Subject
VN & politics
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Miale" <wmiale@acbm.qc.ca>
> Dear Don,
>
> I wonder why Nabokov's politics are not fit for discussion. It's a rather
> broad and important area to exclude. And it surely bears on his writing,
as
> well as on his opinions and on his way of looking at the world. I don't
> think you can say he had a "distaste for politics in art." Political
themes
> are central to more than one of his novels. Moreover, The Gift, Bend
> Sinister, and Invitation to a Beheading, all contain imaginative
> development of themes pertaining specifically to Soviet Communism.
>
> Dmitri Nabokov asked me a question, prefatory to answering my question of
> him: "Before getting involved in a political debate on what is supposed to
> be a literary forum, allow me to ask you two questions. Are you truly
> unaware of Chaplin's-well known Communist sympathies and support of
> Communist causes? Is that not reason enough for Vladimir Nabokov's
> attitude?"
>
> I gave a thoughtful reply to this, not taking issue with the principles of
> father or son, but remarking that what were considered "Communist
> sympathies" in the 1950's were not the equivalent of support of Bolshivism
> or its crimes; and that while I do not know what Chaplin's "sympathies"
> actually amounted to (and invited DN to tell me), Chaplin's *work*
embodied
> a humanism quite incompatible with this criminality.
>
> You posted Carolyn Kunin's contribution (which was innocent of any such
> distinction). Please do not let Dmitri Nabokov's questions to me stand
> unanswered. His second question is an important one, and list subscribers
> and searchers should not be given to think that I am speechless--or
> unsympathetic to the principles it implies.
>
> Not only is this a matter of fairness and of what Vladimir Nabokov would
> perhaps have called honor, but would it not be interesting to know through
> Dmitri whether or how his father might have considered such nuanced
> distinctions? DN offered to elaborate, and began a dialogue. (I have no
> more wish to "debate" than he does.) Please don't kill it.
>
> Walter
> _________________________
> From Walter Miale
> Re Dmitri Nabokov's questions for me
>
> I was aware only that Chaplin was alleged to have communist sympathies,
but
> given that such allegations were made rather freely in his day, I never
> knew what truth if any there was to them. Indeed, a cursory Web search
just
> now disclosed a great deal of talk about these allegations but nothing
> substantial, though I didn't work my way through the FBI's massive
> file--which doesn't however appear to have much on Chaplin other than his
> apparent support for some groups which communists may have controlled or
> which may have followed the Party line on at least (my inference) some
> domestic or broad international issues. The FBI took a great interest in
> him to the point of persecution, as it did others such as Martin Luther
> King, who, though he had a close adviser who had been or was a communist,
> was himself a champion of justice and liberty. I would make two
> observations by way of explaining my astonishment that Chaplin's politics
> were considered such as to make him unfit company:
>
> 1) Many Americans --and here I'm not speaking of Chaplin since I don't
know
> anything about his views in this regard-- acknowledged and responded to
> the sympathetic words and useful actions of communists toward poor people
> and black people in the United States, while being in some cases blind or
> lamentably silent with respect to the crimes of the Bolshiviks; and
>
> 2) I find Chaplin's politics, as they were developed or articulated in his
> WORK, to be humanist and actually heroic; and despite his extraordinary
> success, he seems never to have forgotten his humble origins. His tramp
> character was the embodiment of a good hearted but poor man, an antidote
to
> the overweening materialist poshlost of American popular culture in the
> early 20th century. During the Depression he satirized the alienating
> effects of mass production on workers, and in 1940 he, as Dmitri Nabokov
> remarked, satirized Hitler. And near the height of McCarthyism and the
> black list, he cast aside prudence and self-interest to produce and star
in
> a film (A King in New York) in which he personally denounced the forces of
> McCarthyism and --as I recall-- the black list.
>
> In sum, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know Chaplin to have
> been antipathetic to democracy or an apologist for, or supporter of,
> Bolshivism. Whatever his sins in that regard may or may not have been, I'm
> surprised that Vladimir Nabokov did not find his redeeming qualities to
> bespeak a big heart and a great soul, and I would indeed be grateful to
> Dmitri Nabokov for enlightening me with respect to his father's attitude
> and feelings toward Charlie Chaplin.
>
> __________________________________________________________
>
> Original message:
>
> Yes, I am afraid you
> are missing something obvious. Before getting involved in a political
> debate on what is supposed to be a literary forum, allow me to ask
> you two questions. Are you truly unaware of Chaplin's-well known
> Communist sympathies and support of Communist causes? Is that not reason
> enough for Vladimir Nabokov's attitude?
> Dmitri Nabokov
From: "Walter Miale" <wmiale@acbm.qc.ca>
> Dear Don,
>
> I wonder why Nabokov's politics are not fit for discussion. It's a rather
> broad and important area to exclude. And it surely bears on his writing,
as
> well as on his opinions and on his way of looking at the world. I don't
> think you can say he had a "distaste for politics in art." Political
themes
> are central to more than one of his novels. Moreover, The Gift, Bend
> Sinister, and Invitation to a Beheading, all contain imaginative
> development of themes pertaining specifically to Soviet Communism.
>
> Dmitri Nabokov asked me a question, prefatory to answering my question of
> him: "Before getting involved in a political debate on what is supposed to
> be a literary forum, allow me to ask you two questions. Are you truly
> unaware of Chaplin's-well known Communist sympathies and support of
> Communist causes? Is that not reason enough for Vladimir Nabokov's
> attitude?"
>
> I gave a thoughtful reply to this, not taking issue with the principles of
> father or son, but remarking that what were considered "Communist
> sympathies" in the 1950's were not the equivalent of support of Bolshivism
> or its crimes; and that while I do not know what Chaplin's "sympathies"
> actually amounted to (and invited DN to tell me), Chaplin's *work*
embodied
> a humanism quite incompatible with this criminality.
>
> You posted Carolyn Kunin's contribution (which was innocent of any such
> distinction). Please do not let Dmitri Nabokov's questions to me stand
> unanswered. His second question is an important one, and list subscribers
> and searchers should not be given to think that I am speechless--or
> unsympathetic to the principles it implies.
>
> Not only is this a matter of fairness and of what Vladimir Nabokov would
> perhaps have called honor, but would it not be interesting to know through
> Dmitri whether or how his father might have considered such nuanced
> distinctions? DN offered to elaborate, and began a dialogue. (I have no
> more wish to "debate" than he does.) Please don't kill it.
>
> Walter
> _________________________
> From Walter Miale
> Re Dmitri Nabokov's questions for me
>
> I was aware only that Chaplin was alleged to have communist sympathies,
but
> given that such allegations were made rather freely in his day, I never
> knew what truth if any there was to them. Indeed, a cursory Web search
just
> now disclosed a great deal of talk about these allegations but nothing
> substantial, though I didn't work my way through the FBI's massive
> file--which doesn't however appear to have much on Chaplin other than his
> apparent support for some groups which communists may have controlled or
> which may have followed the Party line on at least (my inference) some
> domestic or broad international issues. The FBI took a great interest in
> him to the point of persecution, as it did others such as Martin Luther
> King, who, though he had a close adviser who had been or was a communist,
> was himself a champion of justice and liberty. I would make two
> observations by way of explaining my astonishment that Chaplin's politics
> were considered such as to make him unfit company:
>
> 1) Many Americans --and here I'm not speaking of Chaplin since I don't
know
> anything about his views in this regard-- acknowledged and responded to
> the sympathetic words and useful actions of communists toward poor people
> and black people in the United States, while being in some cases blind or
> lamentably silent with respect to the crimes of the Bolshiviks; and
>
> 2) I find Chaplin's politics, as they were developed or articulated in his
> WORK, to be humanist and actually heroic; and despite his extraordinary
> success, he seems never to have forgotten his humble origins. His tramp
> character was the embodiment of a good hearted but poor man, an antidote
to
> the overweening materialist poshlost of American popular culture in the
> early 20th century. During the Depression he satirized the alienating
> effects of mass production on workers, and in 1940 he, as Dmitri Nabokov
> remarked, satirized Hitler. And near the height of McCarthyism and the
> black list, he cast aside prudence and self-interest to produce and star
in
> a film (A King in New York) in which he personally denounced the forces of
> McCarthyism and --as I recall-- the black list.
>
> In sum, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know Chaplin to have
> been antipathetic to democracy or an apologist for, or supporter of,
> Bolshivism. Whatever his sins in that regard may or may not have been, I'm
> surprised that Vladimir Nabokov did not find his redeeming qualities to
> bespeak a big heart and a great soul, and I would indeed be grateful to
> Dmitri Nabokov for enlightening me with respect to his father's attitude
> and feelings toward Charlie Chaplin.
>
> __________________________________________________________
>
> Original message:
>
> Yes, I am afraid you
> are missing something obvious. Before getting involved in a political
> debate on what is supposed to be a literary forum, allow me to ask
> you two questions. Are you truly unaware of Chaplin's-well known
> Communist sympathies and support of Communist causes? Is that not reason
> enough for Vladimir Nabokov's attitude?
> Dmitri Nabokov