Diary of a Network Geek

Today is the day in 1955 that Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita was first published.

Why could I possibly be celebrating a story I haven’t even read about middle-aged man who falls in love with a 12-year-old girl? Not for the story, or the subject matter, or even as a statement about censorship and publishing. No, I celebrate the publication because it was the turning point in Nabokov’s writing career. This book was so popular that he was able to give up his teaching position and write full-time.
I do not believe it is coincidence that the Writer’s Almanac ran this story today, the day after I wrote about buying a laptop, the modern equivalent of the writer’s Smith-Corona. The day after I wrote a post about dedicating myself more seriously to my writing, about burning my ship, so to speak, so that I had to move forward and conquer.

I think it is still possible to support one’s self entirely on writing. I hope it is and I hope, one day, to do just that.

One more thing…
A brief Craigslist update:  I got another e-mail from a second person who knows this college sweetie that told me she’d tell her the next time they talked on the phone.  Aha!  One step closer this time, as it’s someone who’s actually, currently involved in her life.
Stay tuned for updates!

I finished Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov over the weekend.
It was an interesting book, though not quite what I expected. The story, as such, is told via an introduction and a series of comments on a poem. The commentor is, or believes he is, the deposed king of an Eastern European country called Zembla. He reviews and annotates a poem, called “Pale Fire”, written by his neighbor and friend in a little, college town named New Wye, where the former king now lives in exile and teaches Zemblan and Zemblan literature to students at the local college. Frankly, it’s a little hard to tell if we are expected to believe that the view-point character is, in fact, a deposed monarch or if he’s just quietly stark, raving mad. There is plenty of evidence for either argument, but, I believe he’s living out some kind of delusion that seemed harmless and charming to his poetic neighbor, who took pity on him and befriended him.
In any case, it was an interesting book and a literary departure for me. It was also not quite what I expected from the author of Lolita. It was far more accessable than I would have thought and, though sex and homosexuality was a minor theme, not as focused on abberant behavior as I feared it might be. The insanity or delusions of the main character were quite subtle and presented in that strange, calm, almost reasonable way that only the truly insane can present their view of the world.
One of the reasons I got this book was for that ficticious kingdom and language. I was a little dissapointed that there wasn’t more Zemblan represented in the book. The few words and phrases were really just there to spice and flavor the created kingdom of Zembla. Still, it does serve as an excellent example of how a little foregin flavor can go a long way. Again, I was impressed with the subtlty with which Nabokov presented his work. He paints his word-pictures with a very fine brush. The tiny details highlight the over-sweeping whole.
So, while it was not exactly “light” reading, Pale Fire was a very pleasant read, especially for a piece of “classic literature”. I heartily reccomend it.
(Was that literary enough for you, Mark? ;))

But, good spelling is a little trickier!
Well, I finished that intellectual challenge, Airtight Willie & Me this weekend. It was actually a fairly good book. Though, as I got further into it, I was a little surprised to see that it was actually a series of not really related stories. The book takes its title from the first story, which is about a scam artist getting out of jail and being scammed himself by his partner. The O. Henry-like irony is actually quite sophisticated. Well, considering the source. Seriously, it’s a little strange considering my normal reading, but that’s why I chose that book. It’s a look at life from a perspective that I will, hopefully, never see or truly understand. It’s different. It’s a change. And, obviously, based on the length of time it took me to read it, not a very long book, either.
Currently, I’m reading Plot for about the third or fourth time. I go back to this book, and others in this series, when I have trouble writing. So, I read it every few years when I try to start writing again after a long hiatus. That’s where I’m at right now, ergo, I’m re-reading selected writing books to try and get jump-started back into a writer’s mind. We’ll see how we do in the coming months.
After that, though, I’ll be reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. (Literary enough for you, Mark? 🙂 ) The description interests me because a fictional language is at the heart of the story and I’ve long had a fascination for invented languages. So, I’m looking forward to it.