----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 4:10 PM
Subject: Sontag & Nabokov
Sontag introduced Nabokov for a reading at the 92nd St Y in 1964. Nabokov
then read a poem and selections from Pale Fire, Lolita, and a lecture on Russian
poetry. The entire reading can be reached, and listened to, through this
link:
Or go to this link for a complete list of readings at the 92nd St Y, with
access to all of them:
http://www.eyeshot.net/frame_links.htm
This is a wonderful site, by the way, with readings by a good many
writers.
EDNOTE. Personally I
am not a big fan of Ms Sontag's work, but any possible tie she might have had
with VN is cerainly "fair game" for NABOKV-L. She was obviously a major in the
intellectual clime of the Sixties & Seventies.
----- Original Message -----
From: Will Schultz
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 1:40
AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Sontag
didn't Sontag also once write something about
the "clear poetry of Mao (tse Tung)" , or something along those lines ?
Does she really deserve this forum's attention ?
D. Barton Johnson
wrote:
EDNOTE: Mr. Nicol is among the founding
fathers of the International
Vladimir Nabokov.
----- Original
Message -----
From: "Charles Nicol" <ejnicol@scifac.indstate.edu>
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When Sontag's essay on Camp came out,
I thought it was
somewhat relevant to Kinbote's sensibility in PALE
FIRE.
Incidentally, while I was playing at a chess tournament in
Kalamazoo,
circa 1965, Sontag gave a talk there which seemed mostly a
list of
names of contemporary authors, composers, and painters who
somehow
had earned her approval. In the questions period
afterward, I
specifically asked why she had singled out Boulez and not
Stockhausen
(she turned out to be right on that one), and why Borges
and not
Nabokov. Her reply was basically along the lines of
"Nabokov? No,
Borges." So she wasn't too impressed back
then.
Chaz
Charles Nicol
Professor of English and
Humanities
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN
47809
U.S.A.
(812) 237-3152
FAX (812) 237-3156
chaz@indstate.edu
"For
me a work of fiction only exists insofar as it affords me
what I shall
bluntly call aesthetic bliss..."
--Vladimir
Nabokov