Slog - Comments on That Vladimir http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir It's hard to believe that the bespectacled man in this clip... ...is the author of these lines: My pillow smelled of her hair. I moved toward my glimmering darling, stopping or retreating every time I thought she stirred or was about to stir. A breeze from wonderland had begun to affect my thoughts, and now they seemed couched in italics, as if the surface reflecting them were wrinkled by the phantasm of that breeze. The man on the clip (the one not smoking) is a massive bore. He is bloated, stuffy, awkward, and needs cards to say things he has... Copyright 2008 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:48:55 -0800 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:53:02 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Bwana No, Charles, YOU'RE a massive bore. He's a massive boor.

]]> Bwana http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990038 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990038 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:21:52 -0800 Comment by Fnarf I can't watch the clip right now, but if it's what I think it is, VN always used cards when he was interviewed. It's frankly a miracle if you found footage of him being interviewed in person; he always insisted on written answers to written questions. "I speak like a child", he said. His product was books, not speech.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990039 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990039 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:23:14 -0800 Comment by Tim Appelo Volodya Nabokov was not a bore, and he's charming in this clip. He wasn't great at speaking in English, so he prepared his comments ahead of time, and after this early interview, pretty much always insisted on editing--essentially writing--his responses, which were always great. I think Trilling is more the bore here, though his arrogant claim that you can't trust writers to see what's in their own books fetched a priceless grin from VN.

]]> Tim Appelo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990054 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990054 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:37:33 -0800 Comment by charles mudede tim, my debt to nabokov is so deep, i need to find a way to overcome him, to hate him, to look down on him. anything! just get him out of my way.

]]> charles mudede http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990100 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990100 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:07:40 -0800 Comment by michael strangeways cut him some slack; it's the pre-media age.

and he's more at home with butterflies than people.

]]> michael strangeways http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990137 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990137 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:22:14 -0800 Comment by Grant Cogswell Trilling is just chillin'. Probably remembering from Keats' letters (which he edited, brilliantly) where K says that the poet is 'the least poetical of creatures'.

Bwana, you're a BOER.

]]> Grant Cogswell http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990272 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/that_vladimir#c990272 Books Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:53:02 -0800