Philip
Klop (Quoting Chesterton on Tolstoy): “an artist teaches
far more by his mere background and properties, his landscapes, his costume, his
idiom and technique—all the part of the work, in short, of which he is probably
entirely unconscious, than by the elaborate and pompous moral dicta he fondly
imagines to be his opinions.”[...] As for purported feelings of "guilt", I
propose we leave the Viennese delegation where they belong...
JM: An interesting quote
from Chesterton, mentioning the unconscious determinants that shape an
author's landscapes, idiom and technique, while they
also instruct readers in ways far superior to any conscious
"pompous moral dicta." Why
not consider that the "Viennese delegation" may uphold theories that
are closer to this vision, than Nabokov's insistent
depreciation of them? Or to indiscriminately attack an entire "school of freudians,"
merely to argue against notions inspired by popular
psychology?