I would
like hereby to let all of you know that prior to this moment, I have never sent
any of you any messages electronic or otherwise. All I did was to write a
short story inspired, as it were, by an interview of "Ogonek"... with Mr. D.
Nabokov. After reading the latter, I became rather amused and thus compelled to
write a piece "Komu Suzhdeno byt' utonenym, tot ne osuzhdet" ( http://www.geocities.com/korovkintonabokov/
). That's all.
Since the said interview was referred to me by Mr. Livri,
I sent him an electronic copy of the story as a matter of collegial courtesy.
That was also the reason why I sent another copy to "Ogonek"... having received
from the latter neither a reply nor a simple confirmation of the
receipt.
Subsequently, Mr. Livri asked my permission for placing the said
story on-line. Granted that the good editors of "Ogonek" failed to express any
interest in the piece, and granted also that I am way too busy to personally
promote just a short story and the one written on the spur of the moment
at that I wrote to Mr. Livri that he may do with the story whatever he
wishes.
Whatever his ulterior motives for publishing the story may be, I
hope they neither detract from nor add to the quality of the piece itself. Nor,
I hope, do they exaggerate its significance.
To sum up, and concerning
your doubts, no matter how tenuous my personal perception of reality may be, it
prompts me to confirm that I do indeed exist and that I did write the story in
question.
However, I cannot emphasise too strongly that I have
not communicated anything to any of you, whoever you may be.
Further, I happily find myself totally extraneous to the ongoing squabbles in
what appears to be a rather stormy tea-cup of "Nabokology" both in
terms of concrete participation and personal attitude.
Please consider
this to be an unconditional disclaimer.
Truly
yours,
Michael
Korovkin
Prof. Michael A.
Korovkin
Department of Communication Studies European School of
Economics/Nottigham-Trent University Rome Campus Largo
Nazzareno Roma
Department of English and American
Literature Faculty of Letters and Philosophy LUMSA Via Traspontina
21 Roma