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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!wfi
From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest   V10 #361
Message-ID: <416@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 12:00:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.416
Posted: Mon Sep 23 12:00:43 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 03:26:40 EDT
References: <3659@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 44
Summary: 

In article <3659@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> cracraft@isi-vaxa.ARPA writes:

>Folks, if you want a really BRILLIANT novel that extends the
>concept of what it means to *BE* a novel, please read
>Vladimir Nabokov's LOLITA. Forget everything you've heard
>about it from 'old wives' concerned about their children and
>all that usual clap-trap. Go into it with an open mind, get
>past the first difficult 20-30 pages, and you will have found
>the gem of all novels.

Exactly (although 'gem of all novels' may be overstating it). I 
recommend highly the Appell (sp?) annotated version, which has 
copious notes discussing the text and a lot of information about
Nabokov's writing of the novel. I've read this book 4 times and
continue to find new delights in it.

Oh, yes: Lolita has NOTHING to do with pornography. If you want to
know what it IS about, get the Appell edition and read it.
 
>Since I read the book 5 years ago, nothing, REPEAT NOTHING, I have
>read has come close. In fact, Nabokov and his wily ways may have
>done permanent damage to my ability to enjoy novels. Sadly, none
>of Nabokov's other novels even comes close to this one work,
>so it really stands alone.

I'm afraid I disagree on Nabokov's other novels; I've read several
of his other books 2 or 3 times and have found them NEARLY as
rewarding as Lolita. Lolita is, however, a towering masterpiece of
post-WW2 literature beside which most other novels written since 1950
(including Nabokov's) pale in comparison. I highly recommend new
readers start with Lolita, then try Laughter In The Dark or maybe
Despair or Pnin, then Ada and Pale Fire (perhaps his strangest book).
They all have something interesting and valuable to offer the careful
reader.

Oh, yes, in my opinion in my opinion in my opinion. But before you
start flaming us for even SUGGESTING a non-SF book to readers of this
group, go check out the last few lyrical paragraphs in Lolita. It soars, 
it soars. Roughly from memory:

       I am talking about aurochs and angels, the immortality of
       pigment, the only immortality we shall ever know, my Lolita.

                            -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly


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