Nabokov and the moment of truth

[acousticaries]

Just once, I would like to go to the comments section of a video I stumble upon, and love, and not find an argument, often times unrelated to the subject matter of the video itself. Discussions are not always arguments, and vice-versa.

[1earflapping]

@mordred612,

Try Poems and Problems. It has 14 English poems and many poems in Russian that he translated into English. It's out of print, but it shows up occasionally in used bookstores, and probably you can get it online.

[mordred612]

I've been looking for a book of poetry written by Nabokov, but can't find one.

[sleepibeauti]

how beautifully strong the russian version sounds

[palefire1313]

I don't think anything can top Nabokov reading the intro to Lolita.

[carsanookdotcom]

Come on! He is overdoing the Russian bit. He is trying to be sarcastic.

Maybe it is better to read Nabokoff & than to watch him.

John K. Lindgren aka Dr John Carsanook

Emigre

Kingdom of Thailand

[carsanookdotcom]

There is a good Yale lit lecture on this book. Sur L'internet il y a des Yale lectures.

La vous troverez Nabokov , aussi.

Merci pour cette excellente telecharger.

Dr John

Kingdom of Thailand

[rubyrose456]

My Love! True Love....."First Love"....Thanks so much for this little film featuring one of our Greatest, Nabokov...and his spellbinding Magical GENIUS!!!! No other, for Me, has yet to make words, feelings...memories....All of Life; past, present, possible future.....beyond (?) "shine" like V.N's do!

[numerouss]

@rubyrose456 yes, he is my favorit too

[Beingmeansliberty]

Nabokov is not a great writer. 

[guglielmobelis]

@Beingmeansliberty Who is, then?

[MrViTopol]

@guglielmobelis Nabokov is a great writer, but his works translated into english don't play well at all, since english is too primitive a language to express complex moods and emotions.

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol you're a moron, i'm glad nabokov didn't feel the way you did when he translated his works into english himself

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 actually Nabokov said on many occasions that the primitivity of english was taking his toll on him, he suffered from dealing with englesh a lot. that's why he had to escape america by writing Lolita that allowed him to settle comfortably in Switzerland. thus, Nabokov felt just like me about your savage lingo, sucker.

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol yeah, and that means he felt that english couldn't express complex moods and emotions? because lolita, pale fire, and pnin are pretty simple? or is it a difficult language to express those emotions, which nabokov reveled in? i've never heard him call english primitive, although i have heard him exalt russian. but he also suffered with russian a lot. that's why he started writing in english. and those works came out beautifully, or he wouldn't have written them.

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 if you never heard him say how he suffered in the english millieu it's your censorship problem. feel free to trust your russophobic propaganda though... to each their own...

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol yeah russophobic propaganda? cause russia is doing great now and doesn't have some of the most serious corruption problems of any major industrialized country? and you think there's a censorship problem on my end... good god you're a moron

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 the last time i checked, engloond was going down the sewage drain. so i might throw you a life saver, moron. but i won't. if you are in america, shit is going to hit the fan there too. ciao sucker...

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol hahahahahahahah you think that england or the us are even remotely close to the situation in russia? you country has been dominated politically and economically by rampant, uncontrollable corruption for almost a century. the avenues of corruption are so deep-seated that there is no hope in the next few decades for sustaining even a moderately transparent government with the slightest integrity.

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol as a us citizen, i despised bush, but bush didn't come even remotely close to putin, who along with his cronies completely controls your country. hahaha but it's funny that you somehow can even pretend to think that the situation in the us or england is close to russia's. is your media over there really that pathetic? or are you really just that blind? thanks for the laugh, buddy. you actually made my day hahahahah

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 fake laughter won't help your situation in any way.

you're doomed. with Obama being Bush on steroids U.S. implodes within a couple of years. it'll be fun to watch...

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol hahaha even if obama was bush on steroids (i don't like either of them, but i'm not stupid enough to say that obama is worse than bush), the us will never be as fucked as russia, as least not in our lifetimes. hahah are all people in russia as blind/stupid as you? i'm glad my friends who have escaped that cesspool are not. maybe they only let the good ones out? hahahaha

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 you're fucked up and can't see it ?

ok, what psychiatric ward are you and your inmates in ?

i'll send you champagne and caviar from Russia.

too bad your hospital guards will steal them from you.

in american healthscare you're milked even if not covered ehhhhhhaha

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol hahah "i'll send you champagne and caviar from russia" hahah nice to see you guys still live in the 1950s when it comes to insults. too bad you guys killed or exiled all your intelligentsia. now your country has far too many morons like you.

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 in fascist america, hamburger flips you

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 in fascist america, trailer parks trash you

[MrViTopol]

@dogbert3002 how are your ''friends'' (meaning you...) doing on welfare and food stamps ?...

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol but feel free to remain in your moronic state of arrogance. i guess the value of the russian language is why russia is such a great country right now right? i'd rather live in almost any english speaking country rather than that wasteland of corruption

[dogbert3002]

@MrViTopol oh wait, by reading some of your other posts, i have come to realize that you are just a bigot. yeah keep touting that russian superiority, it's really working out for you and your country, isn't it? moron

[rapquinta]

@Beingmeansliberty

Indeed, he's a good writer and a great stylist.

[AlbinusMakedonion]

Nabokov is my favourite writer; his prose literally changed my life. Nevertheless, he said some contradictions (as anyone said sometime) about his own literature. In an interview he deny the fact that a writer always talks about one or maybe three specific themes (the favourite theme, maybe). But all of his novels detail the perfectionism in landscapes, the fear and isolation of the dispossessed and the doppelgaenger. So...

[TheIkaraCult]

bend sinister and pale fire are my favourites

[Ivorybird09]

@chuckles22... I meant Ada and other novels translated after his death. As for LOLITA, yes, it was written in a foreign language for VN (as I am saying I cannot say how well, I am not English, but the Russian translation is DEFINITELY done by him.)

[SebastianSlasherMP]

I was thinking this was a San Jose Sharks video when I clicked on the link?

[craxmen]

'I have notes here, in this copybook, about things I detest.' What a crank!

[SpaceCelt]

What is he getting at? Death in Venice isn't THAT bad. I love this guy - I really do - but sometimes he says/writes something and I just think.... whaaaaaat?

Excellent video though! Kudos on tracking this footage down!

[WhatExactlyisAJoke]

Is there any good modern writers/poets today?

[lafcadio1914]

fantastic !

[folklorette]

things that make you say 'hmm'

[dddaaaannnnn]

I'd never actually heard Nabokov admit to being the enemy of humility, though I'd always assumed it. He sort of takes the sting out of the criticism when he admits to it himself.

[Vlaqq]

Thank you again so MUCH for posting this gem!

[JiffySpook]

This is fantastic footage. Thank you. Fire of my loins.

[meredumais]

'Ils étaient heureux....car ils voulaient l'être.' 'They were happy because they wanted to be.'

If it were only that easy for all of us.

Vera was his muse until the end, her white hair untouched by dye, just as Lolita was for Humbert. Beautiful.

[ankagor]

thank u so much!

[acermusika]

I used to worry that I would never find another novel by Nabokov.I must say the last one was very ellusive.But his books can be enjoyed more than once.Imagine finding a stash of his books on a desert island.

[xHarry2112x]

Nov. 17 The Original of Laura is coming out. Don't know if you had heard about it but I'm excited.

[grausammesser]

I know I am.

Also, is it just me or do those index cards at 1:55 sound like the notes for ada?

[xHarry2112x]

They must be. I think it's the essay chapter that Van writes.

[pickpoche]

Indeed, the Texture of Time was "used" in Ada.

[alinytch]

Happy Birthday, Master ! One of the greatest for ever

[Flammenfisch]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to hear the Master's voice! I can think of few more aesthetically profitable endeavours than to dedicate one's life to the manifold pleasures of Nabokov's art. Thank Providence for this emissary of Paradise!

[EnnaSilme]

"I will never go back, for this simple reason, that all the Russia, I need, after all, is with me - allways with me." Oh, he sounds like Dante... :)

[EnnaSilme]

I love him, I allways will.

*gives a loveful hug to Mr Nabokov*

[hippoking]

Faulkner's "corncobby" chronicles? Hilarious.

[guschavoman]

my favourite writer ever, ever, ever! thanks extremely very much for post this! It's great! heavenly great!´ My favourite books are: 1. ADA OR ARDOR by Nabokov 2. PALE FIRE by Nabokov 3. FICTIONS by Jorge Luis Borges 4. HOPSCOTCH by Julio Cortazar 5. THE CANTERBURT TALES by Geoffrey Chaucer 6. THE MISFORTUNES OF VIRTUE by Marquis of Sade 7. DESPAIR by Nabokov 8. MY NAME IS RED by Orhan Pamuk 9. THE GAMBLER by Dostoievsky 10. EDGAR ALLAN POE'S complete works

[SourAlex85]

Hey, have you checked out invitation to beheading?

[ectoslavia]

1) V.N. and Dostoyevsky? One is sublime, a genius. The other is a degenerate whose prose is redolent of fever and flopsweat that one should outgrow by age 15 or so.

2) Poe's complete works do not constitute a single book.

[disturbiapixie]

that Nabokov allowed himself to be cavalierly dismissive of Dostoevsky does not signify that mere mortals should do likewise

[Milinskaya7]

@disturbiapixie Wait, where was he dismissive of Dostoevsky? I didn't see anything in this video.

[weikko79]

They could be printed in a single volume :P But I guess the original writer makes the complete TALES, anyway.

[Marcolopolis5]

Dostoevsky is the genius, correct?

Poe's complete works do constitute a single book. A rather thick book.

[michelangeli23]

I love Dostoyevsky, whatever Nabokov may say.

[Ivorybird09]

@michelangeli23

I love them both! They do have a lot in common. But Nabokov had a Jewish wife and simply could not forgive the fact that Dostoevsky was convinced that Jews were not good for Russia (he foresaw the Jewish revolution in Russia that destroyed it.

[michelangeli23]

@Ivorybird09

The Russian Revolution was not "a Jewish revolution". Your comment is illiterate nonsense and philistine idiocy.

Nabokov disliked Dostoevsky's novels (read his lectures on literature) for literary not political reasons.

[Ivorybird09]

Do not be so confident about what Nabokov really felt and thought. Nabokov's Alter Ego would not go that far, haha. N. had no reasons to "hate" Dostoevsky, but the latter was an open anti-Semite. Have you read "The Possessed"? Read any memories from the 20-s, 30-s? The term "Jewish Revolution" was widely accepted in Russian emigre circles. No need to discuss Bolshevik leaders & their nationalities here. Just don't be oblivious to the documented facts about HOW October Revolution was perceived.

[Ivorybird09]

@guschavoman Great choices! Nabokov wrote that one of the greatest Love stories was Anna Karenina. This my fav. Tolstoy's novel! It is perfect in every way, even though Tolstoy did not like it that much. Idiot by Dostoevsky is another fav. of mine. Obviously I cannot appreciate Nabokov in English but whatever he wrote in his native language is superb. As for translations of his English novels into Russian, I always feel that it is a translation (except Lolita, but he did that one himself)

[chuckles222]

@Ivorybird09 Lolita was originally written in english. And i'm pretty sure he was, at the very least, involved in all the translations of his work being trilingual.

[ginsoak]

@guschavoman

Great list. I could spend the rest of my life on Antiterra.

[doloreshaze1935]

My favorite writer.......Absolute star in literature heaven. Thanks a lot.

[x1235791113x]

His son is going to publish the work he asked be destoryed on his deathbed

[x1235791113x]

the "texture of time" actually became "Ada, or Ardor"

[x1235791113x]

or maybe transparent things

[Yogurthead]

"Ada"

[icehouse2626]

It's a great video. But Tolstoy's quote isn't correct. In Russian it goes like this:

Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему.

And it translates to English as "All happy families are alike and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"

[1vipera]

True, however Nabokov's reason to change Tolstoy's famous quote was to ridicule mistranslations of Russian classics.This was described by him in the annotations he wrote for "Ada,or Ardor".

[zs291]

this is delightful