Mail!

I got a package from Maryann today!

Before I moved we decided to continue our habit of book-lending via mail. I just recently sent her a book of Oscar Wilde's short fiction and Haruki Murakami's "After Dark" (which I had borrowed before I left). Now I get to read Kafka on the Shore, and I have to send Lolita.

Speaking of Nabokov, The Original of Laura is out... I just saw it at Barnes and Noble the other day. Nabokov was working on this novel when he died in 1977. He asked his wife and son to burn the manuscript, but now it's being published instead. GQ reported that Nabokov appeared to his son in a dream and told him to publish it. I find this more appealing than the actual story, which is that Dmitri gradually came to the decision to publish, thinks his father would approve, and doesn't mind if you ascribe supernatural motives to his decision if you find that more palatable. (I wish I could quote from his preface, but I don't have it in front of me--it was something along those lines, though.)

Anyway, the format of the book is what's really interesting. Nabokov did all his work on index cards (if you've read Pale Fire, it seems to be the same system used by the character John Shade), and the book consists of scans of each card, followed by the typewritten text. The cards are perforated so that you can punch them out and rearrange them, as Nabokov often did with his own work.

When I first heard about the book and the controversy surrounding its publication, I thought that Dmitri Nabokov did the right thing and that everyone saying "He's just doing it for the money!" needed to shut up and go read the Aeneid or something. Now that I've seen the book itself, I'm not so sure... I think the note card format is fascinating, but also pretty gimmicky. From a marketing standpoint, it was a brilliant move, since you pretty much have to buy two copies (one to play with and one to preserve in pristine condition). I'll probably get it eventually, although there are plenty of other Nabokov books I have yet to read (Speak, Memory and Laughter in the Dark are at the top of my list).