Subject
Fwd: Laura's suicide
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Date
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If people really want to commit suicide, they commit suicide. If they
don't really want to commit suicide, they announce their intentions to
friends, with the unconscious hope that they'll be stopped. I think the
same goes for book burning. If Franz Kafka really wanted his books
burned, he wouldn't have asked Max Brod to do it. If Vladimir Nabokov
really wanted to torch "Lolita," he surely could have found a way to do
so without alerting Vera -- somehow, he never did. If he really wanted
to do the same with "The Original of Laura," why in the world pass off
the horrendous task to his heirs? Why not just do it himself and be
done with it? It's the simplest thing in the world to destroy paper;
asking someone else to do it for you indicates that maybe it shouldn't
be done to begin with. I certainly don't see, outside of filial
obligation, what the value is in doing it now.
Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC
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EDNOTE. It is possible that the hospitalized VN was in no position to destroy
the MS
----- End forwarded message -----
don't really want to commit suicide, they announce their intentions to
friends, with the unconscious hope that they'll be stopped. I think the
same goes for book burning. If Franz Kafka really wanted his books
burned, he wouldn't have asked Max Brod to do it. If Vladimir Nabokov
really wanted to torch "Lolita," he surely could have found a way to do
so without alerting Vera -- somehow, he never did. If he really wanted
to do the same with "The Original of Laura," why in the world pass off
the horrendous task to his heirs? Why not just do it himself and be
done with it? It's the simplest thing in the world to destroy paper;
asking someone else to do it for you indicates that maybe it shouldn't
be done to begin with. I certainly don't see, outside of filial
obligation, what the value is in doing it now.
Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC
-------------------------------------
EDNOTE. It is possible that the hospitalized VN was in no position to destroy
the MS
----- End forwarded message -----