SLSL: Herbert Gold/Nabokov

[Wasted Words]

--- MalignD at aol.com wrote:
> 
>  morewastedwords at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> << How is that P doesn't write like N?  >>
> 
> Your suggestion is that, had P taken VN's course, he
> would?

no. my suggestion is that he doesn't write like N.
since we are discussing the apprentice works of P
(btw, i think  P's mature novels continue to suffer
from some of the problems that plague his short
stories and lot49) it's worth considering  what P
might have learned from N's lectures had he taken them
and put into practice some of N advice to young
student reader-writers of fiction. N did not directly
advise his students to write as he did, but much of
N's practical  advise is fundamental (elementary but
by no means simple and as he says, not always
something that can be taught but can be improved if
one is gifted with the talents) and since N is a
master of the fundamentals his fictions would have
served as good examples of what young writers and
readers should look for and strife for.  

> 
> There's also this reason, same as why no one else
> does:  he couldn't if he 
> wanted to.

only minor poets do this. P and N are not minor poets.



Another point, P's aesthetics are radically diferent
from N. but that doesn't make him a lesser poet. 

I find myself argueing with N. 
after he gets the better of my I walk away and sing: 

"What shall we do with all this useless beauty?" 

Sometimes I hear him in the echoes of my brownstone
mind saying, "listen to it." 

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com