Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003464, Tue, 3 Nov 1998 15:47:06 -0800

Subject
Re: Art & Suffering (fwd)
Date
Body
Though I look forward to reading excerpts of the Schneiderman article, I can't
help but suppose I will disagree with his arguments. Further, a comparative
study of the sort where Faulkner, Williams, Cheever and Beckett enjoy
dissection along with Nabokov and Borges is, to say the least, peculiar. Would
Schneiderman come to similar conclusions using Pynchon, Updike, Robbe-Grillet
and Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Though suffering may well influence some art, I'm inclined to take Nabokov at
his word and in his work. His sexual perverts and other invented demons seem
to me no more than whimsical doodles dancing above his expressionistic
art--certainly not creatures from his personal cellar. He cultivated his own
garden in his "best of all possible worlds," neatly above his shoulders in
what I suspect was clear and pleasant weather.