Vladimir Nabokov - The Metamorphosis

[dpthomas37]

dude. 7:09 to 8:00 there is no blinking. damnnn

[berguss22]

brillian man

[Pupsweet]

I think Plummer does a pretty good job of doing him. Have any of you watched the real Nabokov? Noticed his very odd accent. I think this is an interesting take on him.

[hyperscooby]

Christopher Plummer totally sucks here. And you really should say that this is Plummer and NOT Nabokov in your blurb for the video...

[MrClipper23]

@hyperscooby Oh, settle down, you snob.

[SyntheticEspionage]

Why did he put his glasses on to just take them off again 5 seconds later...

[rushnerd]

@SyntheticEspionage

Dude, if had glasses I would be taking them off ALL the time for dramatic effect too!

[DonalLynchyou]

Where there is beauty there is pity.

[4fitter27]

this class is pulling some major ass-kissing, his jokes are not that funny

[johnjosmith42]

@4fitter27 Perhaps, and forgive me here - I may be stating the obvious - that's because you're a slavering dolt? No?

[4fitter27]

@johnjosmith42 not sure what i said that qualifies me as a "slavering dolt".

[4fitter27]

@4fitter27 I guess you think I didn't get the jokes. I got them all, I just don't find them funny. Are you like realted to Nabokov or something, or just mad at life?

[Dipthefal]

I like that Nabokov's lecturing style has become oddly fused with stand-up comedy in this film...

[rasocolmo]

Grandezza di autore, grandezza di insegnamento.

[emmy922]

i love how he says gregor... gregoooor

[pecdec8705]

BOOTAY will never, NEVER, die!

[Lyleiscool]

Kurt Vonnegut took Nabokov's literature classes.

[cvvemuri]

What a horrible rendition of Nabokov's voice.

This is nothing like the upper class Russian English he actually spoke.

This is a British-French-pretentious bullshit mish mash

Fuck this

ps: JD Salinger's amazing

[PresidentUzi]

@cvvemuri This doesn't sound British or French, I don't know what it is.

[Doubtbreak]

Well people usually think it's a cockroach, but kofka actually specified to his publisher that he didn't want any bug on metamorphosis' cover. I'm guessing he wanted to leave it up to the reader to imagine.

[carsanookdotcom]

@Doubtbreak I like your kool spelling KOFKA. Wow!

[thatsnottmyname]

@carsanookdotcom Accidental typing, my bad. Let's not get pretentious, now.

[samioni]

I always saw a millipede type insect with a shell. I don't think Kafka wanted to name an insect, he just wanted it to be monsorous and dirty.

[fluidgripe]

the original german for insect was roughly 'vermin'

[CocteauDalighari]

@fluidgripe True: Ungeziefer.

[lzlsanatomy]

Beetle? I always had cockroaches in mind!

[ionpal]

@lzlsanatomy Me too. 

[acermusika]

Nabokov would cherish this wonderful performance from a genius actor. Very addictive !

[acermusika]

I had a French teacher who spoke a bit like this.He came from Switzerland I think,If you made a mistake he called you a DIRTY CABBAGE.Food for thought there!

[nanaflorinha]

1.Cubra sua boca com a mão

2. Faça um desejo

3.Feche sua mão (punho)

4.Ponha sua mão no coração durante 5 segundos

5. Envie isto para mais 3 vídeos

6. Amanhã vai ser o melhor dia da sua vida

[prahasct]

this is pathetic!!! if Kafka would see this he would suffer!

[caramelizeme]

@prahasct apropos

[ijoan]

With new eyes will I re-read this story ... THis clip is amazing--

[cympltun]

I can't believe this exists! Thank you thank you thank for posting it!

[designerkitten]

The man himself seems as captivating as his works

[AuthorityFigure]

I read the real lecture some time ago. It's so good. Surprisingly, this is spot on. Pretty impressive that Plummer memorized Nabokov's actual words so exactly. Props for Plummer.

[geezwoman]

Would've been interesting to watch--or listen--to one of Nabokov's actual lectures.

[septip123]

Salinger said no one should take a course in literature. Waste of time

[xHarry2112x]

No one should read Salinger. Waste of time.

[weikko79]

Apart from the short story that even *Nabokov* liked ("A Perfect Day for Bananafish"), I agree with you.

[xHarry2112x]

I've just recently read some of Salinger's short stories, including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." His short stories are certainly better than his novels, "Bananafish" being the standout best. Although he is excessive with dialogue (good dialogue, often, but excessive), when he breaks for a gesture or a minor stroke to the scene the story immediately brightens. He certainly does like crossing and uncrossing legs!

[weikko79]

I agree. Not only is he excessive with dialogue, but some of his mannerisms -- like italicizing only one syllable of a word -- are, in the end, just mannerisms. But he is a master in using gestures to enliven the story. There are many gestures that stay with you forever after reading a Salinger story -- like some bits with an ashtray in "Franny & Zooey", or numerous things in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" -- much as bits of dialogue can stay with you.

[andrewtheman19]

@xHarry2112x

Nonsense. People hate on Salinger because they think that Holden Caulfield is intended to be a perceptive hero. This mistake is understandable for teenagers who adore the Catcher in the Rye, but more mature readers scoff. Caulfield is supposed to be an examination of adolescence...of course he's naive and annoying--this only shows that Salinger wrote him very well.

Even if one can't stand The Catcher in the Rye, his other short stories were insightful and poignant.

[hilalmir]

can anybody (svsugvcarter preferably) upload the rest of the video....i think itz half an hour video

[hilalmir]

can anybody (svsugvcarter preferably) upload the rest of the video pleeez...i think itz half an hour video

[naturbouy]

Is Naturbouy reallt, THE SINGING JOURNALIST?

[naturbouy]

It's only a sodden building and with 2 megs RAM. I get 17 seconds every minute Ndime Nabuko. "This is the guy who made Lolitta" comment kills me. These guys are all over YouTube. They are vocabularly challenged. Then you get the 'lowdown on the subject' experts. These guys know everything! Yes Rog this would be an actor. I was 'looking for kafka' --wait a minute is that a novel name or what?

[teflonmagnet]

i wanted to hate the great canadian ham, christopher plummer, but he acquits himself quite handily.

[adelfiano]

This is not Nabokov, this is an actor, and a rather bad and ridicolous one too

[wormdrink414]

@adelfiano Based on the few videos I've seen of Nabokov, Plummer is spot on. He adds a booming British backbone to the accent, but otherwise, its a marvelous performance.

[MrClipper23]

@adelfiano You're an idiot. Christopher Plummer is one of the most accomplished actors around.

[dantean]

@adelfiano THAT'S why it begins with a credit: "Starring Christopher Plummer", eh? I get it now, thanks to your astute observation. If you hurry it may not be too late to see whether you can't rescind the "bad and ridicolous" (sic) Christopher Plummer's Tony Awards and numerous film critics' awards (if not for this particular performance) before it is too late. Hurry! The local bowling alley in (name of your town here) is almost sure to still be open by the time you return. Go! Quick!

[adelfiano]

@dantean he could be Jesus Christ: even then I find this performance a ridiculous caricature. By the way, my remark referred to the title, which i find captious. I suggest that you go and read Kafka's masterpiece instead, you'll see the difference between (unintentional) caricature and real art.

[GoatShadow]

dude, this is the guy who made Lolita????

[Cadmusproject]

Yes!

[justanotherturnip]

No, this is Christopher Plummer acting like the guy who wrote "Lolita."

[dinnerbucket9]

The ah-cent is atrocious. Boris Karloff meets Derrida, or the person bringing Derrida his fried egg sandwich. Also, the camera work is shoddy and some of the students costumes absurd....But, then, so fucking what; the words, the presentation, is a howling delight and might begin to stir up, in the minds of sleeping student passengers, a new way of experiencing the novel and the world.

[dinnerbucket9]

Why would anyone try to 'tart up' a university lecture in this manner? I well know Nabokov composed many of his works on 3x5 index cards, in laser sharp graphite, standing at a lectern, wearring mismathced argile socks, his great, unbuttered Prussian dome a sort of floodlight, a moored spaceship waiting to take up, to his difficult heaven, the asembled 'vulgarians'

[tomatoplz]

pause for laughs

[barb112657]

What a spectacular performance.

[zverina]

this is ludicrous. the ah-cent is atrrrocious and seems to vacillate between french, british, and zemblan. nabokov's lectures were prepared down to the last word, and you can see in his tv appearances that he relies of notecards even when he is supposedly speaking extemporaneously. why would anyone try to tart up a university lecture in this manner? one is better off reading the lectures or watching footage of the man himself. ugh.

[FabioGrohI]

The best part, not actually the best one of course, is when he starts talking about kafka's metamorphosis, everyone turns around and starts writting down what he says... What a respectful man.

[jewfizzle]

6:20 made me laugh so hard! when he's putting his glasses on, oh man!

[forloveoffilm]

Oh my! I knew of this project when it was filmed, in 1981 at Carnegie-Mellon, for PBS. I was an extra and can be seen in the opening lecture. I thought this had ended on the shelves never to be seen. So it does exist; I will be adding this title to my collection. "The Metamorphosis - A Study: Nabokov on Kafka"

Thanks for posting!

[Hemulen40]

Great vid ! But would have been even greater had we gotten to see and hear the real Nabokov .

[LockedPig]

I'm proud of Nabokov that he is russian =)

[pomiks]

keske turkce alt yazilarida olsaydi :(

[recklessthinker]

This is the reasoned I joined you tube!

[damiongringe]

You have the only good reason.

[ALPHCE]

This comes directly from the book "Nabokov's Lectures On Literature" which also contains discussions of Joyce, Proust, Flaubert, etc. Does anybody know whether Christopher Plummer played Nabokov in any of the other lectures?

[aGua421]

anyone know when this was shot?

[menorca1571]

nabokov was an asshole ignorant of spain. His boook on Don Quixote is shit.

CERVANTES RULES!!!

[thula2]

I seriously suggest you go into literary criticism. A book titled " Nabokov was an Asshole; Cervantes Rules" would be much more interesting than Nabokov's essays on European classics, Russian literature and some spick and his fat fuck friend.

[fuckyourmamma]

LOL. "A Fat Fuck and his Spic: Notes on Cervantes" Best name for a textbook, ever!

[columbusclipper]

Allrighty then.

[billgbg]

Man, what a fantastic actor this guy is!

[ALPHCE]

This video is now out on DVD. I think the tilte is simply "Kafka's, The Metamorphosis". The actor is Christopher Plummer; I saw him in a one man act on Broadway playing the actor John Barrymore-one of the best performances I have ever seen. This DVD is a gem - Plummer, playing Nabokov, lecturing on Kafka. Does it get any better for an aesthete?

[gombro]

Thanks for posting. This is the type of material that YouTube needs.

[evenfiercernow]

Previous commentators are right, Plummer is pretty close to VN as I've heard him. He could speak with, to quote on interviewer, 'a dramatic Cambridge accent' but this would flag after a while. He put it beautifully himself: "I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child".

[crimm1984]

Compare the actor's performance to Nabokov's real voice:

 libraries. psu.ed u /nabokov /realaud. ht m

(reconstruct it yourselves)

Plummer sounds pretty damn close to the original thing, in my opinion. No doubt Nabokov would protest that Plummer's long 'Os' are ochre or some other terrestrial color, while his 'Os' are a weak solution of blue.

[ondine55]

Those Cornell students were damn lucky! It's wonderful to get a sense of VN's remarkable lecturing skills... However, he never delivered lectures extemporaneously; he always read from meticulously prepared notes...But I suppose that'd be pretty boring on film!

[ramesesthesecond]

It's interesting, but why on earth is Nabokov played with a strong French accent??? Did the actor not realize he was Russian? I've heard recordings of his voice, his accent isn't obviously foreign.

[invitation82]

this is not really a French accent..and it very much resembles Nabokov's accent. Afterall, his accent was a patois to a certain extent :-)

[inbatwin]

Не had a very slight accent. He spoke English, Russian and French from the very childhood and, moreover, spent his early years in Cambridge. So you are right. I don't understand it either

[evenfiercernow]

Been a Nabokov fan all my life - even learned Russian because of him - didn't know about this excellent performance by Plummer. Can anyone post famous French interview on Apostrophe where he had whisky concealed in teapot?

[inbatwin]

Znaesh russky? Zdorovo!

[mojohnston]

where's Vera?

[jmelo]

zcelente..

[lenochka222]

Can you please post this documentrary in full? It stops so abruptly. :-(

[mojohnston]

how i would have loved to take this class