:) !!!

[corivax]

From a 1969 interview with Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, by Alden Whitman of the New York Times, found here:

Q: How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past

Comments

[beaq]

Oh, that's wonderful!

I buttcone Nabokov! He's my favorite genius.

Er, what?

[corivax]

... 'buttcone'

[gfish]

I've only read Lolita, but it was so amazingly brilliant I'm afraid to read anything else of his, in case it was a fluke.

[beaq]

No fluke, dude.

I haven't been able to get into Ada, cuz it's giant and I was trying to do it on a bus, but signs point to OMG yes. I recall not what other novel I read....

There's a compilation of short stories out, edited by his son, I think. Try it as an appetizer? (OK, yes, his son.)

{grin}

[beaq]

<3

conebutt, I suppose, if one is being l-->r -centric.

Re: {grin}

[corivax]

I think I may have to adopt that terminology!

putting on my pedant hat

[twoeleven]

there's a big difference between proposing an invention and reducing it to practice. the guy who does the latter is usually called the inventor. some french guy :) proposed a manned moon mission back in the 19th c., but it was some other random americans that made the giant leap a while later.

OMGWTFNABOKOV

[callmem]

Half of me says "wtf" and the other half says "how like him!". I'm reading Pale Fire right now (his novel written in the form of a commentary on a long poem by a slightly clueless and probably insane commentator) and like I said to Mom the other day- "You know he wrote chess puzzles, but did you know he wrote actual chess puzzles?"
Thank you for sharing this delightful bit of information!

[catamorphism]

IIRC, that interview appears in _Strong Opinions_, which is a collection of his nonfiction writing; in any case, it's an incredibly fun book.