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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 92 KB, 1053x553, Nabokov Trees (1).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11535153 No.11535153 [Reply] [Original]

"Nabokov. Vladimir. American novelist and literature professor who once had something like the following conversation with a student at Cornell University:

>'Mr. Nabokov, I want to be a writer.' Nabokov looks up from his reading he points to a tree outside his office window.
>'What kind of tree is that?' he asks the student.
>'What?'
>'What is the name of that tree?' asks Nabokov. 'The one outside my window.'
>'I don't know,'says the student.
>'You'll never be a writer.' says Nabokov.

Do you know your trees?

>> No.11535181
File: 127 KB, 450x574, Eastern_White_Pine_450.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11535181

I hope so. . .

>> No.11535195
File: 247 KB, 500x483, 1532717327944.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11535195

he could have just made one up and it would have been fine

>> No.11535199
File: 166 KB, 497x500, Loblolly Pine.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11535199

Don't you know the difference between these two?
>>11535181

>> No.11535211

>>11535153
>'You'll never be a writer.' says Nabokov.
> Student was Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, whose interest was put on things other than homosexual trees.

>> No.11535216

I'm a forester, funnily enough.
I know my trees

>> No.11535259

>>11535153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0zVsxUbbjM

>> No.11535261

agronomist are the best writers, based Nabokov

>> No.11535264

>>11535153
Usually I disagree with Nabokov but I think he's right on this one.

>> No.11535269

>>11535153
Damn...

>> No.11535307

>>11535261
Who are some other agronomists?

>> No.11535317

>>11535195
Exactly, that's the whole point of the story.

>> No.11535322

>>11535195
>>11535264
>>11535317
What you have to do is leave the professor's office and find out the name of the tree. If you don't do that, you'll not be a writer. Or a botanist. Some combination of the passion of the scientist and the precision of the artist is needed to be a good student. Look up the words in this magazine that you don't know. Be able to name all the shrubs and trees in your college quadrangle. Learning is among other things, the accumulation of detail.

>> No.11535386

i remember hearing Updike saying something to that effect. The university wanted to allow students to get a creative writing Major, that's 4 years of nothing but creative writing, Updike objected by saying that people need to actually have something to write about. students need to take geology classes and know the hell it is they are standing on, rather then pend 4 years blindly indulging their stupefied hearts.

None listened of course and Writing majors are now a standard thing.

>> No.11535393
File: 137 KB, 1024x576, 1520715408466.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11535393

>>11535322
>professor asks you a question
>stand up and leave without saying a word

>> No.11535400

>>11535322
Or, like >>11535195 said, you just make something up. You bullshit. You TELL A STORY about the tree, because isn't that what you do as a writer? Tell stories?

>> No.11535401

>>11535386
How many great writers actually specialized in writing during their education?