Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003602, Fri, 15 Jan 1999 15:30:59 -0800

Subject
EXTRA, EXTRA! NABOKOVISMS INFEST BRITISH PRESS!
Date
Body
From: CarlFrisk@aol.com

>From the Friday Review (p.5) of today's (15 Jan, 99) London "Independent"
daily newspaper, the opening paragraph of an article on bananas, by Deborah
Orr: "Banana, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Ba-na-na:
the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at
three, on the teeth. Ba. Na. Na."

>From the London "Daily Telegraph" (Oct 8, 98; p.27), the opening of an article
on name-dropping, by John Sessions: "I am, I suspect, an incurable name-
dropper ... However pale the fire may be that bounces upon me from various
celebrated suns, I am sneakily grateful for its puny warmth".

>From the "Independent", again (21st Dec, 98; p.3), an article by Steve
Richards, starting off: "Why are politicians, Clinton most dramatically among
them, regarded with such contempt?" under the rubric: "Invitation to a
beheading for the politicians of the next century".

Is it only British journalists who have taken to displaying their familiarity
with the master in this manner, or can the tendency be matched elsewhere?

Charles Harrison Wallace