Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0022644, Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:10:35 -0300

Subject
Re: Dieter Zimmer on the 56 Conundrum and Lolita Chronology
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James Twiggs: "...VN's opinion of Diana Butler's "Lolita Lepidoptera" is a matter of record...to Page Stegner: "You should have been warned that Mrs. Butler's article is pretentious nonsense from beginning to end";...to Alfred Appel Jr....he speaks of Lepidoptera as a tricky subject "which led the unfortunate Diana so dreadfully astray"; in his Herbert Gold interview VN speaks of "the essay by a young lady who attempted to find entomological symbols in my fiction. The essay might have been amusing had she known something about Lepidoptera. Alas, she revealed complete ignorance and the muddle of terms she employed proved to be only jarring and absurd"

JM: Great collection of quotes. They illustrate how Nabokov seemed to be mainly concerned with Diana Butler's muddled presentation of Lepidoptera. Although he didn't miss the chance to add that "the essay might have been amusing," he didn't mention Freud's name in connection to DB's "entomological symbols." It seems that she produced in fact "pretentious nonsense from beginning to end."

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