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Re: Nabokov, Fitzgerald & Anti-Semitism
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From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I think the answer is almost disagreeably simple: THE GREAT GATSBY,
featuring the crassly anti-Semitic portrayal of Meyer Wolfsheim, "the man
who fixed the World's Series back in 1919" with his "business
gonnegtions," could have done nothing but raise, not Nabokov's brows, but
his hackles. As it did, and does, mine.
Joshua Roberts
I wonder if it really could be that simple... Didn't stop him from liking
Lermontov, who has a Jewish illusionist in The Hero of Our Time (which
Nabokov and Dmitri translated into English) for entertainment worthy of
servants in Piatigorsk. Did not stop him from liking Gogol, whose cossacks
throw Jews into the river when they are bored or drunk...
If we really decide that Nabokov was judging books by how "enlightened"
their authors were, we'll have to assume that he judged them on the very
basis on which he himself did not want to be judged. Yes, he was very
sensitive to anti-Semitism, and, being Jewish myself, I greatly
admire this quality in him -- but I still am doubtful that he would reject
a book on the basis of one character and a rather minor character at that.
But, who knows, you may be right, and I may be wrong.
Galya Diment
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I think the answer is almost disagreeably simple: THE GREAT GATSBY,
featuring the crassly anti-Semitic portrayal of Meyer Wolfsheim, "the man
who fixed the World's Series back in 1919" with his "business
gonnegtions," could have done nothing but raise, not Nabokov's brows, but
his hackles. As it did, and does, mine.
Joshua Roberts
I wonder if it really could be that simple... Didn't stop him from liking
Lermontov, who has a Jewish illusionist in The Hero of Our Time (which
Nabokov and Dmitri translated into English) for entertainment worthy of
servants in Piatigorsk. Did not stop him from liking Gogol, whose cossacks
throw Jews into the river when they are bored or drunk...
If we really decide that Nabokov was judging books by how "enlightened"
their authors were, we'll have to assume that he judged them on the very
basis on which he himself did not want to be judged. Yes, he was very
sensitive to anti-Semitism, and, being Jewish myself, I greatly
admire this quality in him -- but I still am doubtful that he would reject
a book on the basis of one character and a rather minor character at that.
But, who knows, you may be right, and I may be wrong.
Galya Diment