Nabokov shows up the subjectivity of judgments about the "character" or "quality" of different languages

[HenHanna]

interesting that VN was born on 4-22 and Conan Doyle was born on 5-22.
(and Joyce on 2-2)



.......... an exchange between him and the critic Edmund Wilson that I
read long ago, in which Nabokov amusingly
shows up the irreducible subjectivity of people's judgments about the
"character" or "quality" of different languages.

----- do you remember Anything else?
(about what he said?)


--------------- is this in a letter by VN ?
i have the (paper) book of Nabokov-Wilson letters.
i'll look into it.



“Nabokov wrote about the difficulties of rebirth in his
letters as about agony”, - the writer Viktor Yerofeev notes in the
preface to the first of four volumes of the collected works published in
the homeland in the Soviet Union. "He experienced an almost
physiological torment, parting with his flexible native language”.

Vladimir Nabokov, who lived on this occasion, said: “I am
an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied
French literature before moving to Germany for fifteen years. ...My head
speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French”.

---- He actually spoke German very well -- he read Freud in German.


_________________________________________
Vladimir Nabokov born (22-4-1899)

Newsgroups: sci.lang by: Ross Clark - Mon, 22 Apr 2024

Now there's a linguistically interesting writer.
Grew up in an upper-class Russian family where of course much French was
spoken. Also had an English-speaking nanny.


"The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and
Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. He related that the first
English book his mother read to him was Misunderstood (1869) by Florence
Montgomery. Much to his patriotic father's disappointment, Nabokov could
read and write in English before he could in Russian."


Every time Nabokov comes up, I want to refer to an exchange between him
and the critic Edmund Wilson that I read long ago, in which N amusingly
shows up the irreducible subjectivity of people's judgments about the
"character" or "quality" of different languages.
Trouble is I can't find it any more. I've tried.


(...) it's late. Maybe somebody else will have some thoughts.

[bertietaylor]

Post by HenHanna
interesting that VN was born on 4-22 and Conan Doyle was born on 5-22.
(and Joyce on 2-2)
........... an exchange between him and the critic Edmund Wilson that I
read long ago, in which Nabokov amusingly
shows up the irreducible subjectivity of people's judgments about the
"character" or "quality" of different languages.
----- do you remember Anything else?
(about what he said?)
--------------- is this in a letter by VN ?
i have the (paper) book of Nabokov-Wilson letters.
i'll look into it.
“Nabokov wrote about the difficulties of rebirth in his
letters as about agony”, - the writer Viktor Yerofeev notes in the
preface to the first of four volumes of the collected works published in
the homeland in the Soviet Union. "He experienced an almost
physiological torment, parting with his flexible native language”.
Vladimir Nabokov, who lived on this occasion, said: “I am
an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied
French literature before moving to Germany for fifteen years. ...My head
speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French”.
---- He actually spoke German very well -- he read Freud in German.
_________________________________________
Vladimir Nabokov born (22-4-1899)
Newsgroups: sci.lang by: Ross Clark - Mon, 22 Apr 2024
Now there's a linguistically interesting writer.
Grew up in an upper-class Russian family where of course much French was
spoken. Also had an English-speaking nanny.
"The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and
Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. He related that the first
English book his mother read to him was Misunderstood (1869) by Florence
Montgomery. Much to his patriotic father's disappointment, Nabokov could
read and write in English before he could in Russian."
Every time Nabokov comes up, I want to refer to an exchange between him
and the critic Edmund Wilson that I read long ago, in which N amusingly
shows up the irreducible subjectivity of people's judgments about the
"character" or "quality" of different languages.
Trouble is I can't find it any more. I've tried.
(...) it's late. Maybe somebody else will have some thoughts.

Nabokov wrote about disgusting stuff very well. Thus he was appreciated by the English elites, whose greatest desire is well, to do what even us doggies will not mention, let alone do. Arindam got that impression after reading the posts of the misc.writing and rec.arts.books great-greats in the days when Usenet was the only online.

woof-woof

bt

[HenHanna]

..My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French”.

Post by HenHanna
---- He actually spoke German very well -- he read Freud in German.

Nabokov wrote about disgusting stuff very well. Thus he was appreciated by the English elites, whose greatest desire is well, to do what even us doggies will not mention, let alone do. Arindam got that impression after reading the posts of the misc.writing and rec.arts.books great-greats in the days when Usenet was the only online. woof-woof bt

----------------- Why don't you elaborate on that 1st point.


______________________________

Post by HenHanna

I am at a loss to understand your liking Malraux's books ( or are you just kidding me? or is literary taste so subjective a matter that two persons of discrimination can be at odds in such a simple case as this?).

He is quite a third-rate writer (but a good kind man, a very decent fellow).
J'ai dresse a little list of questions (regarding La Condition Humaine) which I suggest you answer.
1. What are those interesting .............

[bertietaylor]

...My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French”.

Post by HenHanna
---- He actually spoke German very well -- he read Freud in German.

Nabokov wrote about disgusting stuff very well. Thus he was appreciated by the English elites, whose greatest desire is well, to do what even us doggies will not mention, let alone do. Arindam got that impression after reading the posts of the misc.writing and rec.arts.books great-greats in the days when Usenet was the only online. woof-woof bt

----------------- Why don't you elaborate on that 1st point.

woof-woof, thanks for not kill-filing me, as I expect all the Arindam-haters have done unto me.

Some 20-25 years ago, there was only usenet around for online chit-chat. Ancient academics like Francis Muir of Stanford would hold forth their views in usenet. Arindam naturally respected them to begin with, but that respect evaporated when he knew them better, from their writings in such groups as rec.arts.books and misc.writing. Nowadays those groups are practically unpopulated, what with the march of time, but such was definitely not the case before facebook came up. Then, under the leadership of one Meg Worley they made a grand exit to form a facebook group known as "prancing half-wits".

Researchers can plumb the depths using the search functions in google groups, hopefully they are all still archived.

Anyway, a few points did stick to Arindam's mind. First, the complete lack of any absolute moral basis for existence, with self-gratification being the only goal - at least for the academic types. So what gratifies the academic self the most? Most disgustingly, as Arindam found out after the group's admiration of Nabokov, what gratifies the Westerner most is sex with the under-age. So, Nabokov - author of Lolita, a novel where the protagonist is an old creep has sex with his landlady's minor daughter - was the most admired writer for the academics.

It was not as if their selves did not seek other gratifications. They did complain about their mothers' bad cooking; and lamented the vegetable oil instead of lard used in MacDonald fries.

From lack of food and sex, viciousness was the result. They were all overjoyed with the attacks on Iraq, by Bush2, while Arindam was horrified.


bt