EFTA01762195.pdf

From: Ed Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013 2:43 PM To: Epstein, Jeff Subject: Happy Birthday Hi Jeff Happy Birthday. Also thanks for the coffee (Jennifer is a superb =rewer). In looking back at my class notes, you may be interested in =abokov's first-day of instructions to the students in Lit 311 on =onday, September 14, 1953, the first day of his day of teaching at =ornell. It was also my first lecture course. After telling us to =ake (and stay in) numbered seats in the lecture hall (which had about =00 seats), and introducing Vera Nabokov. Who sat on a chair on stage =acing him. as the course assistant, he said what we, readers, needed =o read novels was 1)a good memory 2)artistic feelings, and 3) a good =ictionary. He then said it was a fatal mistake, though a current =rend in academia, to search for historical or social meaning because a =reat novel is a pure invention by the author, and like nature, a =eception. He also warned against identifying with any of the =haracters/ Instead, he said we should be looking for "a tingling in =he spine." The author were enchanters, and created their effects by =rchestrating details that evoked pictures in our head. PS. I don't think I ever got through The Gift, though, fdollowing his =nstructions, I bathed myself in the details Best regards Ed Epstein www.edwardjayepstein.com <?xml version=.0" encoding=TF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "- //Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version=.0"> <dict> <key>date-last-viewed</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>date-received</key> <integer>1358692958</integer> <key>flags</key> <integer>8623750145</integer> <key>gmail-label-ids</key> <array> <integer>22</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array> <key>remote-id</key> <string>270244</string> </dict> </plist> 1 EFTA_R1_00067429 EFTA01762195