http://neveryetmelted.com/2010/05/21/i-leave-the-field-of-ideas-to-doctor-schweitzer-and-doctor-zhivago/ 
 
21 May 2010

“I Leave the Field of Ideas to Doctor Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago”

"Lolita", ABC, Books, Lionel Trilling, Television, Vladimir Nabokov

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Vladimir Nabokov
 
From the history of American television:
 
In the 1950’s ABC television Close-up! documentary series, John Daly interviews Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling, pt. 1—5:41 video—pt. 2 5:51 video
 
Nabokov lispingly delivers dismissive apothegms in an effete and frivolous style inevitably reminding one of Anthony Blanche, while Trilling is earnest, grave, serious, and sometimes just a bit obsequious.
 
Great lines:
 
“I don’t want to touch hearts, and I don’t even want to affect minds very much. What I want to produce is really that little sob in the spine of the artist reader. I leave the field of ideas to Doctor Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago.”
 
“It was fun to breed her in my laboratory,” says Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita.
 
 
 
 
 
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