One British intellectual suggested that the calculatedly “difficult” idiom of 20thC English literary modernism was an anti-egalitarian conspiracy to keep the common reader out. Lovely Joyce and lovely Beckett, both arch-Europeans, are elitist; VN is democratic and even populist in comparison to them.
If the British intellectual is correct, then the arch-European Joyce-Beckett gang have failed miserably. The only readers I know are common, and since we were in our late teens we all read Beckett, then Joyce, then Nabokov, as well as Kafka. Djuna Barnes was another favorite. Now we read Martin Amis.
I don’t see Joyce and Beckett putting their heads together and conniving to concoct a “calculatedly” “difficult” idiom for any reason other than for art. The idea of a “common reader” is not merely anti-egalitarian, it’s erroneous and naïve. Offensive, too. When I was reading Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano I discussed it daily with a well-read and intelligent friend at work who knew much more about Lowry than I did. When this man left the company, he gave me as a parting gift all of Lowry’s published work. These were battered paperback editions that all seemed to have come from different publishers. They were all he could afford, but he had studied them thoroughly. This was a 24-year-old janitor and handy man who had been in and out of jail for five or six years. His formal education had ended when he was fourteen.
Andrew Brown
On 1/11/07 2:23 PM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] SK on Theory
From:
"jansymello" <jansy@aetern.us> <mailto:jansy@aetern.us>
Date:
Thu, 11 Jan 2007 07:58:21 -0200
To:
"Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
C.Kunin : "Something here disturbs me - - most likely the cult worship of the true artist, that whiff of Ayn Rand, if you'll allow me. You seem to be describing her more than the VN I know. His was an aristocracy that didn't condescend to democracy, but embraced it wholeheartedly. Who after all was the "true artist" - - Lolita? or Humbert? I often think VN doesn't think very highly of artists as a class of humanity."
JM: Who is Ayn Rand? What kind of "cult worship of the true artist" do you mean?
Sergey K:"In reply to Charles’s post about VN’s elitism. One British intellectual suggested that the calculatedly “difficult” idiom of 20thC English literary modernism was an anti-egalitarian conspiracy to keep the common reader out. Lovely Joyce and lovely Beckett, both arch-Europeans, are elitist; VN is democratic and even populist in comparison to them. To be more accurate, VN draws on both European elitism and American populism at will, and combines them to produce the necessary artistic result"
JM: Shouldn't we write of "Demagogism' or populism, instead of "Democracy", when bringing up a contrast to "Elitism"? The sentence "VN draws on both both European elitism and American populism"' similarly doesn't make sense to me. "European populism" exists, also "American elitism". VN never drew on "populism" except when in jest, but he was always very clear about his embracing democracy "wholeheartedly".
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