Subject
Re: Art & Suffering (fwd)
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>From Christopher Berg
Tentender@aol.com
In a message dated 11/3/98 2:00:51 PM EST, chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu writes:
> I'm tempted to
> see a connection between the unusual or shameful sexuality of many of
> Nabokov's main characters and the secret that led to his brother's suicide
> (which I suspect was homosexuality, though I don't remember _Speak, Memory_
> as being explicit on that point).
While it is apparently also tempting to remember the death of every homosexual
as a suicide, since this is the most common method of death for homosexuals in
both high and low literature (not to mention popular media), let us remember
that Nabokov's less fortunate (and, yes, homosexual) younger brother Sergey
died a less typical death -- no sign of "homosexual self-loathing" -- at nazi
hands in a concentration camp.
Tentender@aol.com
In a message dated 11/3/98 2:00:51 PM EST, chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu writes:
> I'm tempted to
> see a connection between the unusual or shameful sexuality of many of
> Nabokov's main characters and the secret that led to his brother's suicide
> (which I suspect was homosexuality, though I don't remember _Speak, Memory_
> as being explicit on that point).
While it is apparently also tempting to remember the death of every homosexual
as a suicide, since this is the most common method of death for homosexuals in
both high and low literature (not to mention popular media), let us remember
that Nabokov's less fortunate (and, yes, homosexual) younger brother Sergey
died a less typical death -- no sign of "homosexual self-loathing" -- at nazi
hands in a concentration camp.