Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000652, Mon, 17 Jul 1995 12:46:53 -0700

Subject
Interim Collation Pt.2 (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE: Below is the second of Suellen Stringer-Hye "Interim
VNCollations from the Internet."


This is the second installment in the two- part Interim Collation
that I have put together from material found by searching the
archives of various newsgroups. You too can search on your
favorite subject by using a program called DejaNews which
you will find at:
http://www.dejanews.com/

The electrical charge for Nabokov is weak on the non-literary
newsgroups that represent the majority of the material in today's
collation. I duly report the incidence of his name as a matter of
science but refuse to promise any art. I sometimes wonder if I am
confusing the "what" with "so what" but I will risk censure and
let the decision be yours.

****************
A Nabokov quotation is used to fill out a series of quotations
concerning the joys and dangers of rock climbing.

"That mist is a mountain and that mountain must be
conquered."
------------------------------
Regarding the "restless leg syndrome", a doctor on the
sci.med.pharmacy newsgroup wonders if anyone can provide information on
this subject.

"Ah yes, restless legs. I've had it for years unfortunately.
Most GPs etc are actually quite familiar with the term,
although I've rarely heard lay people bandy it about.
But it's a common condition;Nabokov had it,for example.

The writer goes on to suggest various cures for insomnia (is restless
legs really the term for it?) which he had found effective.

**************
Perhaps not surprisingly, Nabokov's name is often associated with
discussions about music from opera to rock and roll.
-------------------
>From rec. music. opera a commonplace for Nabokovians is
considered one of the:

"Great moments in opera trivia: among those who
made their debuts with Pavarotti was Dmitri Nabokov,
son of Vladimir."

Also from rec. music.opera, commentary on the Danish Opera
entitled 'Latter I moerket' ('Laughter in the Dark'), one writer
says of it:

"With 'Latter I moerket' we have something as infrequent
as a credible and fascinating contemporary opera."

Discussing a Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto, a writer wonders;

"Am I weeping at the beauty of the sound , the shockingly
manipulative sentimentality, or Nabokov's wistfulness for
his homeland that he mentions in _Speak Memory_.

A song has been sent to rec.music. songwriters for comment:

Some of your language falls outside the colloquial
mainstream rendering your tone distant and academic.

The author of "Desert Varnish" replies that he knew it was "esoteric"
but that:

One of my favorite authors is Nabokov...not an easy
read but worth the trouble. It's easy to be "difficult", but
hard to be "worth the trouble."

*************************
Cinematic discussions revolve mostly around _Lolita_ although an
exhaustive list of books that should be made into movies
recommends everything by Nabokov but especially
_Speak Memory_ and _Bend Sinister_. A review of Kubrick's
"...great (but disturbing) adaptation of Nabokov's great (but
disturbing ) book " ..._Lolita_compares the movie to another more
recent film with a similar theme. Under the heading PEDERASTS
ON PARADE `or` Is That A Mighty Morphin Power Ranger In Your
Pocket Or Are You Just Glad To See Me, the reviewer states:

Vladimir Nabokov introduced the world to a new term
for an age-old phenomenon in his superlaltive novel,
_Lolita_... What Besson (director of "The Professional ")
has essentially done ...is remade LOLITA (the movie)
without getting the essential fact that despite her
precociousness, Lolita is a child who is set adrift when
her mother dies and she's left with only Humbert to take
care of her.

In the incestuous twining of art and life, the star of _The
Professional _ 12-year old (now 14 year old) Natalie Portman - is

" now rumoured to be the front-runner for the title role
in Adrian Lyne's remake of the Nabokov classic."*

*See D. Barton Johnson's July 17 posting to Nabokv-L. A different
actress has been given this role.

Apparently, (and I have not run into it personally) the internet is a
culture in which pedophiles thrive. In a very long and well
considered rebuttal to the position "why should we not be allowed to
have sex with children, provided that they consent? " a woman
concludes,

"having power over someone is morally incompatible with
having a sexual relationship with that person.
Vladimir Nabokov's book, _Lolita_ gives a good
illustration of this.


And finally cut and pasted en toto from:

newsgroups: bit.listserv.literary

our existence questioned and an important list of web sites:
*******************************************************
I am looking for any and all information on Vladmir Nabokov on the
Internet. There used to be a listserv concerning Nabokov but it
doesn't appear to exist any more. Does anyone else have any more
information?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
KREMATORIUM: YOU KILL 'EM - WE GRILL 'EM...
-L. TOLSTOJ
EMail: EChernoz@phoenix.kent.edu LSCIC999@zeus.kent.edu
chern@sch57.mcn.msk.su
RUSSIAN LITERATURE IS MNOGO BETTER THAN SEX...
-V. NABOKOV

Jpgs of Nabokov at:
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~krischel/
jpg
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/nabokov.jpg

Documents in Lolita case:
http://fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FileRoom/documents/Cases/267lolita
.html

Information on Kubrick's film of _Lolita_:
http://www.voyagerco.com/CC/ph/p.lolita.html

Couldn't find much else

********************************************************

I could not get the first address to work so the jpg at Princeton
will have the honor of being the first picture of Nabokov
(that I have found) to appear on the web. The other addresses
are of little interest to the Nabokov scholar except to the student
of Nabokov and cyberculture. They are nevertheless fun to look at.




Suellen Stringer-Hye
Special Collections
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu