Forbidden Planet Back Issues

"... What I feel in the modern world is the real world the artist creates, his own mirage, which becomes a new mir ("world" in Russian) by the very act of his fall, so to speak, the age he lives. "Such a response Nabokov once gave to an interviewer who was interested in her opinion in the modern world and contemporary politics. The book containing this interview and many others, the right of opinionated, and, indeed, Nabokov was well known not only for his brilliant fiction, but for his original and uncompromising views on creativity, art and independent role of the artist in the world. When interviewed, he avoided discussing the "general ideas" such as social, political and moral and stated that these global problems outside the realm of art: "A work of art has no importance to society. It is only important for the individual and the individual reader is important to me. I do not care for the group, community, the masses, and so on ... It can not be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, its art. A work of art, Nabokov is a world unto itself, driven by his creative imagination. It conducts its own independent existence, unrelated to its historic surroundings and realities. In the introduction to his course on Literature Nabokov once said: "... The real writer, one who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper's rib, that kind of author has not given its values disposal: he must establish himself . The art of writing is a useless if it does not mean first the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of fiction. " In this statement, visions of cosmic grandeur and an obvious reference to the story of Adam and Eve reflect a parallel between the creator-artist and creator of God. In an interview, Nabokov explicitly in this comparison: "A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. It must have the innate ability not only to recombination, but to recreate the given world.

Nabokov's position is, to some extent a reaction to the situation in Soviet Russia, where the requirements of the state dominated by the needs of a human being, where the individual has been removed by the collective and the details generalities. It affirms once more the power and independence of personal creativity, the ability of the imagination to build their own worlds, and makes a clear distinction between a work of fiction and everything outside of it including the personality of its creator. "Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art. "

Nabokov insisted on a specific approach to literature and readers. He renounced the habitual tendencies to identify with the characters in a book, looking for clues about the social and political realities of the time the work was written, or trying to create "general ideas, "a book without absorbing all its specific details. emotional involvement, he said, could also prevent the player from the objective assessment of work "... A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine . This is what happens the Tingle witness, even if we keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading.

Nabokov avoid formulating his ideas under the famous slogan "art for art ', as he avoided the labels of all kinds, but this well-known phrase can not the UN.