, of course, but there must exist lots of people who admire VN without having to describe his entire oeuvre as so wonderful "that it is impossible to point out his worst book, only the one that seems to be less good" ( as has already happened in one of the discussions of Nabokv-L ). In my opinion, participants that are less than a hundred percent pro VN are a source of new discoveries and enrichment.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:10 PM
Subject: Linguistic showoffs
----- Original Message -----
From Dmitri Nabokov
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 9:33 AM
I know we shall all be grateful to David Morris for finally unmasking VN as a liguistic [sic] showoff. I, personally, would be grateful if he would illustrate his vision with a few specific instances. That would help me read my father with a new perspective, and finally give me insight into locutions whose meaning, it seems, has escaped me ever since, when I was fourteen, he first gave me a novel of his to read. It was Bend Sinister and, naïvely, I thought I understood most of it, partly because I was then studying Shakespeare. When I was stumped, he was always ready to expain, but, since Mr. Morris has at last established that Father was little more than a nacissistic nobody, I see now why he never once owned up to having said something for the sake of showing off. Live and learn. While he's at it, Mr. Morris might clarify his assessment of "so many quotes" from VN.
With utmost respect for such perspicacity,
Dmitri Nabokov