EDNote: I'm reposting this message because, coming from a Yahoo account, it is rejected by many spam filters. Those of you who use Yahoo or AOL are encouraged to consider changing your Nabokv-L subscriptions to a different mail provider: UCSB refuses to make the patch that would solve this problem. -SB
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: David Bowie and Nabokov Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2016 04:05:45 +0000 From: Joseph Schlegel <josephschlegel@yahoo.com> Reply-To: Joseph Schlegel <josephschlegel@yahoo.com> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <nabokv-l@listserv.ucsb.edu>
A silly mistake in my previous post [see below, the two posts have been combined--SB]: of course Nabokov wouldn't have known of the specific homage in Bowie's song, which was released after Nabokov's death. I meant to phrase that as whether Nabokov was aware of Bowie at all -- I was hoping to spark some discussion on that point.
Joseph SchlegelPhD CandidateDepartment of Slavic Languages and LiteraturesUniversity of Toronto
On Monday, January 11, 2016 8:56 PM, Joseph Schlegel <josephschlegel@yahoo.com> wrote:
With David Bowie's passing, I want to reflect on his reflections of Nabokov for a moment. Bowie's song "I'd Rather Be High" immortalized the 'Naa-bah-kahv' pronunciation in its opening lines:
Nabokov is sun-licked nowUpon the beach at GrunewaldBrilliant and naked justThe way that authors look
In a scene towards the end of Nabokov's novel The Gift, the main character, Fyodor, goes bathing in the nude in a Grunewald forest: “The sun bore down. The sun licked me all over with its big smooth tongue.” Bowie's application of Nabokov's imagery demonstrates an interest in Nabokov that extends beyond a mere reading of Lolita. In fact, the line that emphasizes "the way that authors look" reveals a possible attentive reading of the The Gift, since Nabokov's text implies the nude bather Fyodor's self-authorship.
However, it is more likely, as Chris O'Leary points out, that he never read The Gift, but rather knew the description from Otto Friedrich's Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s. This book, which quotes Nabokov's scene, is included in Bowie's list of "must-read books", which also includes Nabokov's Lolita and other books that show an interest in Russian culture more generally (Orlando Figes's A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1890-1924, Peter Sadecky's Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange)
I'm uncertain whether Nabokov was aware of Bowie's homage or not.
Joseph SchlegelPhD CandidateUniversity of TorontoDepartment of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Google Search
the archiveContact
the EditorsNOJ Zembla Nabokv-L
PoliciesSubscription options AdaOnline NSJ Ada Annotations L-Soft Search the archive VN Bibliography Blog All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
| Google Search the archive |
Contact the Editors |
NOJ | Zembla | Nabokv-L Policies |
Subscription options | AdaOnline | NSJ Ada Annotations | L-Soft Search the archive | VN Bibliography Blog |