Subject
Re: Nabokov and Fitzgerald (fwd)
Date
Body
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DIMENT:>> I gave a paper a couple of years ago on Nabokov and
Fitzgerald, >comparing >MARY and THE GREAT GATSBY. Some of it is quite
relevant to the question >>posed here, so I will just reproduce a part of
it here: >> >> >>According to Arthur Mizener, Nabokov's colleague at
Cornell and Scott >>Fitzgerald's biographer, Nabokov considered Tender Is
the Night >>"magnificent" and The Great Gatsby "terrible." >> >>Why,
then, was he so critical of The Great Gatsby?
ORI RESPONSE: Well, perhaps Nabokov - strange as it may seem to The Great
Gatsby lovers -
simply didn't like that novel?
As a Fitzgerald lover I feel that The Great Gatsby is his weakest. It is
over-simplistic, symbolic and short - a perfect fit for first year college
students...
[no offence meant. I hope none taken]
Note: concerning Mr. Slavitt's comment "and Shakespeare (Merchant of
Venice) because they're not politically correct"
The Merchant of Venice arguably doesn't portray a Jew at all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From jahvah@empirenet.com Sun Mar 9 17:25:55 1997
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 97 11:39:19 -0800
From: Alexander Justice <jahvah@empirenet.com>
Subject: Re: Nabokov and biases
----------------- Message requiring your approval (30 lines)
------------------ >Do not you >think these biases are quite comparable,
and neither Fitzgerald NOR >Nabokov are blameless if these are, in fact,
the terms of our discourse? > >Galya Diment
JUSTICE RESPONSE:I do not think "these biases" are quite comparable; I'm
not even sure one can make the argument that VVN was biased in this
respect. People with a strong bias against homosexuals generally disown
even their own family members, and help to persecute them (I am thinking
here of the especially notorious case of the Duke of Westminster's
treatment of his brother in law in the 1930s, but there are terribly many
instances of this in our own decade among tens of thousands of families in
our own land). On the other hand, many people who are uncomfortable with,
or consider homosexuality morally wrong or evidence of a psychological
flaw, remain devoted to their gay family members or have gay friends.
I did not find anything offensive in MARY or PALE FIRE. I've known plenty
of real people who resembled those characters. I've also known plenty of
all kinds of people who never appear in VVN's work, in any way whatsoever.
But I'm hardly typical. I think there is a difference between a
caricature designed to hold a group up to ridicule, or to perpetuate and
confirm hatreds, prejudices and stereotypes, on the one hand, and the
presence of stereotyped characters in novels, on the other.
Alexander Justice * jahvah@empirenet.com * Redlands, California, USA
Impact and affect are not synonyms unless meteorites are involved.
DIMENT:>> I gave a paper a couple of years ago on Nabokov and
Fitzgerald, >comparing >MARY and THE GREAT GATSBY. Some of it is quite
relevant to the question >>posed here, so I will just reproduce a part of
it here: >> >> >>According to Arthur Mizener, Nabokov's colleague at
Cornell and Scott >>Fitzgerald's biographer, Nabokov considered Tender Is
the Night >>"magnificent" and The Great Gatsby "terrible." >> >>Why,
then, was he so critical of The Great Gatsby?
ORI RESPONSE: Well, perhaps Nabokov - strange as it may seem to The Great
Gatsby lovers -
simply didn't like that novel?
As a Fitzgerald lover I feel that The Great Gatsby is his weakest. It is
over-simplistic, symbolic and short - a perfect fit for first year college
students...
[no offence meant. I hope none taken]
Note: concerning Mr. Slavitt's comment "and Shakespeare (Merchant of
Venice) because they're not politically correct"
The Merchant of Venice arguably doesn't portray a Jew at all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From jahvah@empirenet.com Sun Mar 9 17:25:55 1997
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 97 11:39:19 -0800
From: Alexander Justice <jahvah@empirenet.com>
Subject: Re: Nabokov and biases
----------------- Message requiring your approval (30 lines)
------------------ >Do not you >think these biases are quite comparable,
and neither Fitzgerald NOR >Nabokov are blameless if these are, in fact,
the terms of our discourse? > >Galya Diment
JUSTICE RESPONSE:I do not think "these biases" are quite comparable; I'm
not even sure one can make the argument that VVN was biased in this
respect. People with a strong bias against homosexuals generally disown
even their own family members, and help to persecute them (I am thinking
here of the especially notorious case of the Duke of Westminster's
treatment of his brother in law in the 1930s, but there are terribly many
instances of this in our own decade among tens of thousands of families in
our own land). On the other hand, many people who are uncomfortable with,
or consider homosexuality morally wrong or evidence of a psychological
flaw, remain devoted to their gay family members or have gay friends.
I did not find anything offensive in MARY or PALE FIRE. I've known plenty
of real people who resembled those characters. I've also known plenty of
all kinds of people who never appear in VVN's work, in any way whatsoever.
But I'm hardly typical. I think there is a difference between a
caricature designed to hold a group up to ridicule, or to perpetuate and
confirm hatreds, prejudices and stereotypes, on the one hand, and the
presence of stereotyped characters in novels, on the other.
Alexander Justice * jahvah@empirenet.com * Redlands, California, USA
Impact and affect are not synonyms unless meteorites are involved.