A man who needs no introduction...

This weekend was a killer, and actual content is on the way, but for now I wanted to call attention to something new on the sidebar: Nabokov interviews.  You'll have to scroll for the English versions, but it's worth it, especially if you don't have your copy of Strong Opinions on you at all times.  I could post excerpts of these until everyone involved is bored to tears, but won't.

OK, well, here's one:

Is it right for a writer to give interviews?     

Why not? Of course, in a strict sense a poet, a novelist, is not a public figure, not an exotic potentate, not an international lover, not a person one would be proud to call Jim. I can quite understand people wanting to know my writings, but I cannot sympathize with anybody wanting to know me. As a human specimen, I present no particular fascination. My habits are simple, my tastes banal. I would not exchange my favorite fare (bacon and eggs, beer) for the most misspelt menu in the world. I irritate some of my best friends by the relish with which I list the things I hate--nightclubs, yachts, circuses, pornographic shows, the soulful eyes of naked men with lots of Guevara hair in lots of places. It may seem odd that such a modest and unassuming person as I should not disapprove of the widespread practice of self-description.

(I can't, for the life of me, understand why some people think VN is a humorless snob.  I mean: "the soulful eyes of naked men with lots of Guevara hair in lots of places"?  C'mon!  Not to mention the sublime irony driven home in that last sentence.)

Comments

[CAAF]

Also, I'd love to have heard the intonation of "not a person one would be proud to call Jim." Heh.

[Sam]

Actually, whoever OCR'd this transcript was none-too-careful a proofreader. Like this sentence, for example:

"What T really like about the better kind of public colloquy is the opportunity it affords me to construct in the presence of my audience the semblance of what I hope is a plausible and nor altogether displeasing personality."

Which makes me wonder -- did he really say "Jim"?

[CAAF]

Maybe actual quote was the Michikoesque "not a person one would be proud to limn"????

[Rake]

I've checked my copy of SO: Nabokov sez "Jim."

As for the passage you identified, it should be "What I really like..." but it's otherwise faithful to my print copy. Still, one must be careful with what one finds on these here internets.

[CAAF]

See, Rake, how bad can any Monday be that has one scurrying off to consult with SO?

[Jenny D]

Yes, that Jim line is priceless, it's definitely what jumps out at you. But surely it is a literal translation of some Russian idiom that we don't know about? (Or else VN's idiosyncratic adaptation of some bland and bureaucratic American idiom like "be on a first-name basis"--in French it would be "tutoyer"...) I have a feeling there's an explanation of this somewhere--any Nabokov junkies out there know if this is a private joke, a literal translation, etc.?

[Sam]

Actually Raker, that passage in SO must have "not" for "nor" too.

(Aren't I just an annoying SOB?)

[CAAF]

Jenny, I just assumed it was ventriliquized country-club chuffiness ("Please, call me Jim." "Proud to be on a first-name basis with you, sir.") But you raise interesting points ...

[Rake]

Sam: You win. I guess the moral of the story is not to cheap out but to do right by everyone and buy the real deal (which I already have, but still).

I'm not sure about this "Jim" business. I'm betting he's just making a joke on himself and his reputation as a high-falutin' intellectual (and not the buddy-buddy, salt-of-the-earth type you get to call Jim).*

*Which is somewhat ironic, too, because he was known to be pretty warm and funny and chummy with people on social occasions. He typically chose not to be so with interviewers (or bigots or philistines), somewhat understandably.