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/lit/ - Literature

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4054190 No.4054190 [Reply] [Original]

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/08/23/nabokov-on-joyce/

"Of teaching Ulysses, Vladimir Nabokov wrote, “Instead of perpetuating the pretentious nonsense of Homeric, chromatic, and visceral chapter headings, instructors should prepare maps of Dublin with Bloom’s and Stephen’s intertwining itineraries clearly traced.”"

>> No.4055251

>>4054190
Nabokov was cool when he was talking about books he loved, but an annoying twat when he was talking about books he hated.

That said, I'll never understand why he didn't consider Ulysses to be "literature of ideas" (which he hated) and why he loved Kafka, despite some Freudian themes that would have been apparent.

I'm not saying either is bad, but he seems really inconsistent. Why is Pynchon literature of ideas and not Joyce? Why is Dostoevsky Freudian and not Kafka?

I think when it comes down to it, Nabokov loved books which were apolitical and ahistorical. He loved Madame Bovary but said Sentimental Education was shit. Loved Anna Karenina but said War and Peace was shit.

>> No.4055519

>>4055251
>That said, I'll never understand why he didn't consider Ulysses to be "literature of ideas"
Because 'Ulysses' is about as deep as a puddle of spilled beer.

>Why is Pynchon literature of ideas and not Joyce?
Because Pynchon is firmly within the sci-fi tradition, and the sci-fi tradition always valued greatly 'literature of ideas'.

>> No.4055546

>>4055251
>Dostoevsky and Kafka
I haven't read any Nabokov on them but I'd assume it's because Dostoevsky's plots are more grounded in reality. Look at something like The Metamorphosis and it's basically an experiment with the idea, much less so than any of Dostoevsky's literature.

>> No.4055548

>>4055546
>less so
damn it

>> No.4055606

>perpetuating the pretentious nonsense of Homeric, chromatic, and visceral chapter headings

shouldn't this be just the /lit/ headline?

>> No.4055674

>>4055251
>That said, I'll never understand why he didn't consider Ulysses to be "literature of ideas"

Because, underneath all the frills, Ulysses is essentially a work of social realism. It's a novel about people.

>> No.4056517

Why was Nabokov so literal-minded?

>"I have to know every alley in Dublin."
>"I have to exactly what species of insect Gregor Samsa turned into."