For What It's Worth

[viridian5]

I reached the Dostoevski section of Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature, and ho boy does he hate and scorn Dostoevski, so much so that every time he mentions him in sections about other authors he always makes sure to reiterate that Dostoevski is a mediocre writer and sentimental and he sucksI agree with some of his strikes at Dostoevski but a

Comments

[maitai1again]

Ive read what you said twice; and hope I do understand it. You know, there's some memoirs of Nabokov's American students , I dont know whether that girls agreed with their professor or not (but it would be very interesting to tnow _the truth_ ^__^) - and theiy remembered him as kind, wide-thinking (!) man.

I was very. veeeery surprised by that reaction.

[viridian5]

Me too, though it's possible that he's different when he's interacting with people while this book containing his lectures are all him alone.

I finished Lectures and enjoyed it, even if I disagreed with a lot of his conclusions! It made me think, and it made me sad to think of all the things I'm missing from the books in the English translations.

[maitai1again]

A pair days ago my friends from Moscow have visited me, and weve talked much about books, nabokov books, American editions and American readres, and I've mentioned your reactiion, too ^__^ We've thought that Americans who appreciate Russian literature\culture must be a bit non-Americans (in cultural way). Well, I suppose that classic _American_ style of reading can be impressed as "my histiory-my story- my opinion", while others read another \ different\ non-American authors like "oh, what did he mean? I It must be interesting because I do not understand" way.

[viridian5]

American literature can be fairly varied, since we're a big country with a lot of different peoples (among other ways, we can be divided into the West Coast vs. the East Coast, the coasts vs. the middle of the country, the south vs. the north, urban dwellers vs non-urban, longtime citizens vs. recently arrived immigrants...). We've also folded some things from the cultures of our immigrants into our literature. (Fortunately, I don't hate all American literature as much as I hate William Faulkner's work or Ernest Hemmingway's, two American writers I hate for very different reasons.) In school I was given a lot of British literature to read since they, being a collection of longer established countries, have a far longer run of fiction to offer.

I'm half Polish but haven't been exposed to much of my maternal grandfather's culture--my mom didn't even play the accordion often--so I doubt that has much to do with my interest in Russian literature.... (If you're curious, I'm also 1/4 Italian and 1/4 Irish-Anglo-Norman.)