Lolita | The View Outside

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in 1899 in St Pertersburg Russia to a prominent wealthy family, his father being a lawyer, statesman and journalist.

As a child he was taught Russian, English and French and could read and write in English before he could in Russian. After the Bolshevik Revolution the family fled to Europe and after a brief stay in England, settled in Berlin.

He published 9 novels in Russian between 1926 and 1938 but it wasn’t until he arrived in America (fleeing the Germany army in 1941) and became a Lecturer that he was able to fund his writing career. The huge financial success of Lolita in 1955 (that has now sold over 50 million copies world wide) meant he was then able to devote his time to writing on a permanent basis.

Noted for his clever use of words and complex plots, he enjoyed using “Alliteration” in his work and suffered from synesthesia. He died in 1977 in Switzerland after suffering from severe bronchial congestion. At the time of his death he was working on a novel, which he requested to be burnt on his death. His son went against his father wishes and published it.

My favourite Nobokov quotes:

“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.”

“Caress the detail, the divine detail.”

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”

“Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.”

“Some people, and I am one of them, hate happy ends, we feel cheated.”

This is a really interesting documentary about Nabokov….it’s an hour long, but includes interviews with him….worth a watch 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever used Alliteration in my writing, but it’s an interesting concept that I might explore one day. How about you? Do you use Alliteration?

Nabokov House, St. Petersburg (moderndayruth.net)

Nathan Bransford asked the question on his blog recently….. “Which kind of writer are you? Do you like having a bit of noise or do you need to block everything out?”

I’ve always known I’m the kind of writer that needs complete silence. I can’t listen to music while I write, I end up staring off into space or singing along. I can’t have the TV on as I end up watching it. (I’ve said before, I’m easily distracted lol).

See the blank page? I rest my case.

I struggle in busy coffee shops as I find myself eavesdropping on conversations lol

But….saying all that, I do love a “Write In” 🙂 The phrase was coined from Nanowrimo, where a group of writers meet at a coffee shop and, ummm, just write….literally. You don’t chat, you don’t read other peoples work (ok, we usually chat a little bit lol). We have “Sprints” when someone is struggling, ie someone suggests a time and we all see how many words we can write in that time. Most people use their laptops, but I have seen people hand write. I can’t recommend it enough….it really focuses you 🙂

Soooo, if you have a writer friend, meet for a Write In, rather than a coffee and a chat (you can do that after) and watch that word count rise 😉

What do you prefer? Background noise? Music? Complete silence?

Yesterday’s prompt was “lips as red as licked red candy” after Vladimir Nobokov and why doesn’t that surprise me. I’m thinking this quote must be from Lolita, which I read back in the mid 90’s. I don’t remember all that much about it, apart from cringing a few times, difficult to read in places. I ended up writing a piece about a girl who is trying to find out which one of the guys in the office is sending her love notes lol