Subject
Re: LOLITa's dogs: collie/setter? (fwd)
Date
Body
>>EDITOR's NOTE. I assume VN's script is
>>the one referred to? Perhaps, the collie is VN's covert tribute to
>>Hollywood's "Lassie."
The editor's assessment may not have been all that far off. Though I'm not
sure how savvy Nabokov was to such industry details, the change may have been
made for the very simple fact that collies make much better movie dogs than
setters. My girlfriend knows some animal trainers in the movie business, and
she told me that there is a list of dog breeds amenable to "acting" training,
a list that the setter, sadly, does not make. Though setters are intelligent
dogs, they have certain instincts that run counter to the type of highly
controlled training a dog needs to be in the movies. Collies, on the other
hand, are great movie dogs, as are retrievers, most hounds, and certain breeds
of terriers. The change may have been made by a reader of Nabokov's script,
readying the final details for the actual shoot. Or maybe VN simply knows
more about movies than I assume. He did, after all, write "Laughter in the
Dark."
Chris Magyar
The Colorado College
Icrywolf@aol.com
>>the one referred to? Perhaps, the collie is VN's covert tribute to
>>Hollywood's "Lassie."
The editor's assessment may not have been all that far off. Though I'm not
sure how savvy Nabokov was to such industry details, the change may have been
made for the very simple fact that collies make much better movie dogs than
setters. My girlfriend knows some animal trainers in the movie business, and
she told me that there is a list of dog breeds amenable to "acting" training,
a list that the setter, sadly, does not make. Though setters are intelligent
dogs, they have certain instincts that run counter to the type of highly
controlled training a dog needs to be in the movies. Collies, on the other
hand, are great movie dogs, as are retrievers, most hounds, and certain breeds
of terriers. The change may have been made by a reader of Nabokov's script,
readying the final details for the actual shoot. Or maybe VN simply knows
more about movies than I assume. He did, after all, write "Laughter in the
Dark."
Chris Magyar
The Colorado College
Icrywolf@aol.com