i left Nabakov at work, but toward the end of Lolita he writes about Protestant Atheists. Humbert tells the reader he's been a Protestant Atheist and done things the Protestant Atheist way until, in his madness after Lolita left him, he convalesced to another insane asylum and decided to take up the confessional services of a priest.
I had to laugh reading the book because it was right after the convo her about florid writing. Early on in the book - like the 3rd or 4th page - Humbert asks the reader to forgive his florid writing in what read to me as an ironic wink at the reader. He's writing like this,he says, because he's being watched in jail. I don't have the book so I can't quote it but, for mine, while I admired Nabakov's writing, it was a little too much after awhile. For me, when a writer fails at it is when you see her working it a little too hard. You shouldn't see the process. You shouldn't see an author working it. They've fallen in love with some witty use of metaphor or allusion, too proud of it to let it go when its superfluous or jarring or out of place.
At 09:27 PM 1/30/2010, Chris Doss wrote:
>Doug, it's just a fact. Jewishness is conceived of ethnically in large
>parts (most) of the world, including Israel. Otherwise, the notion of
>"secular Jew" would make no sense. You may not like it, but that's the way
>it is.
>
>Hannah Arendt had a big argument with Karl Jaspers about this in the
>1920s. He kept insisting that she was a German, which she believed to be
>horseshit: "Anyone can see that I am not."
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Those Jews, rootless cosmopolitans, eh?
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