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Subject:
Nabokov’s 1964 interview with Playboy. It’s quite amusing ... |
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From:
"Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com> |
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Date:
Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:48:56 -0400 |
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To:
"Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com> |
http://www.observer.com/2009/media/if-you-want-read-nabokovs-laura-early-youll-have-make-house-call-knopf?page=all If You Want to Read Nabokov's Laura Early, You'll Have to Make a House Call to Knopf By Leon Neyfakh July 13, 2009 | 3:06 p.m Getty Images On Friday afternoon we ran through some of the most exciting galleys hitting the streets this summer. One we didn’t include was The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella from the late Vladimir Nabokov, which Knopf will be publishing on November 17. The reason Laura didn’t make it on our list was that we couldn’t find anyone who had actually seen a galley of it. Today, Knopf’s executive director of publicity, Paul Bogaards, provided an explanation via email. It appears that, due to serial rights agreements with publications in the U.S. and in the U.K. (read all about how Playboy won the first serial rights to Laura here), no galleys have been produced or distributed. “They are not available (and will not be available),” Mr. Bogaards said in his note. “We have instead printed two sets of page proofs and are inviting media colleagues to preview them at our offices. They are not leaving the building.” Evidently aware of the power of advance galleys to attract attention in public settings, Mr. Bogaards added: “If you were to chance upon someone with a set of the Laura page proofs and the moment turned amorous, I would urge a note of caution.”
Greene’s novella, for example, is unfinished, which is unfortunate because it is a murder mystery and the culprit is unknown. Andrew Gulli, Strand’s editor, said it was considering asking readers to write a final chapter to complete the tale. But he insisted it was still a quality piece.And Nabokov apparently didn’t think too much of “The Original of Laura”, since he wanted it tossed into a fire. I guess Playboy readers will decide in November. Here’s the text of Nabokov’s 1964 interview with Playboy. It’s quite amusing:
“If these stories did not stand up as quality fiction we would not be able to publish them,” said Gulli. Not everyone agrees. The first chapter of Greene’s work has been published elsewhere and some reviewers were less than kind. “We had a taste of the new Greene and it was just not very good,” said Carolyn Kellogg of Jacket Copy, the Los Angeles Times book blog.
Citing in Lolita the same kind of acid-etched scene you’ve just described, many critics have called the book a masterful satiric social commentary on America. Are they right?Finally, I love this quote from the Guardian story: “As long as writers keep dying, they will keep leaving new stuff to be discovered.”
Well, I can only repeat that I have neither the intent nor the temperament of a moral or social satirist.
Whether or not critics think that in Lolita I am ridiculing human folly leaves me supremely indifferent. But I am annoyed when the glad news is spread that I am ridiculing America…
Many readers have concluded that the Philistinism you seem to find the most exhilarating is that of America’s sexual mores.
Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude— all this is something I find too tedious for words. Let us skip sex.
Have you ever been psychoanalyzed?
Have I been what?
Subjected to psychoanalytical examination.
Why, good God?